Fact Sheet 20: Environmental Section

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District
Published May 8, 2015
Updated: March 20, 2023
St. Paul District forester Bobby Jackson installs a sign on Lock and Dam 3 mitigation property near Maiden Rock, Wis. The recent construction of navigation improvements on the embankments at Lock and Dam #3, resulted in the loss of vital environmental features in the floodplain. As part of our efforts to mitigate these impacts, the St. Paul District purchased 520 acres along the Rush and Trimbelle Rivers in Pierce Co., Wis., restoring 313 of those acres back to native floodplain forest. This isn’t unique to the district. Read more about another reforestation project on a Mississippi River island near Red Wing, Minn.: 
http://go.usa.gov/WB3W

St. Paul District forester Bobby Jackson installs a sign on Lock and Dam 3 mitigation property near Maiden Rock, Wis. The recent construction of navigation improvements on the embankments at Lock and Dam #3, resulted in the loss of vital environmental features in the floodplain. As part of our efforts to mitigate these impacts, the St. Paul District purchased 520 acres along the Rush and Trimbelle Rivers in Pierce Co., Wis., restoring 313 of those acres back to native floodplain forest. This isn’t unique to the district. Read more about another reforestation project on a Mississippi River island near Red Wing, Minn.: http://go.usa.gov/WB3W

Dan Reburn, operations, drives a boat to a Mississippi River island near Red Wing, Minn., June 10.

Dan Reburn, operations, drives a boat to a Mississippi River island near Red Wing, Minn., June 10.

Dan Reburn, left, operations, and Bobby Jackson, operations, discuss a reforestation project during a tree planting on a Mississippi River island near Red Wing, Minn., June 10.

Dan Reburn, left, operations, and Bobby Jackson, operations, discuss a reforestation project during a tree planting on a Mississippi River island near Red Wing, Minn., June 10.

It is the policy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, to apply principles of good environmental stewardship to the natural and cultural resources located on Corps administered federal lands.

The St. Paul District’s Mississippi River environmental stewardship function is headquartered in La Crescent, Minnesota. The organization is responsible for managing the lands and waters of the 9-foot channel navigation project, which includes the pool areas of 13 locks and dams along the nearly 250-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to Guttenberg, Iowa.

A progressive forestry/wildlife program is actively managed under an existing memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on approximately 25,000 acres held in federal ownership in the project area. Much of this area makes up the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

On project lands in Pools 3 through 10, there are approximately 460 shoreline-use permits for docks, lifts and floating boathouses and 250 special-use licenses for stairways, sheds and other land based facilities. Environmental Section staffs also administer this program, which includes inspections of facilities, maintaining records, initiating renewals, facilitating transfers and collecting fees.

For more information contact:

Environmental Section/Mississippi River Recreation Office
1114 South Oak Street
La Crescent, MN 55947-0177
507-895-6341