Pleasant Creek Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project

Rock Island District

Pool 13, Upper Mississippi River Miles 548.7 - 552.8, Jackson County, Iowa, Congressional District: Iowa - 1

Partners

• USFWS
• IADNR

Description

The Pleasant Creek Wildlife Closed Area is a 2,530-acre floodplain bottomland consisting of wooded areas interspersed with small lakes and sloughs. All project site lands were acquired as part of the Corps of Engineers’ 9-Foot Channel Navigation Project. Management responsibility was subsequently transferred, via cooperative agreement, to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The USFWS currently manages the area as a unit of the Savanna District of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

 A series of spring and fall floods, coupled with higher pool levels, has resulted in increased turbidity and sedimentation with associated loss of aquatic vegetation and deterioration of waterfowl, other migratory birds, and aquatic mammal habitat.

Quick Facts

• Approximate Acres: 2,350 (Source: DPR)
• Congressional District: Iowa - 1
• State(s) Covered: Iowa
• Land Ownership: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Management Agency: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Management Authority: Refuge 

Features

• Build interior closure dike to create moist soil management unit (MSMU).
• Improve water control capabilities by developing a water control plan and installing a well.
• Protect selected reaches of perimeter levee.

• Plant three acres of mast producing trees.

Milestones

• A streamlined Definite Project Report was completed in August 2000
• MVD approval was received in March 2001
• Contract award occurred in August 2001
• Construction was completed in September 2002
• On August 22, 2003, the Corps of Engineers, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Iowa Department of Natural
• Resources, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Pleasant Creek Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project in Jackson County,
• Iowa, to celebrate the completion of the project.
• The Operation and Maintenance Manual was completed in June 2006.
• Performance monitoring continues.