Public invited to Capoli Slough Islands restoration project dedication

Published April 28, 2016
Lansing, Iowa - Natural Resource Specialist Ray Marinan helps students plant seedlings as part of the St. Paul District's Earth Day activities. The St. Paul District, along with our partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Pool 9, and students from Lansing, Iowa middle school and DeSoto, Wis, high school, spent Earth Day 2016 planting 500 red oak seedlings on one of the recently completed islands in Capoli Slough in Pool 9 of the Upper Mississippi River. The group also implemented a trial to determine effectiveness of fertilizer and deer repellant tablets on seedling growth and survival. The different colored flags indicate the different types of treatments the seedlings received. Part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, the Capoli Slough project is a side channel and island complex located on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River navigation channel in Pool 9, about five miles downstream of Lansing, Iowa. The site is in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Many of the natural islands bordering the navigation channel and extending into the backwater have eroded and many are disappearing. Erosion from wave action and main channel flows is reducing the size of the wetland complex, resulting in the loss of aquatic vegetation and the shallow protected habitats important for the survival of many species of fish and wildlife.

Lansing, Iowa - Natural Resource Specialist Ray Marinan helps students plant seedlings as part of the St. Paul District's Earth Day activities. The St. Paul District, along with our partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Pool 9, and students from Lansing, Iowa middle school and DeSoto, Wis, high school, spent Earth Day 2016 planting 500 red oak seedlings on one of the recently completed islands in Capoli Slough in Pool 9 of the Upper Mississippi River. The group also implemented a trial to determine effectiveness of fertilizer and deer repellant tablets on seedling growth and survival. The different colored flags indicate the different types of treatments the seedlings received. Part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, the Capoli Slough project is a side channel and island complex located on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River navigation channel in Pool 9, about five miles downstream of Lansing, Iowa. The site is in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Many of the natural islands bordering the navigation channel and extending into the backwater have eroded and many are disappearing. Erosion from wave action and main channel flows is reducing the size of the wetland complex, resulting in the loss of aquatic vegetation and the shallow protected habitats important for the survival of many species of fish and wildlife.

Lansing, Iowa - Natural Resource Specialist Ray Marinan helps students plant seedlings as part of the St. Paul District's Earth Day activities. The St. Paul District, along with our partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Pool 9, and students from Lansing, Iowa middle school and DeSoto, Wis, high school, spent Earth Day 2016 planting 500 red oak seedlings on one of the recently completed islands in Capoli Slough in Pool 9 of the Upper Mississippi River. The group also implemented a trial to determine effectiveness of fertilizer and deer repellant tablets on seedling growth and survival. The different colored flags indicate the different types of treatments the seedlings received. Part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, the Capoli Slough project is a side channel and island complex located on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River navigation channel in Pool 9, about five miles downstream of Lansing, Iowa. The site is in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Many of the natural islands bordering the navigation channel and extending into the backwater have eroded and many are disappearing. Erosion from wave action and main channel flows is reducing the size of the wetland complex, resulting in the loss of aquatic vegetation and the shallow protected habitats important for the survival of many species of fish and wildlife.

Lansing, Iowa - Natural Resource Specialist Ray Marinan helps students plant seedlings as part of the St. Paul District's Earth Day activities. The St. Paul District, along with our partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Pool 9, and students from Lansing, Iowa middle school and DeSoto, Wis, high school, spent Earth Day 2016 planting 500 red oak seedlings on one of the recently completed islands in Capoli Slough in Pool 9 of the Upper Mississippi River. The group also implemented a trial to determine effectiveness of fertilizer and deer repellant tablets on seedling growth and survival. The different colored flags indicate the different types of treatments the seedlings received. Part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, the Capoli Slough project is a side channel and island complex located on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River navigation channel in Pool 9, about five miles downstream of Lansing, Iowa. The site is in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Many of the natural islands bordering the navigation channel and extending into the backwater have eroded and many are disappearing. Erosion from wave action and main channel flows is reducing the size of the wetland complex, resulting in the loss of aquatic vegetation and the shallow protected habitats important for the survival of many species of fish and wildlife.

Lansing, Iowa - The St. Paul District, along with our partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Pool 9, and students from Lansing, Iowa middle school and DeSoto, Wis, high school, spent Earth Day 2016 planting 500 red oak seedlings on one of the recently completed islands in Capoli Slough in Pool 9 of the Upper Mississippi River. The group also implemented a trial to determine effectiveness of fertilizer and deer repellant tablets on seedling growth and survival. The different colored flags indicate the different types of treatments the seedlings received. Part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, the Capoli Slough project is a side channel and island complex located on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River navigation channel in Pool 9, about five miles downstream of Lansing, Iowa. The site is in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Many of the natural islands bordering the navigation channel and extending into the backwater have eroded and many are disappearing. Erosion from wave action and main channel flows is reducing the size of the wetland complex, resulting in the loss of aquatic vegetation and the shallow protected habitats important for the survival of many species of fish and wildlife.

Lansing, Iowa - The St. Paul District, along with our partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Pool 9, and students from Lansing, Iowa middle school and DeSoto, Wis, high school, spent Earth Day 2016 planting 500 red oak seedlings on one of the recently completed islands in Capoli Slough in Pool 9 of the Upper Mississippi River.

Bulldozers move dredge material to create islands in the Mississippi River as part of the Capoli Slough Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project.

Bulldozers move dredge material to create islands in the Mississippi River as part of the Capoli Slough Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will celebrate the completion of the Capoli Slough Islands Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project during a public ceremony at public boat launch in Ferryville, Wisconsin, May 13 at 11 a.m.

The ceremony will include remarks from representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources, Ferryville Village President, Friends of Pool 9, contractors and Congressman Ron Kind’s office. The winners of the recent “Name the Islands” contest will also be announced.



The 2,000-acre Capoli Slough Island project is located in lower Pool 9 of the Upper Mississippi River near Lansing, Iowa. This habitat project was completed as a cooperative effort of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wisconsin and Iowa Departments of Natural Resources and the public.

The project was planned, designed and constructed under the authority of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program and included building nine new islands and protecting 10 other islands to restore habitat diversity. The islands were built with material excavated from the main channel and from within Capoli Slough, which created deeper areas for improved fish habitat, especially during winter months. The project will slow continued degradation and enhance fish and wildlife productivity by protecting this valuable complex.

The nearly 600 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the Corps’ Fiscal Year 2015 $100 million budget, nearly 1,600 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $155 million to the national economy. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

 

 

-30-

Website: http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/usace.saintpaul

Flickr:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/usace-stpaul/

YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/usacemvppao

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StPaulUSACE |  @StPaulUSACE



The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District

– Celebrating 150 years of service to the Upper Midwest –

1866-2016


Release no. 16-037