MANY CITY DWELLERS REMEMBER the tall, graceful 

American elm trees that used to shade their boulevards and 

streets. Those trees largely disappeared from the urban landscape with the onset of Dutch elm disease (DED) in the 1930s 

and its subsequent spread across North America. But the floodplain forests of the Upper Mississippi River harbor a reservoir of 

saplings that give hope for restoring the elm to its former role as 

a centerpiece for landscapes, both rural and urban. 

“The Upper Mississippi River floodplain contains some of the 

highest densities of northern floodplain forests in the United 

States,” said Andy Meier, forester 

for the St. Paul District of the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers, based 

in La Crescent, Minn. “It’s inherently one of the largest areas with 

a high density of elm.” In fact, 

elm ranks in the top four tree 

species there, falling just behind 

silver maple, cottonwood, and 

green ash.

Once, elm towered as one of 

the dominant species. But today, 

its presence is mostly little trees—the species you most find in 

the midstory of the floodplain forests. The current problem, as 

Meier explains: They can’t quite grow up. 

“Trees reach 12 to 13 inches in diameter and are then attacked by 

Dutch elm disease and die back. It just gets big enough to reproduce.”

Learning from the survivors 

Now the Upper Mississippi is the setting where government, 

university, and non-profit organizations are exploring opportunities to restore the elm to its full status in the landscape. The 

foresters, plant pathologists and researchers who nurture these 

pilot efforts are optimistic that they will succeed in restoring 

this iconic tree to this iconic river—and then well beyond.

Those hopes are fueled by the occasional findings of large 

elms still thriving in the floodplain forest. One such survivor, found in 1997 just upstream of the confluence of the 

Mississippi and St. Croix rivers, has been tested by the 

University of Minnesota and developed into a commercial 

horticultural success, the St. Croix Elm. 

To help locate other such special trees, U.S. Forest Service 

researchers near Columbus, Ohio, created an online tool for 

reporting survivor elms in 2011. They specifically wanted to find 

Our Mississippi is a quarterly 

newsletter of the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers about its work 

in the Mississippi River Basin. It is 

published in cooperation with other 

state and federal agencies and 

other river interests with whom the 

Corps collaborates and partners 

toward long-term sustainability of 

the economic uses and ecological 

integrity of the river system.

SPRING 2019

Can river magic (with a lot of scientific help) save an iconic tree?

Continued on page 2 >>

ABOVE: The thick forests of 

the Mississippi River approximate—in many spots—what 

the river looked like 200 

years ago. They’re great 

places to explore; they also 

offer spawning habitat for 

fish, filter out impurities, help 

control flooding and provide 

nesting habitat along the 

river’s flyway.

Restoring a River’s Elm 
Need a sandbag? This center’s got 7 million 

When record flooding on the Upper Mississippi broke levees at several 

spots just over a decade ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—and many river 

towns—ran out of sandbags. They were able to find more, but the price quadrupled 

by opportunistic suppliers.

Rodney Delp, who worked in emergency management in the Rock Island District 

and soon after became chief, didn’t just get mad—he got preemptive. With the 

Corps’ support and provision of warehouse space on Arsenal Island in Rock Island, 

Illinois, he launched a flood flight center that would stockpile needed supplies and 

negotiate contracts for emergency provision of sandbags and other essentials. It 

would not just save the government money, it would end up saving critical minutes 

in the midst of fighting floods. 

“In previous years, each district maintained a stockpile of what they thought 

to be the appropriate number of sandbags for a typical disaster,” Delp said. “Then 

they had to go to an emergency contract to buy more. I personally couldn’t stand it 

when we were paying 45 cents a bag (typically 12–18 cents) and bought 15 million 

at that price.”

The center opened in 2009 as a regional flood supply center, but a few years 

later was designated the National Flood Fight Materials Center. Now, the provision of flood fight materials is fiscally responsible. It can also save lives by having 

supplies ready to send at a moment’s notice. The center can provide sandbags 

within 48 hours to anyplace in the country and gabian baskets (used for flood wall 

construction) within two to five days.

And it’s not likely they’ll run out. The massive warehouse on Rock Island’s 

Arsenal Island houses 5–7 million sandbags stored in four-by-four-foot wooden 

shipping containers, stacked one atop the other, some 5 miles of gabion baskets 

and 105 flood pumps of various sizes; many can pump 12,000 gallons of floodwater a minute.

The newest piece of equipment, added just this spring, is an automatic sandbag filler. The machine that can fill up to 1,000 bags per hour and do the work of 

hundreds of volunteers made its way to Schuyler County, Illinois, after that state 

requested it to fight flash flooding along the Illinois River. The machine can only be 

requested by a state, and then two mechanics are sent with the machine to train 

those on site. 

This spring, supplies were sent to flood-fight efforts around the country including to Omaha to help during devastating flooding across Nebraska. Sandbags 

and pumps went to every district along the Mississippi River but St. Paul and were 

especially critical on the southern end of the river in Memphis, New Orleans and 

St. Louis. They were used closer to home, in Rock Island, too, and were key as the 

district experienced a flood of record duration.

Delp expects the center to become increasingly critical for the entire nation. 

“The frequency of flooding is not diminishing by any means; it’s clearly increasing—and in intensity too. In Rock Island, we just broke the record for the duration of 

a major flood. Before, the record was 29 days, and this one went 52. 

“We distributed some of everything we had—flood pumps, baskets, sandbags 

and plastic, all within our district. We were even supporting ourselves.” —K.S.

American elm that were large, in good 

health, old enough to have been exposed 

to DED, and that had grown from seed.

“We were surprised by the results. We 

hoped for 40 or so responses and we got 

over 800 submissions,” said Kathleen 

Knight, research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. 

She and her U.S. Forest Service colleagues Leila Pinchot and Charlie Flower are 

seeking to pass the genetics of these survivor trees on to future generations of elm 

through a breeding program. The goal is to increase the diversity of DED-tolerant 

elms that are available and suitable for restoration plantings in a variety of settings.

It’s a long process. Potentially tolerant specimens must grow old enough to produce flowers. Pollen from the flowers is used to pollinate other tolerant elms, and 

eventually seeds are harvested. The resulting new elm seedlings must grow for 

five to seven years before their DED tolerance can be tested by injecting the DED 

fungus. Tolerant varieties will typically show symptoms of the disease and then 

rebound in subsequent years. Trees that produce tolerant offspring can be planted 

together in seed orchards to produce seeds to grow trees for restoration and reforestation plantings. No trees have been found that are totally resistant to DED. 

A forest pest adds urgency

The arrival of the emerald ash borer in the region has ramped up the urgency of 

finding elm that can thrive to maturity in the floodplain forest. This invasive insect 

kills virtually all North American ash trees. “Elm has the potential to capture sites 

where the ash are dying,” Meier said. Without the water- and shade-tolerant elm, 

the gaps in the forest canopy may lose trees entirely, taken over by invasive reed 

canary grass or marsh, shifting the structure and function of these ecosystems.

“The questions about restoring elm are pretty basic,” Meier said. “What conditions are needed for elm seedlings to thrive?”

To answer that question, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Forest Service, 

and other federal and state partners have installed test plantings of DED-tolerant 

elms in the Upper Mississippi River since 2005. The initial collaboration included 

two upland agriculture field conversions (Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center 

in Hastings, Minn. and Luther College in Decorah, Iowa) and two floodplain 

sites on the Mississippi River (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Eagle Island near 

Stoddard, Wisc., and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Dago Slough near Cassville, 

Wisc.). Each site included 30 to 45 DED-tolerant elm saplings which were planted 

with protection from wildlife damage. These “sentinel” sites are revisited annually 

to observe survival, flowering, and growth. 

“These sentinel plantings are helping us identify problems that could be encountered in establishing these special elms in wildland settings,” said Linda Haugen, 

U.S. Forest Service plant pathologist based in St. Paul, Minn. “We are seeing that 

elm have many enemies, including deer, mice, voles, rabbits, pocket gophers, beavers, flooding, plant competition, diseases and insects.” Haugen helped install the 

initial plantings and monitors their progress.

Since 2014, state agencies in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota and the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers have planted more than 5,000 American elm seedlings 

on floodplain sites to continue learning how to successfully grow these trees.

Haugen is currently involved with the latest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers elm 

planting on the Trimbelle River in western Wisconsin. Located within a wetland 

mitigation project, this trial will help discover whether seeds from DED-tolerant 

trees perform better than those from local elm. Another four years will pass before 

the first results will be known.

In the headwaters of the Mississippi, U.S. Forest Service researchers have 

teamed with the Chippewa National Forest to explore how the genetics of the 

DED-tolerant elm interacts with environment. Pollen was collected from local 

survivor elms in northern environments and used to pollinate known DEDtolerant trees. The resulting trees were planted in northern sites. The goal is to 

learn whether some progeny will be tolerant of both DED and cold climate. The 

2018 results look promising. Many of the trees lived, indicating useful levels of 

cold tolerance, and many of the progeny exhibit some degree of DED tolerance.

Growing new trees is being supplemented by work to better understand elm 

and the disease that afflicts it. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is starting a project with Anita Baines, associate professor of biology at University of Wisconsin-La 

Crosse, to look at the population dynamics of Mississippi River elm using standard 

forest inventory data. Examining interactions between tree size and distribution, 

elevation gradient, and other species present will help better understand the 

native elm population. U.S. Forest Service researchers are beginning to explore 

such questions as whether DED fungal strains being used in experiments match 

those that presently occur in the landscape and whether an elm’s DED-tolerance 

trait holds up if the tree is exposed to DED via root grafting instead by exposure 

through the bark. 

The knowledge gained in these projects, the researchers say, will benefit the 

health of the Upper Mississippi River ecosystem and contribute to a nationwide 

effort by many partners to create a suite of genetically diverse, DED-tolerant trees 

that can be planted in rural and urban settings and the management strategies 

that will help them thrive. Perhaps your community will one day have, so to speak, 

a piece of the river towering above. —D.D.

“We were surprised by the results. We hoped for 40 or so responses 

and we got over 800 submissions,” —KATHLEEN KNIGHT, RESEARCH ECOLOGIST WITH

 THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE’S NORTHERN RESEARCH STATION

ABOVE, FROM LEFT: U.S. Forest Service plant pathologist Linda Haugen labels one of the 

initial elm plantings on Stoddard Island Habitat Rehabilitation Project in Pool 8, Upper 

Mississippi River, in 2007. Large elms that have survived Dutch elm disease are crucial 

to current efforts. This one grows about a mile west of the Mississippi River along the 

Upper Iowa River.

BELOW: A Hesco Bastion engineer teaches Army Corps flood team members the proper 

way to erect Hesco gabion baskets.

2 ourmississippi.org 3 PHOTOS: U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.
LOCKS: U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS. EAGLE CAM: ©2019 STEWARDS UMRR.

Locks help with flooding 

by ‘getting out of the way’ 

HE MAY NOT BE THE PAUL REVERE of Mississippi River floods exactly. 

But as the Primary Mississippi River Regulator for the St. Paul District of the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers, Daniel Fasching spends a lot of the year working with 

weather forecasters and other partners to figure out what kind of flood year is in 

store and then sharing word that’s something to the effect of “the flood is coming, 

the flood is coming.” 

That allows his district’s locks—and those downriver—to open gates and get out 

of the way of the coming “wave” formed by snowmelt from the Upper Midwest 

combined with spring rains. 

Locks and dams aren’t designed to help control floods, nor are they authorized 

to do that; in fact, they’re designed to do pretty much the opposite, Fasching says. 

They’re designed to, in drought conditions, hold back water and deepen the river 

channel. But doing that during high flows can exacerbate a flood—and create 

more damage for river communities and the lock structures themselves. The best 

way they can help is to get out of the way. 

“When flows get over a certain magnitude and elevation, we pull all the gates 

out of the water at locks and dams,” Fasching said. “That’s important because 

they’re not designed to retain all that water and we can’t risk backing up water 

with damaging a community upstream of the dams. We get them out of the way 

and let all the water pass. We call that run of the river. We also call it open river.” 

Coordination is key to getting out of the way and letting primary flood control 

positions—like reservoir operators—do their jobs. It all starts with a winter planning session with partners like the United States Geological Survey and National 

Weather Service and ends with letting others know what comes out of the resulting forecasts—the “yelling out of a megaphone,” as Fasching calls it. 

WINTER

Snowfall totals and forecasts are key because what falls in the northern reaches of 

the floodplain will eventually melt. “We get more snow,” Fasching said, “the higher 

the river gets.” 

At planning meetings with the USGS, cities and tribal communities, they discuss 

snowpack and winter conditions. There are check boxes. Lots of snow, that’s one 

check, deep frost depth, that’s another. Forecasted precipitation is another, as is 

how fast spring warming is expected to come. The weather service then produces 

a statistic-heavy probabilistic forecast that shares the likelihood the river will reach 

certain elevations and river stages—and word is spread. 

This year, that forecast accurately predicted an abnormal year, Fasching said. 

The St. Paul district, like others farther down river, broke records for how long 

locks were kept in the open river condition.

The timing of gate openings was coordinated with teams releasing water from 

reservoirs. Those are flood control devices, strategically used to hold back snow melt 

and release it in a steady enough way that it doesn’t overtop any banks. Some include 

spillways that send water to spots designed to be flooded and relieve pressure on the 

river’s mainstem. It can take days or up to a week before the water, like a wave, shows 

up at the first lock—and lockmasters can scientifically predict and share its coming.

At Lock 4, the “megaphone” let staff know enough water was on its way that 

they removed safety handrails, shored up the lock with sandbags and otherwise 

“battened down the hatches,” Fasching said. While water did overtop the walls, the 

lock incurred no serious damage. 

“We have built up enough infrastructure on the mainstem that most people 

don’t even notice the flooding when it’s happening,” Fasching said. “There are 

pluses and minuses to that. Overall, it’s a good thing that people can go about their 

day and don’t even notice how high the river has gotten. That means we’ve done 

our part.” –K.S. 

Did flood spread invasive fish? 

Did invasive bighead and silver carp enjoy the “welcome mat” offered into 

areas previously unexplored when floodwaters required locks to open gates 

and go into open river condition for well over a month this spring? 

That’s something biologists are watching with the help of telemetry and 

a tagged group of so-called Asian carp that have long resided below Lock 

15. Similar research is being done near the Bonnet Carre Spillway, opened a 

record two times this year, literally opening the floodgates of carp into Lake 

Pontchartrain. 

In typical years, navigation control structures play a key role in slowing the 

movement of fish who are blocked by the gates that control water flow. When 

lock gates are opened during a flood, fish can pass through. While that’s good 

news for native fish looking for foraging or spawning ground, it’s not so good 

when it comes to these species so voracious that once they got established 

in the Illinois River, they outcompeted native sport fish and now make up 90 

percent of that river’s mass. 

“We have an array of receivers around Lock 15 now,” says Mark Cornish, 

a biologist with the Corps’ Rock Island District. “Once we can gain access to 

the receivers we should know when the fish moved through if they did move 

upstream. That’s going to tell us an awful lot about how we could potentially 

manage dams in the future to reduce fish movement.” 

Individual carp have been caught up to the Twin Cities, but biologists 

haven’t found spawning populations of this invasive species first introduced 

on the lower reaches of the river that high in the system. 

“Are they moving below 15 above 14 into areas uncolonized further up 

or falling back?” Cornish asked. “As a scientist, we get really excited. We’re 

learning something because of change. As ecologists, we’re very worried 

about what implications of that might be. Did we get a population of fish large 

enough that it could be a spawning population? We don’t know yet.”

Lock 10 with all the gates out of the water. LOWER RIGHT: Flood protection equipment 

including sandbags seek to prevent damage to the miter gate at Lock 4. BELOW: The 

tainter gate at Upper Saint Anthony Falls with such a powerful flow that it drew crowds.

River Cams let you e-explore the 

Mississippi River—in real time

Make sure the sound is on when you open the live Mississippi River Flyway Cam and enter a full sensory experience of the Mississippi River along the stately bluffs of La Crosse, Wisconsin. A viewer’s 

blood pressure has to drop several points from the river flows, wing flaps and non-stop bird calls 

more reminiscent of a non-stop National Geographic special than what you expect to be seeing 

from a static cam. This project is run by the Iowa-based Raptor Resource Project, a non-profit that 

helps preserve and protect habitats for eagles, falcons, hawks and other birds. Viewing captures 

the day’s changing light, and operators regularly pan the scene, zooming in and focusing on highlights that might include an eagle couple scouting for fish, an osprey hopping along the shore or 

flock of rare birds during migration. HTTP://EXPLORE.ORG/LIVECAMS/RAPTOR-RESOURCE-PROJECT/

MISSISSIPPI-RIVER-FLYWAY.COM

Check out the source 

The river is less than 20 feet wide where the Mississippi 

Headwaters cam focuses—on the series of stepping stones that 

cross the Mississippi at its origin within Lake Itasca State Park. 

But there’s plenty of wildlife (warblers, kingfishers, waterfowl and 

more) as well as human action, especially during warmer weather. 

Many days, you’ll catch visitors stepping across the iconic river on 

this bucket list stop. It’s here the river begins its 2,552-mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico and, as markers at the spot will share, it’s 

changed very little since the day Henry Rowe Schoolcraft documented this river source in 1832. HTTPS://WWW.DNR.STATE.MN.US/

STATE_PARKS/ITASCA/HEADWATERS.HTML 

Eagle cam—and beyond 

The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service operates at least seven webcams in its Upper Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge, 

a number that seems like a lot until you realize they’re offering only a peek at the 240,000 acres stretched over 261 river 

miles from Wabasha, Minnesota, south. They offer a perfectly targeted peek, though. Says 

Stan Bousson, a Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer who set up the cams: “We’ve got them on 

eagle nests, on an island where the pelican rookeries are. We’ve got one looking over where 

eagles migrate in wintertime and one on a peregrine falcon’s nest too. The one we do the most 

with of course is the eagle cam.” That camera (with full audio) focuses on a nest in the backwaters near Fulton, Illinois, and the website also links to spellbinding “greatest hits” moments like 

the time a stranger eagle attacked the nest and another day when babies nearly tumbled out. 

HTTPS://WWW.FWS.GOV/REFUGE/UPPER_MISSISSIPPI_RIVER/SEASONS_OF_WILDLIFE/WEBCAMS.HTML —K.S.

More 

Nature isn’t the only draw to the Mississippi, so cams capture culture, navigation and more.

The Graceland Cam takes you 

to the doorway of the estate of 

the King of Rock n’ Roll, Elvis 

Presley. 

HTTPS://WWW.GRACELAND.COM/

GRACELAND-CAM

Iowa State’s cam at Prairie 

du Chien, Wisconsin, points at 

the river—and you never know 

what you’ll spot. 

HTTP://MESONET.AGRON.

IASTATE.EDU/CURRENT/VIEWER.

PHTML#KCRG-020

The Port of New Orleans cam 

captures the importance of this 

river as a transportation highway. 

HTTPS://WWW.WEBCAMSIN

LOUISIANA.COM/2017/06/19/

WEBCAMS-LOUISIANA-PORT-NEWORLEANS-CRUISE-SHIP-TERMINALWEBCAM/

Stan Bousson, photography volunteer, Upper 

Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge 

“About 30 years ago or so I started going out looking for 

nature to photograph. I would head out to any of the local 

areas along the Mississippi, and I’d see great egrets and 

great blue herons and pelicans, warblers in the springtime 

and again in the fall as they migrated back through, and basically lots of different types of birds. The birds are just, well, 

they can fly. It’s something I always wished I could do. The 

eagles are magnificent, and the smaller birds, the acrobatics 

they can do, it’s really neat to watch. It gives you a feeling of 

wonder.

“I would work up ways to get my personal cameras up 

near bald eagle nests to document how the nesting season 

went. Ten years ago, we put up webcams, and at one near 

Lock and Dam 13. A few years later we noticed a trio (two 

male eagles and one female) working together. The male 

eagles we called Valor 1 and Valor 2, and when Hope—which 

was the first female—was lost, the two males raised the two 

chicks to fledgling. Now they’ve picked up a new female 

named Starr. She’s been there the last two years. 

“Audubon did a story on the trio nest earlier this year, and 

it spread all over the world. For me, it made me proud of what 

we were doing, but for the people who take care of dealing 

with the public, they were very busy! ... It’s very interesting to 

watch how the eagles all interact with each other. 

“In the evening, at night, mice like to come up into the 

nest to get food particles. They’ll play cat and mouse with 

the eagles. The eagles will try to catch them; the mice keep 

taunting them. You also see what types of food they bring 

up to the nest for the eaglets to eat—fish to ducks to coots, 

muskrats. And we’re getting ready to put our cams back out 

on islands for the pelican rookery.

“My Mississippi is a wonderful place to see nature, just 

enjoy myself, and I hope that those who look at my pictures 

get some enjoyment out of it also.”

ABOVE: The livestream viewing of an unorthodox trio of 

eagles that’s been dubbed 

the eagle “throuple” has 

gone viral, with viewers from 

around the world watching the 

three eagles (two males and 

one female) work together to 

build a nest, take turns sitting on 

the eggs and feed the three 

fledglings that hatched this 

year. It’s uncommon for bald 

eagles to parent in threes, and 

just a handful of previous trios 

have been spotted in other 

parts of the country.

My MISSISSIPPI

4 ourmississippi.org 5
On a large Mississippi River island a few miles north of Grafton, Illinois, there is a several-acre stand 

of cottonwood trees. With one click of his mouse, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers forester Robert 

Cosgriff zeroes in on a single tree within the stand. As he does, its “biography” pops up.

This cottonwood, 43 inches in diameter, is tall, and it dominates its neighbor 

trees. While it doesn’t have a name, per se, it does have a story that (when combined with others) can help guide key forest management decisions as forests and 

particularly tall trees favored as perches for the American Bald Eagle and other 

birds are dying out.

“That big tree is stressed. A lot of the stress comes from all the flooding over the 

past couple of decades,” Cosgriff says. “In that stand there are six mature trees and 

16 over-mature trees that are probably in decline.”

Cottonwoods were plentiful until changing conditions reduced their numbers 

and age diversity. Remaining cottonwoods tend to be nearing the ends of their 

80- to 100-year lives, causing concern and subsequent action. 

Taking inventory 

There are 16 stands mapped on Cosgriff’s computer. Each represents a community 

of tree types, and the most common found on the Corps-managed lands in the 

Mississippi River floodplain are cottonwood-willow, oak-hickory and maple-ash-elm.

Each community, from a few to hundreds of acres, represents a small segment 

of the 50,000 acres that have been mapped digitally in the St. Louis District. 

Nonetheless, Cosgriff can tell the life story and current health of that tree and 

about 159,999 others that have been inventoried by the district.

The resulting maps indicate elevations and soil types as well as presence of invasive species—information that helps to determine what forest community might 

be supported in the future and how it should be introduced. Such inventories are 

underway on the 120,000 acres in the Rock Island and St. Paul districts, too, and 

combined, these will guide rehabilitating forests and checking and recalibrating 

their work for decades. 

Changing habitat

“The Corps wasn’t involved in land management prior to 2007,” said Cosgriff, a 

Montana State University graduate who joined the Corps in 2009. “As a Federal land 

management agency, there are laws and acts that require government agencies to 

manage forest resources for the benefit of multiple users and inhabiting wildlife 

species.”

The river basin’s forest diversity has been diminished by recent decades of 

recurrent flooding and, before that, the creation of pools upstream from locks and 

dams. That followed the impact of farming by European settlers, which followed 

the massive deforestation that provided wood to fuel steamboats from about 

1820 to 1850.

Hundreds of years before that, the habitat was altered by the first settlers, 

Cosgriff said. “From the confluence at the Kaskaskia River north to St. Paul, the 

flood plain was 40 to 60 percent prairies. The Native Americans were managing 

the ground by burning.”

Finding the trees for the forest

Foresters from the St. Louis, Rock Island and St. Paul districts devised plans to 

inventory their forest resources in a geographic information system (GIS). The 

foresters adapted available GIS software and created their own applications to plot 

tree and vegetation populations as well as ground conditions and flood histories. 

The foundation layers of their gee-whiz digital maps are totally analog—maps 

drawn by surveyors in the 1890s and aerial photographs taken in the 1930s.

“The Corps funded these studies because they were interested first in the 

impacts of elevation on navigation,” he said. “ In the 1930s they were looking at 

the locks and dams that would flood part of the land, so they needed to have an 

idea of what that was going to look like so they could acquire that land.”

Now striving for the restoration of the forests to as much of a diverse and 

natural succession as possible, foresters expect to follow repeating 10-year cycles 

of data collection, data analysis, treatment prescriptions and actions. Forests are 

sampled within grids measuring 100 meters by 100 meters, about 2.5 acres. Field 

data are entered into personal digital assistants on sites identified by global positioning satellite receivers and accurate within a couple of feet.

“We want data to tell us what the baseline resources are so that when we take 

action we will know if we are being successful,” Cosgriff said. “If something is 

not working, we want to go back and change it.”

Wetter soils are encouraging silver maples to proliferate on stands once dominated by hickory and oak. Where possible, foresters would like to replace maples 

with trees that provide hard mast (nuts) and soft mast (fruits and berries) that 

feed wildlife. Cottonwoods are a critical habitat, too. They shelter water birds 

and raptors such as bald eagles. A goal of rehabilitation is to re-introduce successional cottonwood stands of all ages, including the dead and dying.

“Over-mature cottonwoods are habitat for one of our endangered species, the 

Indiana bat,” Cosgriff said. “It likes to roost underneath the bark as it flakes off.” —R.S.

If a tree falls in the forest, this U.S. Army Corps Seeing the trees of Engineers project will know—and record it for the forest

This composite photo combines what 

Dardenne Island looked like in the 

1800 ground survey, 1939 aerial photo 

and 2012 satellite image. The white 

dots indicate tracts in which detailed 

information has been recorded for 

individual trees. ABOVE: Robert Cosgriff, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 

forester in the Rock Island District. 

 Bear-ly Back 

The iconic Louisiana black bear has been in the past century a symbol of wildness, of sportsmanship, of 

endangered species, and of species recovery. It inspired a toy that became a global phenomenon. But if 

you see this real “teddy bear” outdoors, wildlife managers would prefer you keep your distance. Only the 

stuffed toy versions are cuddly.

“IF A BEAR AND A HUMAN get into a conflict, the human is going 

to lose,” said Catherine Siracusa, the black bear conflict officer for St. 

Mary Parish, one of the primary habitat areas for the species.

Teaching people how to coexist with the bears, which have been 

rebounding in population after a perilous slide to near-extinction, is a crucial component of the species’ recovery. At the annual Bayou Teche Black 

Bear Festival, in between bowls of gumbo and kayak tours of the swamp, 

educational exhibits encourage celebrants to make sure the bear never 

gets any party invitations.

 “It’s so easy for bears to acclimate themselves to humans, and that 

gets scary,” said Siracusa, who organizes the festival in her role as an educator with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “We really 

push no interaction between humans and bears.”

The department even provides instructions for building an “unwelcome mat”—a slatted board designed to keep a bear from reaching a door 

or window. But its signature device is a bear-proof garbage can program. 

The department instructs bear country residents on simple methods of 

securing garbage, which can prevent the most common nuisance behavior from 

bears. Bear-human interactions have been on the rise with this year’s flood waters. 

Bears, along with other animals, have been displaced from their usual homes.

“We’ve been at flood stages here since November. Our bear and wildlife issues 

have been non-stop,” Siracusa said. “Definitely the high water this year has more 

animals in and around the human settlements.”

THE BEAR is Louisiana’s state mammal and a celebrated part of the state’s 

culture and history. Back in the early 1900s, the bear was so numerous in the 

forests and canebrakes of the Mississippi delta that it attracted many hunters. 

President Theodore Roosevelt was a member of a bear hunting party in 1902, 

and an over-eager assistant tied a bear to a tree for the President to shoot. 

Roosevelt’s refusal to do so was depicted in a cartoon, which inspired a Brooklyn 

toymaker to create “Teddy’s bear.”

Despite the presidential pardon, Teddy’s real bears had a tough time for 

most of the 20th century. Over-hunting and habitat loss resulted in a population that had plummeted enough to be listed as threatened in 1992 under the 

Endangered Species Act. It was removed from the list in 2016 after the U.S. Fish 

and Wildlife Service pronounced it recovered, a success story attributed to the 

partnership of federal and private landowners in restoring more than 800,000 

acres of critical habitat. Voluntary programs compensated private landowners 

to convert poor croplands into hardwood forests. Partners such as the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers also purchased acreage outright. 

The result was the rebounding of the bear population. Hard figures on the 

number of bears are almost as elusive as the creatures themselves. Some estimate 

fewer than 200 bears lived in Louisiana at the time of the listing in 1992. The current 

population may be nearly quadruple that.

Prior to European contact, the species’ range included eastern Texas, all 

of Louisiana and southern Mississippi. Although the bears have been spotted 

throughout Louisiana in recent years, most are restricted to four breeding areas 

along the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers. 

NOT EVERYONE WAS HAPPY with the decision to delist the bear. A 

coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service, seeking to have the bear returned to the list.

“Delisting the Louisiana black bear was a premature claim of ‘Mission 

Accomplished,” said attorney Paula Dinerstein in filing the complaint. The lawsuit 

asserts the bears are still too low in numbers and the breeding areas too isolated 

from each other, with crucial habitat undergoing coastal erosion.

Safari Club International, a hunting-rights organization, filed a motion 

to intervene in the lawsuit as a defendant, arguing its interests were at stake 

because the delisting creates the possibility the state could open a hunting 

season for the bears. 

FOR NOW, those who want to hunt the bear must be armed with cameras, not 

guns, as well as patience and luck. The shy creatures are not easy to find, absent 

a food-filled garbage bin. Public-access lands providing the best opportunities for 

glimpsing a bear include Bayou Teche NWR, Richard K. Yancey WMA, Big Lake 

WMA, and Tensas River NWR. 

Just remember, don’t feed the bears. —S.F.

Louisiana Black Bear 

Ursus americanus luteolus

RANGE: Lousiana, Mississippi, Texas

APPEARANCE: A large mammal with long 

black hair and a short, well-haired tail. 

Their weight can vary; males may weigh 

more than 500 pounds. Compared to other 

bear subspecies, its skull is longer, narrower and flatter, with larger molar teeth.

HABITAT: Prefer bottomland hardwood forest 

communities. They den in trees or on the ground. 

6 ourmississippi.org 7 BEARS: CREATIVE COMMONS.
Captain Clarke “Doc” Hawley, 

riverboat captain and calliope player, New Orleans

“My Mississippi is a lifetime learning experience. I first 

boarded the paddlewheel steamboat Avalon 67 years ago 

in Charleston when I was about 17. It is now called the Belle 

of Louisville, and at 104 years old, it’s one of the oldest vessels still flying the American flag. I began working on the boat 

making popcorn, and when the calliope player quit, I stepped 

into his shoes and started my own path. That first year we 

went on nine rivers in 17 states. It was a good geography lesson for a little boy from West Virginia. I was always looking 

out the window. I worked my way up the ranks as a deckhand, 

mate, pilot, and finally Captain or Master at age 22. It takes 

about as long to earn a Captain’s license as it does to get a 

medical degree. The excursion boats I worked on were not 

air conditioned, so like a circus or carnival we stayed with the 

most favorable weather and traveled with the season. I’ve 

had a fascinating life. I was pilot of the steamboats American 

Queen and President, and captain of the Delta Queen, Belle of 

Louisville, and the Steamboat Natchez. I met lots of famous 

people, like President Gerald Ford, Dolly Parton, Muhammad 

Ali, Placido Domingo, and more. It’s been an education, and 

if I had it all to do over again I’d do the same thing. I still play 

the calliope on the Natchez in New Orleans on most Sunday 

mornings. Today calliopes often use compressed air, but on 

the Natchez you can still watch the steam coming out of the 

whistle; it’s the only music you can actually see. I live in the 

French Quarter just a few blocks from the Mississippi River, 

and from my house I can hear its music. I have probably traveled on more rivers than anyone living today and will always 

remember the Mississippi. I hope it remembers me as a colorful character.”

My MISSISSIPPI

In a flood? Be smart!

Flooding is among the most dangerous weather events in the United States, second only to extreme heat in 

causing weather-related fatalities. About half of flood deaths occur in vehicles, which is why the National Weather 

Service emphasizes its “Turn Around, Don’t Drown” slogan. 

According to the weather service, just six inches of fast-moving flood water can knock over an adult, 12 inches 

of rushing water can carry away a small car and two feet of rushing water can carry away most vehicles. It is 

NEVER safe to drive or walk into flood waters.

Don’t assume you can safely boat through a flooded area. Flood currents can deceive experienced boaters. 

Always heed warning signs and barricades. Just because the danger isn’t apparent doesn’t mean it’s not 

real. “A lot of times people violate [barriers] because they don’t truly understand the impact,” said Kelly Thomas, 

Natural Resource Management Section Chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi River Project. 

“We close for public safety.”

For those who live in flood country, staying safe requires precautions before, during and after a flood.

BEFORE A FLOOD

• Know your risk. Find a flood map of 

your community either online at FEMA 

(HTTPS://MSC.FEMA.GOV/PORTAL/HOME)

or from local building or emergency 

management authorities.

• If your property is at risk, purchase flood insurance. Standard 

homeowner policies do not include this.

• Have an evacuation plan in place, and review it with everyone 

in your household.

• Assemble an emergency supply kit. Tips on what it should 

include can be found at www.redcross.org.

• If you own a home, have a professional install plumbing, check 

valves and elevate heating and electrical systems if possible.

• Consider preparing sandbags. The Army Corps of Engineers 

conducts flood fight training in at-risk communities and 

provides instructions on the use of sandbags.

• Monitor local weather reports. A flood watch means a flood 

could happen; a flood warning means it is already occurring 

or imminent. 

DURING A FLOOD 

• Turn off the power and water mains if instructed by local 

authorities.

• Don’t use any food that comes into contact with flood waters.

• Avoid contact with flood waters.

• Don’t allow children to play in or near flood waters.

• If caught on a flooded road, get out of the car and move quickly 

to higher ground.

AFTER A FLOOD

• Let friends and family know you’re safe.

• If evacuated, only return home when authorities indicate it is 

safe to do so.

• Beware of snakes and other animals that may be around or in 

your home.

• Make a thorough inspection of your home’s structural elements. See www.redcross.org/get-help.html for tips.

• Wear protective clothing when cleaning up.

• Discard all food, beverages and medicines exposed to flood 

waters and mud.

River camping delayed—but worth the wait 

Reopening campgrounds and recreation areas after a recordbreaking flood requires an all-hands-on-deck approach involving staff, contractors, 

volunteers and even prisoners, with workers wading into unfamiliar territory in 

the wake of a weather event few have experienced.

The level of flooding on the Mississippi and its tributaries this year was the 

worst in a generation. Areas that do not normally experience flooding were inundated, forcing recreation managers to close an unprecedented number of sites at 

the start of the vacation season.

“This flood is going to be different because we 

have a lot of facilities taking water, like the restrooms. We try to build our facilities elevated so 

they don’t get impacted by routine flooding, but 

this has inundated a lot of facilities,” said Kelly 

Thomas, Natural Resource Management Section 

Chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 

Mississippi River Project, one of the largest recreation areas managed by the Corps.

Of the 26 recreation sites in the Mississippi 

River Project, 22 were closed to flooding in May, 

and Thomas said some would likely remained 

closed through June. Getting them back into 

shape to welcome the public takes weeks after 

flood waters subside.

During a routine flood, most of the clean-up 

work involves clearing debris, muck and mud. 

Electrical pedestals need to be cleaned and reinstalled. Water must be pumped from low spots 

behind camp sites so mosquitos don’t breed. 

Docks that were removed for the season are 

reinstalled.

The flood of 2019 was far from routine. The 

last flood even approaching this level was in 

1993, and “none of my staff was working here 

at that time, so we may find out some things 

we have to do that we hadn’t anticipated,” said 

Thomas. “This year will definitely be the test.”

The Corps is one of the nation’s largest federal 

providers of outdoor recreation. Many Corps-managed parks surround and incorporate its reservoirs, many of which—somewhat ironically—began as flood control 

structures. Those tended to fare better than those on the Mississippi proper, especially within the Rock Island District, where the Corps runs many boat ramps and 

water access sites. High water also limited availability for recreation opportunities 

at reservoirs south of St. Louis. Some boat ramps, as well as a few low-lying picnic 

areas and camp sites, were closed due to high water, as were all beaches at the 

four lakes in the Vicksburg District. The northern section of the river escaped 

the worst of it, with only the low-lying Blackhawk Park near DeSoto, Wis., closed 

through late May.

“We’re kind of blessed that most of our recreation areas are at the headwaters 

of the Mississippi,” said Patrick Moes, public affairs specialist for the St. Paul 

District. “Significant areas are impacted, but they pale in comparison to our brethren downstream.”

Restoring navigation to the river is the priority for the Corps after a flood. The 

natural resources section waits until clean-up is complete at the locks and dams 

before utilizing personnel and equipment for parks recovery.

Although this year’s epic flood presented epic challenges, crews are well-trained 

for post-flood restoration. Clean-up crews wear haz-mat suits, rubber boots and 

gloves. They are alert for wildlife that has been disturbed and relocated to unexpected places.

“There are always some additional hazards after a flood,” said Thomas. “But 

when you routinely do it, you understand what they are. This year, more areas 

affected and more parks.”

The recreation team makes use of volunteers when possible. Boy Scout troops, 

trail users and other community supporters can lend a hand. And in Thompson, 

Ill., near the largest recreation area, is a federal prison that provides a work detail of 

supervised prisoners. The natural resources section already has a large supply of regular volunteers who help at campsites. Most live within 100 miles of the parks and 

will be available to assist when needed. Others, such as 

those who travel in campers and volunteer as hosts, will 

need to delay their arrival until a spot is ready. 

“The goal is to get recreation areas cleaned up 

and useable so people can start enjoying the river,” 

Thomas said. “We’ll get pressure from people, but the 

overall goal is to make sure it’s safe. We don’t want to 

be closed any longer than we have to be.” —S.F. 

CAMPING WITH THE CORPS

• Within just the Corps’ 

Mississippi Valley division, 

there are some 862 recreation areas with nearly 

12,000 campsites, 961 

miles of trails, 582 boat 

ramps and 11,500 marina 

slips. 

• Today, the Corps is the 

nation’s largest provider 

of recreational opportunities—bigger even than the 

National Park Service. 

• The U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers was involved 

in national park work 

before even the founding 

of Yellowstone, America’s 

first official national 

park. The Corps’ St. Paul 

District built Yellowstone’s 

first roads and trails, 

allowing for initial public 

access. Modern-day 

ranger uniforms actually 

evolved from the military 

uniform worn during the 

Yellowstone years. 

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: 

If you have camping 

reservations or plan 

to visit a Corps facility, 

call first or check 

recreation.gov for 

current conditions.

It flows to a 

varied beat

At the headwaters 

of the Mississippi, 

the average surface 

speed of the water 

is about 1.2 miles 

per hour or roughly 

one-half as fast as 

people walk. At New 

Orleans, the river 

flows at about 3 

miles per hour. But 

the speed changes 

as water levels rise 

or fall and where 

the river widens, 

narrows, becomes 

more shallow or 

some combination 

of these factors. By 

another comparison, 

the average flow 

rate at Lake Itasca 

is 6 cubic feet per 

second, while at 

New Orleans, the 

average flow rate 

is 600,000 cubic 

feet per second—

perhaps inspiring 

the lively jazz vibe 

the Big Easy is well 

known for. SOURCE: 

MISSISSIPPI NATIONAL RIVER 

AND RECREATION AREA.

8 ourmississippi.org 9 CAPTAIN HAWLEY: GREG MILES. CAMPGROUND: U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.
What you’ll need:

Paper

Newspaper (or the sheets of this newsletter!)

Cardboard

Heavy books

1. Before pressing, make sure your flower or plant 

that you will press is dry and clean. 

2. Place a few sheets of newspaper on top of some cardboard, making sure both are larger than your plant

3. Place your plant flat on top of the cardboard and 

paper. If you are pressing flowers, try placing the 

flower face down—it is easier to flatten the petals 

this way!

4. Place a few more sheets of newspaper on top and 

then finish it off with another piece of cardboard

5. Put some books or other heavy objects on top of 

your pressed plant. The weight is what presses 

down the plant so try and put 15–20 pounds on top!

6. Wait at least 1 week before removing your pressed 

plant from between the pages.

Some tips: 

• Press your plants as soon as possible after you 

collect it. Otherwise, they will start to wilt and won’t 

look nice once pressed. If your plant does start to 

droop, try placing the stem in water and see if it 

perks up – just make sure to dry it before pressing!

• Remember, you aren’t allowed to take plants from 

national parks or nature preserves! Try going to 

your local public park or explore your own backyard and neighborhood.

• Want to keep a better record of your plant? 

Write on a piece of paper where and 

when you found the plant, its name 

if you know it, and your name as the 

collector. Place this paper with 

your pressed plant or add it into 

a nature journal. 

What to do with your new pressed plants:

• Glue them to a piece of sturdy paper using Mod 

Podge or clear drying glue to make some wall art!

• Tape them into your notebooks

• Use them for arts and crafts, such as making a 

flower bookmark

ACTIVITY WRITTEN BY KATELYNN DEARTH AND INSIYAA AHMED, 

PARK RANGERS WITH THE CORPS’ RIVERS PROJECT OFFICE

OUR MISSISSIPPI KIDS

OUR MISSISSIPPI TRAVEL

Walk past a giant paddlewheelshaped sign reminiscent of a 

Mississippi riverboat, and enter 

the new Great River Road Museum and 

Interpretive Center, opening this autumn 

just outside Baton Rouge on the grounds 

of Houmas House Plantation and Gardens 

(PICTURED ABOVE). Linked by a pedestrian 

bridge to a promenade atop a levee edging 

the Mississippi, the museum is but one 

exciting stop along Louisiana’s Great River 

Road, home to more than a dozen antebellum plantations.

Mark Twain writes that the waters 

of the Mississippi have a new story to 

tell every day, and this new river-centric 

museum is poised to stand at the center 

of such storytelling. Since 2003, Louisiana 

real estate developer Kevin Kelley has 

owned Houmas House, a sprawling plantation established in the late 1700s, which 

still stands today in Darrow, Louisiana, 

approximately 16 miles from Baton 

Rouge and 50 miles from New Orleans. 

A good steward of the plantation’s story, 

Kelley dreamed of creating a museum 

there where the rich and sometimes turbulent history of life along the Mississippi may be shared 

and new memories can be made.

With its main salon decorated in the style of an 1800s steamboat ballroom, the museum will be 

filled with fun, interactive, hands-on exhibits and multi-media displays. Visitors will browse maps 

and ancient artifacts while learning about trade and commerce, river folklore, the story of steamboat travel, and the river’s role in the creation of Louisiana culture.

The $15 million venue, funded in part by a $5.8 million federal scenic highway grant, includes a 

28,000-square-foot museum, café, events stage and amphitheater for live music and special performances on the 38-acre plantation grounds. A broad path will lead from 

the museum to a 24-foot-high pedestrian bridge spanning River Road, 

reaching the top of a levee created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

There, streetlamps and benches will line the wide waterway.

You can also stay for dinner or the night. Houmas House offers three 

restaurants and a bar, a large gift shop and bookstore, a nearly 200-

year old house, exquisite gardens and luxury guest cottages, and more. 

Popular for weddings and special events, Houmas House has been a 

filming location for several movies, including 2019 Academy Award–

winner, Green Book. 

Travel Louisiana’s Great River Road

A road trip with a story

Along the almost 70-mile-long River Road between Baton Rouge 

and New Orleans, a dozen historic plantations easily reached by 

car or by tour bus. Here are just a few with fascinating stories:

Oak Alley Plantation: Picture Twelve 

Oaks from “Gone with the Wind,” and that’s 

what Oak Alley looks like, especially its 

iconic entrance canopied by 28 enormous 

300-year-old Live Oak trees. A National 

Historic Landmark, its landscape reveals a 

quarter mile alley of oak trees, lush gardens 

and lawns, and a Greek Revival mansion 

built in 1839. Exhibits at the plantation 

include, Slavery at Oak Alley, Sugarcane, 

Civil War, Life Inside the ‘Big House,’ and the 

People of Oak Alley, telling the story of the 

people who once resided there. 

Nottaway Plantation and Resort: This 

Greek and Italianate-style “White Castle” 

mansion is said to be the largest antebellum home still standing in the South. Built 

in 1859, it offers luxury overnight accommodations and is open to the public for 

self-paced audio tours and tours led by 

costumed guides.

San Francisco Plantation: One of the 

South’s most ornate and colorful plantation houses, this mansion dates to the 

1850s. Its outbuildings include an 1840s 

slave cabin and a school house dating to 

the 1830s.

Laura Plantation: The home to 

Louisiana’s Creole Heritage Site features 

an informative permanent exhibit dedicated to interpreting the experiences of the 

enslaved people who lived and worked on 

this once sprawling sugarcane plantation. Just four miles from 

Oak Alley, it features an award-winning tour exploring the Creole 

culture of four generations. 

Evergreen Plantation Home: One of only eight large Greek 

revival plantation houses still standing along River Road, 

Evergreen features one of the most complete intact collections 

of slave cabins in the country, which visitors may tour along with 

the mansion. —J.T.

Here, plantations—and 

a new museum—tell a 

complicated story 

The Great River 

Road Museum and 

Interpretive Center 

will be located at 

Houmas House 

Plantation & Gardens, 

40136 Highway 942, 

Darrow, Louisiana. 

HOUMASHOUSE.COM

Campfire tale with a scary twist 

Storytelling is fun, whether you’re sitting on the river’s edge around a campfire, hiking a trail or cruising 

in a riverboat. Impress family and friends with this 

Mississippi River tall (or true?) tale. 

The bird that devours men 

You give a little more credit to a legend when its 

image is painted on the bluffs above Alton, Illinois—

and some version has been since at least 1672 when 

explorer Father Jacques Marquette spotted the image of the birdlike monster. The Illini Indians 

named the creature Piasa—the bird that devours men—and legends say that a famous chief was 

almost a victim of the monster “as large as a calf with horns like a deer, red eyes, a beard like a 

tiger’s, a face like a man, the body covered with green, black and red scales and a tail so long it 

passed around the body, over the head and between the legs.” He saved his people, though, after he 

was instructed in a dream to surround himself with armed warriors.

Help Lucy and her family follow a 

safe route to get through the flood 

to a safe place! Your safe place 

should be on high ground away 

from low areas that could flood. 

BE FLOOD-SMART

How to press your own plants

10 ourmississippi.org 11 MAZE: U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS FLOOD RISK ACTIVITY BOOK. DRIED FLOWERS: EVIE S. VIA UNSPLASH.
PRSRT STD

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

GREENVILLE, MI

PERMIT NO. 338

Scan here with your smartphone to go to the Our Mississippi website. Here, 

you can subscribe to our e-edition, read past editions and find river-related 

education materials.

Send story ideas to editor@ourmississippi.net

Contributors this issue:

EDITOR/LEAD WRITER

Kim Schneider

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Diane Kolak

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Debra Dietzman

Sharon Flesher 

Rick Stoff 

Janis Turk

This newsletter is a quarterly update of ongoing efforts in the Mississippi 

River Watershed and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Army.

Mailing list changes:

Andrea Sterling, 651-290-5664

To read online:

https://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Media/

Publications/Our-Mississippi/

Click “Subscribe here” to subscribe via email.

Insiyaa Ahmed, St. Louis, Mo. 

636-899-0076

Vanessa Alberto, St. Paul, Minn. 

651-290-5388

Kevin Bluhm, New Orleans, La. 

651-290-5247

Elizabeth Burks, Memphis, Tenn. 

901-544-0761

Katelynn Dearth, St. Louis, Mo. 

636-899-0086

Angie Freyermuth, Rock Island, Ill. 

309-794-5341

Patrick Loch, St. Paul, Minn. 

651-290-5679

Questions or Comments:

U.S.A.C.E. REGIONAL OUTREACH SPECIALISTS

US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul

PM-E Sterling

180 East Fifth Street, Suite 700

St. Paul, MN 55101

SPOTLIGHT

Marshall Plumley, program manager UMRR 

Marshall B. Plumley is entering his second year as 

regional program manager for the Upper Mississippi 

River Restoration Program (UMRR) based at the Rock 

Island District offices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

Our Mississippi talked to Plumley about UMRR’s work.

What is UMRR? 

UMRR was authorized by Congress in 1986, primarily to implement ecosystem habitat rehabilitation and 

enhancement projects. The projects restore some of the 

ecosystem functions, structures and processes that have 

been impaired along the Upper Mississippi River system 

over the last 150 years or so from settlement and the use 

of the landscape. Another component is carrying out science and monitoring so we understand what is going on 

in terms of ecological health and how our projects are 

doing at repairing the degradation.

What is the importance of the UMRR mission?

The Upper Mississippi River system is the heart of the United States. It is the 

fourth-largest watershed in the world and is one of the most ecologically productive resources in the world. Its commercial navigation system is unparalleled in its 

efficiency and ability to move goods throughout the country and out for export. This 

resource has been recognized nationally and internationally, most importantly by 

Congress in 1986 when it said the upper Mississippi River is a nationally significant 

navigation system as well as ecosystem. I think it is the only part of the U.S. that has 

that unique designation.

What projects does UMRR undertake?

Over 32 years we have completed 56 projects and have another 20 or so in planning and design. The completed projects have accomplished restoration goals on 

about 106,000 acres. That represents more than half of the acres that the Corps of 

Engineers has restored nationwide. 

Every project has a team from the Corps and our partners within the states and 

other federal agencies. They look at an area and determine the most pressing habitat needs. In quite a few projects, we have a problem with sedimentation and will 

have dredging done to restore some of the lost depth. That benefits fish that use 

that habitat for refuge during over-wintering. Often we will use that dredge material to build up areas so we can plant hard mast-producing trees. A side effect of 

having a navigation system is raised water levels. When we have opportunities to 

raise some areas and get the root zones of trees a bit drier, we can reintroduce 

important species. In some areas where habitat is not as productive as it could be, 

we manipulate water levels. We may create areas that at times are isolated from the 

river and at times have access. That promotes the growth of plants that are food 

and refuge resources for waterfowl.

In your presentations, you quote a proverb, “A society grows great when old 

men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.” How does 

that reflect UMRR’s work? 

We have to take a long view. When we are spending federal dollars, there is an 

expectation for immediate benefits. Our projects provide that, but we also have to 

be mindful that when we are restoring a forest, some of those plantings will need 

50 to 75 years to reach maturity. It may be 100 years before the forest’s full health 

and resilience are delivered. We have to think beyond our own careers and lifetimes.

Restoring habitats for the ecosystems, 

wildlife and people of the next century