The states of Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin working together to promote aquatic growth for wildlife instead of killing all of it off as our own state does...
Published - Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Researchers measure Mississippi plant life ahead of drawdown
Heidi Langehr, a water resource specialist for the Department of Natural Resources, samples vegetation in the Mississippi River in Winona Tuesday. The Upper Mississippi Conservation Committee organized the sampling, with combined efforts from the DNR and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servie, before a draw down in pool 6, which will decrease the water height by a foot. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News)
By Amber Dulek | Winona Daily News
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Dropping anchor in the shallow Mississippi River water, Ambre Witt surveyed the new testing site.
A turtle basked in the afternoon sun on a dead limb, as bright green algae swirled just below the river’s surface. Cattails and lotus surrounded nearby islands across from the Homer Boat Landing.
“Water stargrass is visual,” Witt, a seasonal worker with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, announced to other crew-members when she spotted the aquatic plant a few yards away.
On Tuesday, officials from state and federal wildlife services in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin joined forces with local volunteers to scour Pool 6 — from Winona to Trempealeau — to look for plant life below the surface. Their findings will be used to measure the success of a planned drawdown next summer, when the water in Pool 6 will be lowered about a foot to encourage new plant growth.
After sampling at several sites with no luck, Matt Groshek, a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse environmental science student, picked up a rake to scrape the sandy bottom from Witt’s boat.
Groshek lifted the rake from the water.
Nothing.
He tried again from five other angles off the boat.
Nothing.
In spite of the nearby stargrass, there was no vegetation in the crew’s designated sample area.
Vegetation sampling, in which plant life is measured in one day at 300 sites chosen randomly with geographical software, has become a routine operation for the Winona District U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the past three years—but the process has been around since dams were installed in the 1930s.
On Tuesday, about 60 people in 20 boats went to spots designated by a global positioning unit. They measured water transparency, water depth, the kind of substrate and identified any plants they could rake out of the water.
Like Witt’s crew, about half found little or no vegetation, although backwaters like Sam Gordy’s Slough did have a good supply of plants.
“We were kind of expecting there wouldn’t be a whole lot of vegetation,” said FWS biologist Lisa Reid.
Lowering the water level allows more sunlight to reach the river bottom, sparking plant growth, Reid said.
Previous draw-downs have prompted growth in pools 5, 8, 9 and 19.
“There has been such a dramatic change to the aquatic life in the pools that were drawn down,” Reid said. “We’ve even had fishermen and duck hunters tell us how much better everything is.”
Vegetation below the water is just as important as those above the water. Plants become a resting place in the fast current, a spawning area and an algae “dinner” for fish and snails. The more plants, the more fish.
Despite the long-term benefits to wildlife and sportsmen, FWS biologist Brian Stemper said more plant life and lower water will make certain recreational areas for fishing and camping harder to access.
And what happens in one pool may not happen in another.
“It’s hard. People are always asking us to drain or raise the levels, but it’s not like a bathtub,” Stemper said. “We have so many species of fish and it effects every fish population differently.”
Reporter Amber Dulek can be reached at (507) 453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.
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