Gardner Division (Long Island Division) Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project

Rock Island District

Pool 21, Upper Mississippi River Miles 332.5 - 340.2
Adams County, Illinois
Congressional District: Illinois - 18

Partners

• USFWS
• ILDNR

Description

The Gardner Division (formerly Long Island Division) Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project (HREP) is located 5 miles upstream of Quincy, Illinois, near the midpoint of Pool 21. Long Island Division is made up of several islands, of which Long, Shandrew, and Flannigan are the largest. The project area also contains a major backwater lake and several important side chutes—Canton, O'Dell, Smoots, and Shandrew. All project lands are in Federal ownership and are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as part of the Mark Twain National Wildlife Refuge.

Long Island Division is subject to yearly Mississippi River floods and is rapidly losing its valuable backwater areas and side chutes to siltation and vegetation encroachment. The project area also has one of the last high quality stands of bottomland forest in the middle reaches of the Upper Mississippi River.

The goals of the proposed project are to restore and protect aquatic, wetland, and terrestrial habitat for migratory birds, fish, and other wildlife. The following objectives have been identified to meet these goals: (1) reduce forest fragmentation, (2) increase bottomland hardwood diversity, (3) reduce island erosion, (4) increase habitat for overwintering fish, and (5) reduce sedimentation in side channels.

Quick Facts

• Approximate Acres: 6,300 (Source: Definitive Project Report)
• Congressional District: Illinois - 18
• State(s) Covered: Illinois
• Land Ownership: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Management Agency: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Management Authority: Refuge

Features

• Dredged 5,000 feet of O'Dell Chute and constructed an emergent closure structure at the upstream end of the chute.
• Protected  the shoreline and head ends of selected islands.
• Planted 67 acres of mast producing trees on the dredged material placement site on Long Island's eastern agricultural field.
• Constructed a rock chevron at the head of LaGrange Island using channel maintenance O&M funds.

Milestones

• The Definite Project Report was completed in December 2000.
• Construction was initiated in March 2001 and completed in September 2004.
• The Operation and Maintenance Manual was completed in June 2006.
• The Initial Project Performance Evaluation Report was completed in June 2003.
• Additional Project Performance Evaluation were reports were completed in 2004 and 2012.