ENVISIONING THE MISSISSIPPI

Tower Rock was painted by Carl Bodmer in 1835 and appeared in Norbury L. Wayman's 1971 book "Life on the River."

Before Europeans began settling the Mississippi River Valley, buffalo may have ranged through the region between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill., and certainly there were bears and elk and plenty of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are still here, but much else has changed in this land the river runs through.

Susan Corvick, a graduate student at Southeast Missouri State University, is trying to assess those changes as part of a U.S. Geological Survey project aimed at restoring some of the biodiversity that has been lost. The cooperative ecosystem management strategy being devised by the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee (See related story) is meant to become a visionary plan for the river's next 50 years.

Restoring the river's biodiversity is "the right thing to do," says Robert Hrabik of the Missouri Department of Conservation.

"Biodiversity has been shown to be important in sustaining the natural integrity of the environment."

The loss of a single species may seem insignificant, but that species may be important to the survival of others.

"You get breakdowns in the web of life," Hrabik says.

He is a member of the UMRCC, a coalition of environmentalists, river engineers, politicians and economic developers formed to devise a plan for preserving and restoring the Middle Mississippi River, the segment between the confluence of the Missouri and Ohio rivers. But they realized they didn't really know what the river was like before the advent of steamboats and management of the river.

That's where Corvick comes in.

Her Herodotan job is to provide the group with a picture of the Middle Mississippi River of yore. She has been researching diaries, Audubon's writings, correspondence between roaming Jesuit missionaries, books, lithographs, letters, maps, government archives and other sources found all over the world as well as collecting prehistoric information, all to ascertain the impacts people have had on the river and how it has changed.

"It has changed dramatically in just the last 90 years," she says.

An essential source has been Nicolas de Finiels' 1803 manuscript "An Account of Upper Louisiana." The French engineer supervised a number of projects for the Spanish government in the Louisiana Territory at that time.

Maps made by early explorers show a river that was heavily forested on both sides near Cape Girardeau. When the steamboats came they needed wood for fuel, and that harvesting led to erosion of the banks and a wider and shallower river.

Back when Southeast Missouri was swampy, pin oaks and swamp chestnut oaks and tupelo were found along the river. Today the primary trees are willows, cottonwood and maple. "What we're trying to determine is, Why the switch?" Hrabik said.

The material Corvick has obtained consists primarily of observational findings and little scientific data, though the General Land Office Surveys provide solid information about how the land looked in various eras.

The early explorers were almost unanimous in one observation: "There are a lot of references to mosquitoes," Corvick said.

Flooding was a natural part of the river's cycle. The river was "a free and wild flow. The Mississippi meandered, flooded freely and created habitats," Hrabik said.

"Kind of stagnant" are the words Hrabik uses to describe the Mississippi River of 1999.

"The river today is entrenched and contained."

Since no more habitats are being created, they are slowly degrading, Hrabik said.

The reduction in the number of side channels on the river may be the biggest difference that has occurred over the past 400 years. There are 23 side channels on the river between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill., today. "There certainly were many, many more before wholesale channelization," Hrabik said.

The navigation work done on the river cannot be undone, he says.

"There is no way we're ever going to bring the river back completely. It's ridiculous to even propose such a thing."

But certain functions that have been arrested and destroyed can be restored, he said. "Connectivity" -- allowing the river to mix with its side channels and to get onto its flood plain -- is key to restoring the river's diversity, he said.

Corvick began her work in March 1997 and is due to complete the job in September. Based on what she finds, the work group then will devise its strategy. Though a plan for the entire Upper Mississippi is being prepared, the Middle Mississippi River group is the only one that will have Corvick's extensive research to work from.

She will speak about her findings at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Cape Girardeau Public Library. Her talk is sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Historical Association.