UMR Chapter Update: Projects and Local River News
By Fritz Funk
At La Crosse's July 11 Youth Outdoorfest we had over 300 visit our "Touch of the Wild" trailer that we borrowed from the Outdoor Heritage Education Center. We're discussing the customizing of one of their trailers for the Upper Mississippi River.
In our osprey watch project, we've been monitoring 8 nests, with 6 of them active this year. View maps and data of the Upper Mississippi River Chapter’s osprey watch project by clicking HERE!
During "River Days of Action" in June, our members turned out at area boat landings for a "creel and use survey". See Brett Welch’s article titled “Upper Mississippi River Chapter Creel and Use Survey Report” for details.
Our chapter has noted that the 100 year anniversary of the Rivers and Harbors Act of July 3, 1930 is fast approaching. This act authorized the 9-foot navigation channel and profoundly changed the culture and the ecosystem in the valley. We are considering ways to use the occasion to realistically envision the next century of impacts of deep water commercial navigation on the River.
Inspection of the embankment at Lock No. 2. Photo courtesy of Fritz Funk.
Chapter directors Fritz Funk and Steve Marking toured large-scale federally-planned habitat projects upriver in Pools 2 and 4 in early August. In Pool No. 2, the Pigs Eye Lake Restoration Project became a permanent home within the floodplain for 448,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from the main channel. It became the base layer of 40 acres of new island habitat, featuring sand benches, native plantings, and protected marshes. Adjacent to the lock at Hastings, over 300,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from the main channel were used as the base of a floodplain island complex to project the embankment holding back the waters from Pool No. 2 from erosion. Because the project was protecting existing infrastructure, operations & maintenance funds could be used to create the island. The Pool No. 4 Island Projects at the head of Lake Pepin similarly use sand dredged from the main channel to create 38 acres of new habitat.
Learn more about the Pool No. 4 Project by clicking HERE!
Learn more about the Pigs Eye Lake Restoration Project by clicking HERE!
In Pool 7's Lake Onalaska, a dredging project supported by a $300,000 fundraising effort is restoring fish overwintering habitat. This project is hoped to chart a course for similar small-scale habitat restoration projects that can be supported at least in part with non-federal funds. Learn more about the North Shore Lane Project by clicking HERE!
Root River emergency dredging. Photo courtesy of Fritz Funk.
A July rainfall event saw a surge of sediment dumping out of tributary streams in the La Crosse area, leaving the La Crosse Queen's mooring dock high and dry, and blocking main channel navigation at the Root River, necessitating emergency dredging to allow towboat traffic to pass.
Our chapter wishes to express our appreciation to outgoing, founding directors Emy Monroe and Betty DeBoer who were a great help in launching our chapter!
