Posted: 9/7/04
Improving the River
River rat gives his approval Jim Nissen gave a hearty ìHi Dickî as we zipped past two people fishing near a concrete marker on the main channel of the Mississippi River on August 20. Jim, the district manager of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife & Fish Refuge (NW&FR), knew better than to stop. You donít just pull onto a hot spot occupied by a river rat. And Nissen probably knew he didnít have to stop. We had only started to admire the flocks of white pelicans and blue-winged teals behind Horseshoe Island when Dick and Betty Hobelsberger pulled up alongside us. Jim and Dick traded some fishing small talk that identified the two men as acquaintances if not friends. ìBoy, is it spotty,î said Dick, who has the tanned face and bushy beard of a man who spends his days on the river. Then Dick cut to the chase. Is trapping going to be in the master plan, he asked Nissen. Nissen was able to answer yes, which was a relief to me. You donít want to say no to a die-hard river rat, no matter what the subject, but especially when it comes to things like trapping. ìYouíre a good man,î Hobelsberger said with a broad grin. And will the islands be built, he pressed on like Perry Mason. Nissen gave another yes ìYouíre a good man, Iíll tell you,î Hobelsberger said, adding onto his praise and his grin. They were talking in river code about issues in a comprehensive conservation plan that is currently being drafted. Hobelsberger lives in Stoddard for much of the year, and spends most of his time on the river, hunting, fishing, and trapping. He said, perhaps also for the benefit of me and and fellow traveler Ken Lubinski, that the island that the USFW had built above Stoddard had really helped the river. His conviction was clear. ìIím all for this. I know you get a lot of b-------,î Hobelsberger said. ìI tell everybody. Itís all for the better.î Hobelsberger said he had traveled all over the world, and the world doesnít get any better than it is right here. The people in Nissenís boat did not disagree with that. Dick and Betty said their goodbyes and headed north to another fishing hole. We wrapped up our little river tour and headed back to Wildcat landing. It was an interesting exchange to me. Nissen had just spent a couple hours showing Ken and me some of the island and habitat projects that the NW&FR had worked on. Jimís knowledge and commitment to the river were as plain as a pelican. I had meant to ask Jim what the old timers thought of all this new-fangled management. Dick Hobelsberger had answered that question better than Jim Nissen ever could. |
Argus News Editor
I took a river tour on August 20 with Jim Nissen and Ken Lubinski that answered a lot of questions.
I’d like to share the trip with The Argus readers because I know there are many people with the same questions.
What have government workers been doing for river management in recent years, and what are their plans for the future?
That was the goal of my trip. The answers were as complex as you might imagine, yet they were surprisingly simple too.
Nissen is the district manager of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife & Fish Refuge (NW&FR). Lubinski is a river ecologist for the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
They provided a good one-two punch on our two hour trip south of Brownsville on a sunny Friday morning.
“We’re strictly science,” Lubinski explained about the USGS.
“And we like to use good science in making management decisions,” Nissen responded about his branch of Uncle Sam.
Jim threw a bunch of maps and photos onto the floor of the 18-foot john boat, and backed it into the water at good old Wildcat landing.
Then we headed out on a very fine trip indeed.
I won’t cram this article in with all the facts that I wrote down. Jim and Ken are both full of facts. Nissen knows the names of every river plant, and he can tell you the Latin version too if you care to know. Not that he brags about such knowledge. It just comes popping out of him.
Our first stop was in Raft Channel, about four miles south of Brownsville. Nissen nosed the flat-bottomed boat into a field of arrowhead plants. Then he took out a series of photographs that had been shot at that spot from July of 20 to the present.
The difference was dramatic. An area of sparse plant growth had flourished into a jungle of different water plants.
It summed up better than words ever could the power of river draw-downs that were done in Pool 8, the area between La Crosse and Genoa, in 2001 and 2002. A draw-down, which mainly affects the lower end of a pool, is just what the name implies: a lowering of water, done by manipulating the dams. It exposed 1,954 acres of river bottom, some for the first time in 60 years.
“Given the right conditions, these plants can really flourish,” Nissen said.
“The pond weed is a good sign,” Lubinski added, pointing some out. Arrowhead tuber production increased 16-fold during the 2002 draw-down
How did the draw-down do all this, I asked.
Ken first put it in scientific terms: it consolidated the loose sediment and gave it a nutrient release. “It’s more of a natural cycle of the river,” he added, explaining it in layman’s terms.
In other words, those plants appreciate it when the water goes down occasionally, and with a dam at the end of the 22-mile-long pool, it doesn’t go down unless someone makes that happen.
The seeds that are lying in wait in the mud and nutrients also appreciate that dose of oxygen. Some seeds can sprout after 50 years of dormancy. “It just turns the seeds on,” Ken said.
The invertebrates like it too, Nissen said. I gave another quizzical look. I hadn’t heard the word “invertebrates” since Ruth Pongratz’s biology class in 1969.
“Insects,” Nissen said, trying not to smile. “Look at these tree swallows all over the place.”
Sure enough, the air and willow trees to the east were filled with swooping and gliding birds. All that, and much more, from the draw-down.
Nissen pointed to two different kinds of arrowhead plants by the boat. They have a huge tuber that swans can’t resist.
This stretch of river is swan heaven. It’s a refueling stop for an estimated 30,000 swans on their flight from their summer home in Alaska to their winter digs on the eastern seaboard. That’s about 20 percent of all the swans in the United States. It’s quite a contrast from the 1970s, when only about 5,000 swans landed in the refuge in the fall. More proof that the projects are working.
Nissen said some people are concerned that the swans are decimating the plant beds. Ken wondered if that was why the swans had vacated the bays by Alma.
No, Nissen said. “There’s a lot of habitat change. That’s what we’re trying to sort out.” He and Ken will be the first to admit that they don’t have all the answers.
New islands are key
Our stopping spot was a good place for Nissen to talk about island construction. The Army Corp of Engineers, NW&FR, and USGS have been working together to build islands in pool eight for almost 20 years. Nissen rolled out another impressive set of aerial photos, showing islands that had been built, and some new ones planned for this very spot.
If you travel along Highway 26 in the next few years, you are likely going to see some very interesting island work taking place in what river workers call “Raft Channel West.” I use the word “likely” because it all depends on federal funding, and neither Nissen nor Lubinski are taking that for granted.
It isn’t cheap. Phase three, which will focus on the lower end of Pool 8, will construct 17 new islands at a cost an estimated $15 million.
One island will be built right where we were sitting, Nissen said. It will start over there, he said, pointing due north, then swing around and go south, creating a shape like a question mark.
It will be built in 2006 by private contractors, who will use hydraulics (dredging) to build up the spot. The process of building an island takes a couple years. First rocks are laid down, followed by dredged sand. It is given a rough shape by bulldozing. Then it settles, and finer bulldozer work is done. The back side of the islands are pumped with “fines”, which is river talk for silt, also by hydraulics. Then trees and vegetation are planted.
“We want a dynamic shoreline,” Nissen said.
“Great, excellent,” Lubinski answered. Both men like the word “dynamic,” which means that it can change over time and with the myriad conditions that the river creates.
That doesn’t mean the island will wash away entirely. That’s too drastic of a change, and the Army Corps of Engineers tends to frown on that. With a stable rock base for protection, and by “choking” those rocks with sand, it won’t happen.
The Corps and its private contractors are getting island construction down pretty well, Nissen feels, now that they are on their fifth and sixth generation of them. They have held up very well under some major flooding.
Another interesting aspect of the construction of islands is that they are laid out to follow the patterns of the old islands. Nissen showed some aerial photos that had been taken in 1954 and 1991. The new islands, both those already done and those being proposed, were superimposed right on top of the old ones.
That makes sense for practical reasons, Nissen said. It’s easier and cheaper to build an island in shallow water than in four feet of water Why reinvent the wheel?
Nissen’s old and new photos also showed the stark contrast of the lower end of Pool 8 before and after the dams were built. The area south of Brownsville was covered with islands and fields before the dams. Old-timers can attest to that with their stories of raising crops and cutting timber in what we now view as parts of the river.
That landscape gradually changed with the dams and deeper main channel. Erosion from waves wore away many of the islands. By the 1990s, the area north of the Reno Spillway looked like one big lake.
That wide expanse of water may look impressive, but it isn’t a natural one, and it isn’t good for plant or animal life. Wind blows across it unchecked, causing the water to stir up and get muddy. That turbidity leads to a loss of aquatic plant beds that migrating canvasback ducks use for food.
Also, birds need the thermal protection provided by the islands and mud flats being created. The configurations of islands and sand and mud flats that the agencies are creating are providing it.
Phase three will be a state of the art restoration project, Lubinski said, the best one from the Twin Cities to Cairo, Illinois.
Nissen described the Corp’s design team with one word: “Wow.” They figure out how to make the islands and keep them in place, he said. Phase one islands have been inundated – that means “flooded” in regular English – three times, Nissen said. “And came through with flying colors.”
We left the spot, then headed past Horseshoe Island, which is on the main channel below Brownsville. It and two other islands were restored and constructed from 1989-1992. Contractors patched a big hole that the river had breached in Horseshoe Island, and they added onto its length.
Behind it, in Benover Slough, we looked at a big flocks of white pelicans and numerous blue-winged teal. Nissen pointed out lotus and arrowhead. Still more proof that the projects are working.
After a short visit with some fishermen (see related story), we headed south to look at some seed islands about a mile north of Genoa on the west side of the main channel. The seed islands are long piles of rocks that are intended to do what their name implies, work as a base for building up new islands. One of them was covered with gulls. The islands are part of the plan to break up the river and attract plant and animal life.
After that, we headed back to civilization. I had answers to my questions, more than I can print here in fact. The project is vast and complex. It has taken a lot of time and money, and will continue to do so. Lubinski told me that the biological response will take 10-20 years.
Ken Lubinski and Jim Nissen – and yours truly – think it’s worth it. “It’s the most visited national wildlife refuge in the country,” Ken had told me earlier.
And it’s one that seems to be improving before our very eyes.
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