Corps partners with Native American communities

Photo By Emily M Chavolla | Col. Karl Jansen, district commander, Kim Warshaw, project manager, and Kevin Wilson, deputy district engineer, celebrate the signing of the project partnership agreement with the Prairie Island Indian Community Feb. 24.  

ST. PAUL, MN, UNITED STATES

09.15.2021

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District

The St. Paul District recently signed several cost sharing agreements and a project partnership agreement with Native American communities in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Sturgeon Lake

In February, the district signed a project partnership agreement with the Prairie Island Indian Community to restore habitat within Sturgeon Lake on the Mississippi River near Red Wing, Minnesota. With the signed agreement, the project can now enter the next phase. This includes final designs and construction of the more than $1.3 million project. The work is expected to be finished by the end of 2024. The project, once completed, will restore and protect an island of cultural significance for the Prairie Island Indian Community, increase floodplain forest habitat, stabilize the island and significantly reduce invasive species.

This is the first project under the Tribal Partnership Program within the Mississippi Valley Division and only the second project within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move into the design and implementation phase. “This is a huge accomplishment and a testament to the continued partnership with the Prairie Island Indian Community,” Kim Warshaw, project manager, said. “Not only are we restoring and protecting a culturally significant island on the Mississippi River, but we are also blazing a path forward to seek opportunities to support Native American tribes and their water resource development needs.”

Red Lake fish passage

In June, the district signed a cost sharing agreement with the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians to study the feasibility of constructing a fish passage in Red Lake and restoring adjacent habitat in the Zah Gheeng Marsh in Clearwater County, Minnesota. The study will assess the hydrology of the Zah Gheeng Marsh and the effects of an existing low-head dam on fish passage. Because the low-head dam was constructed to maintain water levels in the marsh, potential solutions to these problems are interconnected.

Within the marsh, restoration methods may include restoring portions of the original channel, adding water control structures, and other components, to achieve the goals of the project. Measures to address fish passage may include low-head dam removal, rock riffles or bypass fishways. These restoration efforts would directly influence critical tribal resources. The feasibility study is expected to be completed late 2022.

Rob Maroney, project manager, said, “The Red Lake fish passage project is an important opportunity for the St. Paul District to partner with the Red Lake Nation via the Tribal Partnership Program to explore the feasibility of improving fish passage on the Red Lake River and wetland habitat restoration of the Zah Gheeng Marsh with emphasis on waterfowl and mammal habitat.”

Shell Valley Aquifer

In July, the district signed a cost sharing agreement with the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota to study the hydrogeology and groundwater flow of the Shell Valley Aquifer in Rolette County, North Dakota.The tribal population within the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation relies on groundwater, primarily the Shell Valley Aquifer, as their source of water. This project will study the feasibility of conducting a hydrogeologic study and groundwater flow model of the Shell Valley Aquifer to help the tribe manage its groundwater resources and understand potential contaminate flow paths. Work on the study is anticipated to begin in September 2021 and be completed in 2023. The project is estimated to cost $890,000, of which around $800,000 will be federally funded.

Clay Tallman, project manager, said, “This first ever partnership opportunity between the St. Paul District and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa is important because this study will allow our tribal partners to have a substantially better understanding of this precious resource under their feet and plan for the future.”

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• Date Taken: 09.15.2021
• Date Posted: 09.15.2021 11:59
• Story ID: 405308
• Location: ST. PAUL, MN, US