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Reflecting on the past
The Upper Mississippi River Restoration program, or UMRR, is celebrating 35 years since it was first authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 1986.
The UMRR program, previously called the Environmental Management Program, or EMP, was the first environmental restoration and monitoring program undertaken on a large river system in the United States. The program consists of habitat rehabilitation projects and monitoring and research and is authorized under the Continuing Authorities Program.
Tom Novak, program manager, started with the Corps in 1988 and has worked on the UMRR program since 1999. The program has seen a lot of changes over the years, Novak explained. For example, islands are built lower and with more dynamic edges – compared to 30 years ago.
“We’re using those lessons learned over the past 35 years, and we’re getting better at it,” Novak said. He said there are also a lot of changes, for instance with increased sedimentation in the river and the introduction of invasive species like zebra mussels. Policy and implementation guidance also changed. A report is due to Congress every six years regarding what has been learned and how the program can improve.
Novak recalled working on the Spring Lake Islands habitat rehabilitation enhancement project, near Buffalo City, Wisconsin, when he first began. The district celebrated the completion of the project with a ribbon cutting in October 2007. He also worked on the Pool 8 Islands project near Brownsville, Wisconsin, completed in 2012, and the Capoli Slough Islands restoration project, near Ferryville, Wisconsin, completed in 2016.
Although Novak retired in February 2020, he came back part time as a rehired annuitant to mentor other project managers and program managers. “The people come and go, but the program endures,” Novak said. “People will build off of what I’ve done, and the program will keep accelerating and getting better and we will learn new things.”
Novak, who studied architecture, said he enjoys building something from nothing. “On the island building side, you have some flexibility and creativity. There’s more than one way to do it,” Novak said. He also enjoys building relationships with partner agencies like the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state resource agencies.
Celebrating the present
“For 35 years, the Upper Mississippi River system has provided cultural, recreational, ecological and economic value to communities and tribal nations who reside in the river’s watershed. The UMRR program and partnerships improve and support these values for present and future generations,” said Jill Bathke, planner.
Community outreach programs are in place for the 35th UMRR anniversary celebration that include four short, themed, videos about the history of the UMRR, the science and the partnerships; a 35th anniversary flyer; and consistent talking points for partners to communicate unifying themes to the public.
“We’re really excited to share the program’s success with the public and highlight the strong partnerships established through the years, as well as the wide-reaching benefits and value of the program to the public,” Bathke said.
Looking to the future
Since 1986, the UMRR program has completed 56 habitat projects that improved critical fish and wildlife habitat on 106,000 acres in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin. From 2005 to 2015, UMRR projects benefited nearly 35,000 acres of habitat – nearly 50% of all habitat reported by the Corps nationally.
‘It’s an exciting program to work on. This is the largest river restoration project in the nation,” said Angela Deen, UMRR St. Paul District program manager. “We are working hard to restore habitat that was lost and keep habitat that’s existing in place, for the climate that we are forecasting.”
The UMRR program has 22 projects in various stages of construction and design. These projects will benefit another 65,000 acres of habitat when implemented. The program encapsulates three Corps districts – St. Paul, St. Louis and Rock Island, with Rock Island serving as the program lead. In the St. Paul District, there are four projects in construction and two in the planning phase.
Reno Bottoms
The Reno Bottoms project is a forest-focused habitat restoration project to improve floodplain forest habitat and covers 14,000 acres in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge in Houston County, Minnesota, and Allamakee County, Iowa. The project is currently in its second year of planning.
Lower Pool 10
The Lower Pool 10 project is also in its planning phase and is currently out for public review with a draft feasibility report. This is a $30 million habitat restoration project near Guttenberg, Iowa. The proposed project would result in the protection and restoration of about 630 acres of riverine, backwater and floodplain habitat.
Harpers Slough
Construction of the Harpers Slough project was completed in 2017; however, high water in 2018 and 2019 prevented plantings from becoming established and caused significant breaches in three islands. The project is located in Pool 9 of the Mississippi River and within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. A $2.4 million contract was awarded in May to complete repairs and the work is expected to be completed by December 2022.
McGregor Lake
McGregor Lake is a 200-acre backwater lake located on the Wisconsin side of the Upper Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. The project, which is about halfway through construction, will improve lake habitat for backwater fish species, increase emergent and submergent vegetation growth, increase age and species diversity of self-sustaining floodplain forest and protect aquatic and terrestrial habitat by reducing erosion.
Bass Ponds
The Bass Ponds project, near Shakopee, Minnesota, and Savage, Minnesota, is almost complete, with a groundbreaking ceremony planned for spring 2022. Bass Ponds is a water level management project, which aims to improve habitat for aquatic vegetation and migratory waterfowl by providing water level management capabilities that target management goals of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. When completed, it will facilitate water level drawdowns on three lakes and one marsh.
Conway Lake
The island building and habitat dredging have been completed at the Conway Lake project, immediately upstream of Lansing, Iowa, and tree planting has begun and will continue into next year. The project will enhance and create 215 acres of floodplain forest and 93 acres of off-channel, backwater fisheries habitat.
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Story was originally published on Pages 8-10 of the Fall 2021 issue of Crosscurrents. It may also be found at https://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Portals/57/docs/Public%20Affairs/Crosscurrents/2021/Fall%202021_final.pdf
| Date Taken: | 12.02.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.06.2021 13:59 |
| Story ID: | 410526 |
| Location: | ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 267 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The Upper Mississippi River Restoration program celebrates 35 years, by Melanie Peterson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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