Using the river's magic

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In June 1972, six state and federal officials with responsibilities for the environmental and commercial health of the Mississippi River embarked on a first-of-its-kind trip along the river to talk about their interests.

The brainchild of Claude Strauser, now river engineer with Hydrologic and Hydraulics Branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District office, the trip was an attempt to break through communication barriers that undermined their efforts.

"We were in either-or conversations," Strauser said Wednesday. "We wanted to know if we can have economic development and environmental stability."

But out on the river, informal talks replaced rote recitals. "There is something magical about the river," Strauser said.

Joyce Collins, left, Todd Strole and June Jeffries watch Least Tern birds on Marquette Island on the Mississippi River south of Cape Girardeau on Wednesday during the River Resources Action Team Environmental Coordination Trip hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The three represent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, the Nature Conservancy and the Corps of Engineers, respectively, several of the governmental and nongovernmental entities trying to coordinate efforts on the river. (Kit Doyle)

The trip became an annual event, and on Wednesday the three-day Corps of Engineers-sponsored River Resources Action Team tour of the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Cairo, Ill., concluded with a trip through the section between Cape Girardeau and the mouth of the Ohio River. More than two dozen people representing government agencies, environmental groups and private industries took part in the ride on a barge pushed downstream by a corps towboat.

While much of the day was spent on specific actions being taken to aid wildlife -- such as cutting notches in old river control structures to aid the movement of fish into shallow areas -- the informal conversations delved into strategy and the quality of the partnerships built over the past 35 years.

"This is not an adversarial thing anymore," Strauser said. "Everybody has a role to play. We are more powerful, we are more effective and we are more efficient because of our commonality."

When the trips began, the Corps of Engineers was viewed by many in the environmental community as an arrogant, unbending master of the river concerned about commercial barge traffic and building levees with little regard for the environmental impact. The corps still maintains a primary goal of keeping the river open to freight. But in recent years, especially since the flood of 1993, the corps has been working closely with environmental agencies and the private sector to secure quality habitat for wildlife as well.

"We've heard about everything from dredging, soil erosion and the pallid sturgeon to teaching kids about locks and dams," noted Julie Benbow of the American Land Conservancy, a private group that purchases environmentally sensitive land to promote conservation. "We understand and embrace each other's language. And we have a much more comprehensive picture today than in 1972."

Private groups such as the land conservancy and the Nature Conservancy -- which sent a representative along for the first time on this year's trip -- often purchase land when sellers are willing, then sell or give the land to state or federal agencies for protection.

The land conservancy recently completed purchase of Windy Bar, an island stretching from just north of Cape Rock Park almost to Trail of Tears State Park. Along with Devil's Island on the Illinois side, the land conservancy has helped create a 10-mile stretch of river where both banks are open for public use, said Jenny Frazier, director of the group's Mississippi River program.

The land conservancy views the corps as a strong partner in environmental efforts, Frazier said. "It is a critical navigable waterway, and it is a critical environmental waterway."

First stop: Marquette Island

The first stop on Wednesday's itinerary was just downstream from the Cape Girardeau riverfront departure point. The barge put in at Marquette Island, a tree-covered island with an adjoining sandbar just downstream from the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. Brian Johnson, project manager for the Middle Mississippi River Partnership, explained that the corps is examining the island as it prepares a model for stream flow and sediment deposits to determine how small changes in control structures would alter the habitat.

As the tour group walked across the sandbar, Joyce Collins from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pointed out the flitting least terns diving at fish in a shallow inlet at the back of the island. The least tern, an endangered species, nests on open sand along major waterways. Many of the corps' river structures, such as wing dikes and rock weirs, promote the sand deposits that the birds rely on, Collins said.

Officially, the Mississippi River is divided into the lower and upper rivers, with the dividing line at Cairo, where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet. But experts with an intimate knowledge of the stream usually add a third area -- the Middle Mississippi -- running from the mouth of the Missouri River to the mouth of the Ohio. North of the Missouri, the Mississippi is controlled by a series of locks and dams that maintain navigation flow. South of the Ohio, the Mississippi spreads out with an alluvial delta, at times more than 100 miles wide, stretching to the Gulf of Mexico.

But in the middle stretch, the river is more constrained by rock bluffs and rising land. The navigation depths are maintained by the rock structures and annual dredging, and the stretch has numerous islands and chutes that provide slack water habitat for fish and other wildlife.

Each of the resource agencies seeking to protect the river have a goal of creating a "string of pearls" through the Middle Mississippi -- spots where public and private protection can be enhanced by corps efforts, not threatened by them, said Robert Cail, refuge manager for the Middle Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge. Cail also chairs the Middle Mississippi River Partnership, which will hold its annual meeting July 11 at the Conservation Campus in County Park North.

"We'll focus on what is needed for further conservation efforts," Cail said.

The annual trip along the river has created partnerships that last, said Joe Kellett, the top civilian in the corps' St. Louis District office. The result, he said, is that a strong environmental ethic is mixed into decisions, he said.

"This collaboration takes whatever environmental activity the corps is doing and makes it more powerful," Kellett said. "It increases exponentially when we collaborate with other agencies and nongovernmental organizations and come away with something that works for everybody."

While some of the corps' sharpest critics, such as the Sierra Club, don't participate, it doesn't mean they aren't welcome for future trips and talks, Kellett said.

"It is our practice to engage even our worst critics to understand their point of view," he said. "If you look back at this, 25 years ago most of our collaborators today were some of our worst critics."

Katy Manar, right, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explained map sections to Dick Withers, left, and Frank Nickell, both of Cape Girardeau, during Wednesday's trip on the Mississippi River between Cape Girardeau and Cairo, Ill. The trip was sponsored by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (Kit Doyle)

rkeller@semissourian.com

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