12 Apr 2017

Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program: Lake Winneshiek

Lake Winneshiek is a 6,000 acre backwater lake on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River navigation channel in lower Pool 9 about 4 miles downstream from Lansing, Iowa. The proposed project would create two islands, each about 8,000 feet long, in the center of Lake Winneshiek to reduce wave action in this large, open water area. If suitable construction material can be found in the backwater area, dredging would provide up to 20 acres of additional deepwater habitat.

12 Apr 2017

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.

12 Apr 2017

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.

20 Mar 2017

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.

22 Mar 2019

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.

15 Apr 2024

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.