MADISON — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced July 8 the release of a new report regarding the Ecological Status and Trends of the Upper Mississippi River System.
The Status and Trends Report is the third of its kind produced as part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) program. It includes information on long-term changes in water quality, aquatic vegetation and fish from six study areas spread across the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. The report also summarizes trends in possible drivers of long-term changes in the river, including river flow volume and floodplain land cover.
This seminal report represents more than 25 years of data and will inform river management and investments in the coming years. It reaches Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin to inform and influence the work of the many government agencies, non-governmental organizations and other partners that play a role in caring for the river.
The DNR Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) Field Station in La Crosse is a key member of the data collection network operated by the five Upper Mississippi River states and the U.S. Geological Survey under the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program.
The UMRR program is a diverse partnership that includes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin and other non-governmental organizations and private citizens.
This strong regional partnership guides the program in fulfilling its vision to build a healthier, more resilient Upper Mississippi River ecosystem that sustains the river’s multiple uses.
“The Upper Mississippi River is a diverse and dynamic system with many regional differences,” said Jim Fischer, DNR Mississippi River Team Leader and LTRM Field Station Supervisor.
“Understanding those differences takes a collaborative effort like the UMRR program’s Long Term Resource Monitoring.”
“The long-term data collected across the network helps us assess overall river system health by highlighting system-wide changes and changes occurring in only parts of the system,” Fischer said. “The data collected by Wisconsin DNR staff in Pool 8 at La Crosse, and by Minnesota DNR in Pool 4 at Pepin, WI, provides specific insights into the health of the fisheries, water quality and aquatic vegetation along Wisconsin’s border.”
“Long-term datasets are crucial to understanding both slow and fast-moving changes in the river,” Fischer said. “With more than 25 years of data, the report helps us understand how and where this complex system is changing over time. It identifies where we’re making progress, where we need more work, and how the river responds to new stressors— such as more frequent and longer-duration high-water events. It informs our strategies and priorities for future collaborative work.”
Congress established the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program in the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 to provide fish and wildlife habitat rehabilitation and enhancement in the Upper Mississippi River System. The act also implemented long-term resource monitoring and research efforts, including state-of-theart scientific methods to understand changing environmental conditions within the river system. The Status and Trends Report describes what was learned from that monitoring. Previous reports were released in 1998 and 2008.
