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 Upper
Mississippi River Restoration -
Environmental Management Program
(UMRR-EMP)
 Congress
authorized the Environmental Management Program in the 1986
Water Resources Development Act to help address ecological needs
on the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS).
Since the late 1980s and after
Congressional authorization, the program became known as the
Environmental Management Program (EMP), both locally and
nationally.
More recently, this program has
been referred to as the Upper Mississippi River Restoration
(UMRR) by Congress but remains known as EMP locally.
The two major components of
UMRR-EMP - the Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Projects
(HREPs) and the Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) - together
are designed to improve the environmental health of the UMRS and
increase our understanding of its natural resources.
The UMRS is one of this nation’s unique natural resources.
It encompasses the
commercially navigable reaches of the Upper Mississippi River,
as well as the Illinois River and navigable portions of the
Kaskaskia, Black, St. Croix and Minnesota Rivers.
The UMRS is one of a small number
of large river floodplain ecosystems still characterized by
annual flood pulses that advance and retreat over the floodplain
and temporarily expand backwaters and floodplain lakes.
The
UMRS floodplain ecosystem provides habitat for a wide array of
fish and wildlife species distributed among a complex
arrangement of flowing channels, floodplain lakes, backwaters,
wetlands, and floodplain forests. The river supports a
diverse mussel fauna, contains more than 25 percent of North
America’s freshwater fish species, and is an internationally
recognized flyway for migrating birds.
UMRR-EMP was the first
program in the nation to combine ecosystem restoration with
scientific monitoring and research efforts on a large river
system.
UMRR-EMP has served the nation well
for over 25 years, completing 54 habitat projects benefitting
approximately 100,000 acres of aquatic and floodplain habitat and
contributing significantly to our scientific understanding of
this complex system through monitoring and research.
In addition to its achievements on
the
Upper Mississippi River System,
UMRR-EMP and the LTRM component specifically, has served as a
model for other aquatic ecosystem restoration efforts both
nationally and internationally.
The Program has established a
record of significant accomplishment through successful
implementation of innovative and effective habitat projects and
cutting-edge monitoring and research and continues to be an
efficient and effective means of ensuring that the UMRS remains
both a nationally significant ecosystem and nationally
significant navigation system.
Implementation of all
aspects of UMRR-EMP is coordinated through a partnership that
includes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service; U.S. Geological Survey; U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency; U.S. Department of Agriculture; and the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota,
Missouri, and Wisconsin; and numerous non-governmental
organizations and private citizens.
The accomplishments of UMRR-EMP
would not be possible without the strong regional partnership
that helps to guide and direct the program.
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