First Tribal Partnership Program for tribal government, division

Photo By Elizabeth Stoeckmann | Tribal Partnership Program: Buffalo Slough Island  

HASTINGS, MN, UNITED STATES

11.29.2022

Story by Elizabeth Stoeckmann 

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

A native island that was once heavily eroded and filled with invasive reed canary grass is now one of the first ecosystem restoration projects in full design and implementation phase for the Prairie Island Indian Community and the Mississippi Valley Division.

Nestled in Pool 3 of the Mississippi River, near Red Wing, Minnesota, the 8-acre Buffalo Slough Island is one of four ongoing Tribal Partnership Program projects, or TPPs. This program helps federally recognized tribes enter into cost-share agreements with the Corps of Engineers to help solve water-related planning activities with design and construction projects on their tribal lands.

“We are pleased with the progress on Buffalo Slough Island,” said Kimberly Warshaw, St. Paul District project manager. “It’s important to our partnership with the Prairie Island Indian Community that we successfully protect Buffalo Slough and restore floodplain forest habitat on culturally significant lands.”

In addition to the negative environmental impacts caused by the erosion due to high flows and the overgrowth of canary grass, the damage to Sturgeon Lake makes the area inaccessible to the community to continue their cultural practices collecting plants for consumption and medicinal purposes and practices sacred to the community.

Since last fall, the district’s maintenance and repair crew teams have been busy dredging and preparing the land with rock vanes, shoreline protection, granular fill and constructing a stone bullnose at the northern point of the island to counteract the impacts of the Mississippi River’s force on the island.

By placing main channel dredged material on the island, crews were able to raise the island elevation as well as building a bench along the eastern side of the island towards the river. Now, this material serves as a topsoil for the new and natural regeneration of grass, trees and plants.

“Now the final step is getting forestry established on the island,” explained Andy Meier, St. Paul District natural resources specialist based out of the La Crescent environmental office. “Contractors will start planting native herbaceous vegetation and tree seedlings, including oak trees that produce acorns for wildlife. Natural regeneration is already occurring on the island from native species like cottonwood and willow which grow thick and fast to ensure an intact forest to prevent reed canary grass from growing and ultimately have a forest 75 years from now.”

Wildlife habitats rely on the island for survival and future generations.

Gabe Miller, Prairie Island Community environmental program manager, has been working with Corps officials to help restore the islands with natural forest habitats.

“Cottonwood trees are really important to the tribal community because it is the preferred nesting tree for the bald eagle, an iconic animal species of the tribe, so preserving those nesting areas for the species is really critical,” Miller said.

The Prairie Island Indian Community’s tribal members are descendants of the Mdewakanton Band of Eastern Dakota, or “those who were born of the waters,” and have lived in the region since before European contact.

TPPs provide Corps officials authority, in cooperation with Indian nations, to study and determine the feasibility of carrying out projects that will substantially benefit Native American nations.

• Date Taken: 11.29.2022
• Date Posted: 11.29.2022 12:21
• Story ID: 434124
• Location: HASTINGS, MN, US