Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration: Section 1135, Lower Otter Tail River, Wilkin County, Minnesota

The purpose of the project is to reestablish the river to a more natural condition, stabilize and improve river channelization, and restore riverine and riparian habitat.

Beneficial Use of Dredged Material: Section 1122, Upper Pool 4 – Lake Pepin, Bay City, Wisconsin

This project utilizes dredged material generated from navigation channel to protect and restore backwater habitat; this is a win-win project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, our partner agencies, and the environment. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is the non-federal sponsor.

Marsh Lake Ecosystem Restoration Project, Minnesota

The purpose of this project is to modify the existing Marsh Lake Dam to increase the bio-diversity of the Minnesota River/Lac qui Parle/Pomme de Terre River ecosystem without compromising the flood risk management function of the Marsh Lake Dam. Marsh Lake is located on the Minnesota River between Swift and Lac qui Parle counties near Appleton, Minnesota. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns and maintains Marsh Lake Dam as part of the Lac qui Parle Flood Risk Management project. The fixed-crest dam holds a conservation pool in the upper portion of the Lac qui Parle Reservoir.

Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP)

The Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP), seeks to provide a safe, reliable, cost effective and environment sustainable waterborne navigation system by implementing switchboats at five locks, constructing mooring cells and seven new 1,200 foot locks. NESP will restore the aquatic and terrestrial habitat to a more natural condition on more than 100,000 acres throughout the system through a wide variety of ecosystem projects.

Pigs Eye Islands CAP 204 Beneficial Use of Dredge Material, St. Paul, Minnesota

The project will beneficially utilize dredge material to create islands that will provide a variety of habitat for fish and wildlife. Pigs Eye Lake is located in Ramsey County, just east of downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, in upper Pool 2 of the Mississippi River. Due to the lake’s close proximity to the Mississippi River, the lake water level is controlled by the level of the river. The lake is located in the Mississippi River Bottomlands Subwatershed.

Planning Assistance to States: River Falls Hydroelectric Project

This project assisted the city of River Falls, Wisconsin, in the development of a comprehensive plan to assess the proposed relicensing of the Junction Falls Development and the decommissioning and removal of the dam at the Powell Falls Development. Both developments are part of the River Falls Hydroelectric Project.

Pool 2 Wing Dam Modification Project, Upper Mississippi River Pool 2, Minnesota

This project will notch a series of wing dams throughout Pool 2 in order to improve main channel border habitat for fishes. Wing dam notching will enable downstream scouring, which creates overwintering habitat. The project area is in the middle and lower half of Pool 2, Upper Mississippi River, downstream of St. Paul, Minnesota; spanning Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties, Minnesota.

Tribal Partnership Program: Sturgeon Lake

The purpose of the project is to address sedimentation, erosion and degradation of culturally significant habitat on Prairie Island Indian Community’s tribal land in Sturgeon Lake. Priority objectives identified in the feasibility study, which will be carried forward in the design and implementation phase are to: (1) reduce shoreline erosion on the Buffalo Slough Island; and (2) improve/restore floodplain forest habitat on Buffalo Slough Island.

Tribal Partnership Program: Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota River

The study will assess the problems and opportunities being faced by the Upper Sioux Community on their tribal lands and make recommendations related to erosion along the Minnesota River adjacent to and impacting those lands. The Upper Sioux Community is located south of the Minnesota River in Yellow Medicine County, approximately four miles south of the city of Granite Falls, Minnesota.

Upper Mississippi River - Illinois Waterway System Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP)

Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) is a long-term program of ecosystem restoration and navigation improvements for the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). NESP will improve system capacity and reduce commercial traffic delays through construction of seven new 1,200-foot locks, mooring cells, and switchboat implementation.

Upper Mississippi River – Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) Johnson Island Project

This is a NESP study partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WIDNR) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The study will consider alternatives including island building and enhancement, forest enhancement and creation, backwater restoration and dredging, island and shoreline protection and beneficial use of dredged material.

Upper Mississippi River – Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) Systemic Mitigation Island 4 Project

Sedimentation and sediment resuspension caused a loss in water depth diversity of the backwater lakes and isolated wetlands above Lake Pepin as well as a loss in aquatic vegetation. Concerns over habitat deficiencies in Upper Pool 4 include reduced habitat diversity and quality, lack of aquatic vegetation and invertebrates, and reduced abundance of fish and wildlife. The project includes construction of a peninsula to improve habitat conditions by reducing wind, waves, and redirecting sediment inflows. It also includes overwintering dredging to support a deep water habitat for fish and bank and shoreline stabilization to reduce inflows and erosion during high flow events.

Upper Mississippi River – Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) Wacouta Bay Project

This is a NESP study partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WIDNR), Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The study will consider alternatives including island building and enhancement, forest enhancement and creation, backwater restoration and dredging, island and shoreline protection and beneficial use of dredged material.

Upper Mississippi River – Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program Sny Magill Project

This NESP study is a partnership with the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Iowa Dept of Natural Resources, Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The study will consider alternatives including riverbank stabilization and protection, floodplain restoration, closure or partial closure structures, and in-channel diversion structures.

Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program: Lower Pool 10 Islands, Guttenberg, Iowa Habitat Restoration

The Lower Pool 10 Islands are part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program. The site is a 1,000-acre side channel and island complex located on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River navigation channel in Pool 10, about one mile upstream from Lock and Dam 10 in Guttenberg, Iowa. The site lies within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program: McGregor Lake, Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin Habitat Restoration

McGregor Lake is a 200-acre backwater lake in Pool 10 of the Mississippi River. The McGregor Lake project is located on the Wisconsin side of the Upper Mississippi River in the middle of Pool 10, near Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. The site lies within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program: Minnesota/Wisconsin/Iowa Habitat Restoration

This program, authorized by Congress in 1986, emphasizes habitat rehabilitation and enhancement projects (HREPs) and long-term resource monitoring. The HREP component includes dredging backwater areas and channels, constructing dikes, creating and stabilizing islands, controlling side channel flows and water levels, and creating floodplain forest habitat.

Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program: Reno Bottoms, Pool 9, Upper Mississippi River

The primary objective of this project is to protect, restore, or create resilient and diverse bottomland forests. The quality and extent of the unique forest and aquatic habitat in the Reno Bottoms project area has been declining over the past several decades. Human caused changes in hydrology, land use, and climate have increased water levels within the project area. Without action, the project area will continue to degrade. The quality of forest and aquatic habitat will decrease. Invasive grasses would expand into forests, limiting opportunities for smaller trees to grow and reducing habitat value. Additional loss of wetland habitat would adversely affect migrating waterbirds and songbirds who require the floodplain forest to stop and rest.

Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program: Robinson Lake, Pool 4, Minnesota - Habitat Restoration

The proposed project goal is to maintain, enhance, and create habitat suitable for native and desirable, aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals. The Robinson Lake area has lost bathymetric diversity, floodplain forest patch size, connectivity, and interior forest habitat over time. Island creation/enhancement and dredging would be the primary tools used to counter-act the losses. Increasing wild celery beds and perennial emergent vegetation would also be a goal within the lake to increase opportunities for migratory waterfowl. The project seeks to protect, enhance, restore, or create backwater and flowing channel habitats that provide diverse flow conditions and sediment dynamics that will benefit native fish (including migratory species) and mussel populations. The project seeks to protect and enhance diverse bottomland forest that will benefit migratory and resident birds and other species. The project also seeks to maintain or increase quantity and diversity of submerged, emergent, and rooted floating leaved vegetation.