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The Upper Mississippi River -
Science and Restoration

Rising, seasonal waters helped to create a network of freshwater ecosystems in the Upper Mississippi River basin that have sustained plants and animals for millennia. Thousands of species developed mating, reproductive and migration characteristics in response to biological and physical processes created by the dynamic ebb-and-flow of waters.

Levees, dams and changes in how land is used have altered this life-giving process of ebb-and-flow. As a result, biological diversity, water quality, productive forests and other critical habitats are declining. Downstream, an expanding dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico—an area of devastation where very little plant or animal life survives—is being created by the excess nutrient runoff from the basin’s agricultural lands.

In spite of these concerns, there is strong reason for hope, as interest to restore and revitalize this freshwater ecosystem grows. There is growing support within state legislatures and Congress to fund restoration. The Conservancy is making critical contributions to an expanding partnership in the belief that more can be gained by working together.

In that spirit, the Conservancy signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and, under its terms, the two partners will work together to restore the basin’s health. One focus of this agreement will be largescale floodplain restoration, in which the Conservancy is playing a leadership role. Additionally, the Conservancy is collaborating with other partners, including landowners in critical watersheds, to reduce threats to the basin’s health.

To guide its conservation actions, the Conservancy’s Upper Mississippi River program is using science to ensure its work achieves optimal results. In partnership with NatureServe, the Conservancy identified areas of biodiversity significance across the basin. The Conservancy now is working on a conservation plan, with the advice of many scientists and experts, to identify critical actions needed to protect this freshwater biodiversity.

Every day, our understanding of this region grows deeper. Numerous universities, conservation organizations and state and federal agencies are studying the connections between land and water to better understand how the river’s health can be restored. Their work makes the Upper Mississippi River basin one of the world’s most-productive centers of large-floodplain river science. The scope and importance of the Conservancy’s work in the Upper Mississippi River is profound. A conservation breakthrough in this basin, which leads the world in agricultural technology, will be a living model for other large-floodplain river restoration projects around the world.

Spunky Bottoms

American lotus © The Nature Conservancy.

 

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The Conservancy has active conservation projects in all five of the states along the Upper Mississippi River:

Spunky Bottoms

Each summer thousands of lotus bloom on the restored wetlands of the Conservancy's Spunky Bottoms preserve in central Illinois.
 © The Nature Conservancy