Photo By Melanie Peterson | Corps and agency partners conduct a site visit at Big Lake in Lower Pool 4 near...... read more read more
The St. Paul District is partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to plan a Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project, or HREP, for Lower Pool 4 Big Lake, near Wabasha, Minnesota.
Located within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, the project area consists of open backwater, meandered side channels, main channel border and island formations.
According to Project Manager Ben Nelson, Big Lake has lost much of its island complex and forest to wind and wave erosion and sedimentation of the backwaters is an ongoing issue in the study area. The proposed project goal is to maintain, enhance and create habitat suitable for native and desirable aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals.
“We’re in the feasibility study phase of the project,” Nelson said. “We’re looking at the backwater sloughs and existing habitat to get ideas on island building and other habitat features to consider as part of the project.”
During a recent site visit with agency partners, Nelson said they hope to have a recommended plan by spring 2023.
The study includes the feasibility of enhancing and restoring habitats by building islands, planting trees, managing invasive species, dredging for fish habitat and stabilizing banks. The project seeks to improve bottomland forest habitat for birds and backwater and channel habitats for fish and mussel populations. The construction, enhancement and protection of island features could provide for opportunistic use of main channel river sand placement. The construction may also use river sand from overwintering fish habitat dredging and access dredging.
The project sponsor is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the project is 100% federally funded.
The project is part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration, or UMRR, program, which ensures the coordinated development and enhancement of the Upper Mississippi River system with primary emphasis on habitat restoration projects and resource monitoring. In the more than 30-year history of the program, more than 55 habitat projects benefiting more than 100,000 acres on the Upper Mississippi River, from Minneapolis to St. Louis, have been completed.
“The fact that UMRR is still going strong since it was established in 1986 is a huge credit to everybody’s commitment and the partnership, it’s one thing that the public and all the agencies should be proud of,” said Jeff Janvrin, Mississippi River habitat specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, during the site visit.
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This story was originally published in the Summer 2022 issue of Crosscurrents on page 11 https://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Media/Crosscurrents/
| Date Taken: | 07.29.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.07.2022 14:35 |
| Story ID: | 430970 |
| Location: | WABASHA, MINNESOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 13 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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