SAVING THE RIVER: DIKES, DAMS HURT MISSISSIPPI

The Upper Mississippi River, the stretch from Cairo, Ill., northward, has changed in the past 40 years. It has been straightened and leveed, turning many of the original backwaters and marshes into cropland and cutting off others. Locks and dams above St. Louis keep the river at an artificially high level so barges can move up and down.

It's good for moving barges, but not so good for the ecological health of the watershed, says Dan McGuiness, director of the Audubon Society's Upper Mississippi River Campaign.

"It's the opposite of how you would manage for wildlife and fish levels. You want periodic low water and high water, it's important to exchange water levels and nutrients and reoxygenate the back waters. We have simplified the river's habitat," he said.

Calling attention to the need to prevent the degradation of the Mississippi River is why the Audubon Ark is coming to town.

The Audubon Ark is an authentic stern wheeler called Lilly Belle that will begin at Cairo Saturday a 480-mile, 28-day sojourn up the Mississippi River. The Ark is scheduled to stop at the Broadway floodgate in Cape Girardeau Oct. 3 to present a program from 9-11 a.m. for schoolchildren and a program from 4-6 p.m. that will include story telling and folk singing.

One of the passengers aboard the Audubon Ark will be Smithsonian folkways recording artist Larry Long. He will be joined in performance by the Clippard School fourth-grade choir, the St. Vincent's Elementary School band, storyteller Leo Harris and the Shade Tree Folk Company.

Problems for the Mississippi have been caused by the three D's, McGuiness says: Dikes, dams and dredging.

More than 50 percent of the Upper Mississippi River's natural flood plain is now behind levees. Between St. Louis and Cairo, 83 percent of flood plains is behind levees. The locks and dams above St. Louis has turned the Mississippi River there from a free-flowing river into what McGuiness calls "slack water pools."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains a regimen of dredging on the river. Channelizing the river prevents new side channels from being created during floods.

Where the debate comes is whether money should be spent on restoring the habitat or expanding the existing navigation system.

Maintaining the existing navigation system costs $130 million annually. The program aimed at rehabilitating the damage that has been done is spending about $19 million a year.

"It's not enough," McGuiness said.

More money, more skill and more effort need to be put into the effort to maintain the ecosystem and in some cases work toward restoring it, McGuiness says. The purpose of the Audubon Ark's trip is to call attention to the need.

The Audubon Society is particularly concerned about the Mississippi because it's the only remaining corridor of continuous water and habitat for migratory species in the Midwest.

The Audubon Society works with organizations and agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rehabilitate the river. An example of how that is being done is the Open Mississippi River Field Station in Jackson, which is conducting a long-term monitoring project of the river's fishery, vegetation and water quality. The project is funded through the U.S. Geological Survey, which is working with the Corps on restoration projects.

AUDUBON ARK TOUR SCHEDULE

Cairo, Ill. 9/30

Commerce, Mo. 10/2

Thebes, Ill. 10/2

Cape Girardeau 10/3

Chester, Ill. 10/5

Ste. Genevieve, Mo. 10/6

St. Louis Arch 10/8

East St. Louis Area, Ill. 10/9

Lewis & Clark State Park, Ill. 10/9

St. Louis Area 10/10

Alton, Ill. 10/11

Godfrey, Ill. 10/11

Portage Des Sioux, Mo. 10/12

Grafton, Ill. 10/12

Clarksville, Mo. 10/14

Louisiana, Mo. 10/14

Hannibal, Mo. 10/15

Quincy, Ill. 10/16

LaGrange, Mo. 10/17

Canton, Mo. 10/17

Keokuk, Iowa 10/19

Montrose, Iowa 10/20

Nauvoo, Ill. 10/20

Fort Madison, Iowa 10/21

Burlington, Iowa 10/22

Oquawka, Ill. 10/23

Keithsburg, Ill. 10/24

New Boston, Ill. 10/24

Muscatine, Iowa 10/25

Buffalo, Iowa 10/26

Quad Cities 10/26-10/27