For the River
The Upper Mississippi is first and foremost a river. Its islands, marshes, channels, floodplain forests, riverbanks, and bluffs are home to birds, fish and wildlife. For 1,366 miles it flows – a tiny river at its source in Lake Itasca to a "mile-wide tide" as it is joined by the Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois. For some 150 years we have treasured the river for its natural abundance as well as for its utility in transporting grain, coal, and other commodities – even people – both upstream and down. Now the river and the world are changing. As a result, we need to make some important choices for the future.

The Upper Mississippi River Yesterday and Today

In the days of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, some 150 years ago, the Upper Mississippi River flowed freely, creating channels in some places, filling them in elsewhere. Water levels varied with the seasons and from year to year. Riverboats used the river and had to constantly be aware of these changing conditions, navigating accordingly. But, under all conditions, the river was a continuous ribbon of habitat for birds, fish, and wildlife.

Over time, we have modified the river to improve navigation safety and efficiency. As we have built communities and found value in farming the river's floodplain, we have built dikes and levees. In the process, we have taken some steps to protect the river's diminishing habitat as well. Wildlife refuges were established beginning in the 1920s. Habitat restoration projects have taken place since the 1970s. Even the United States Congress got in the act by declaring the Upper Mississippi River a "nationally significant ecosystem and nationally significant navigation system" in 1986.

But the net effect of everything we have done, both to the river and for the river, has been to significantly degrade the river's natural ecosystem while increasing human use. Today more than fifty percent of the river's natural floodplain is behind flood control levees. By building thirty-six locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, we have provided an important means of moving grain and other products to market. But we have also, by the same measure, converted much of the river into a series of sediment traps and slackwater pools. We have channelized and fixed the river's flow, robbing it of much of its former biological diversity.
Locks and dams have impacted the ecosystem

The construction of twenty-nine locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi River and seven locks and dams on the Illinois River has turned nearly 1,000 miles of our river system into a series of slackwater pools. Water levels are regulated in each pool to maintain a minimum of nine feet of water. The effect has been to create a series of sediment traps behind the dams, reducing aquatic and terrestrial habitat diversity. The dams also make it difficult for fish to move freely up and down the rivers during most river stages.
• Improving water quality in the river.

• Reducing sediment and nutrient impacts to the river.

• Returning more natural floodplain to the river for healthy habitat.

• Providing for more changes in water levels for plants, birds and fish.

• Modifying navigation structures and dredging to reduce impacts to habitat.

• Changing public policy and spending to give the natural ecosystem the same or greater level of support than the navigation system.

We can make choices for progress and a better future