The Lower Mississippi River The River and the Land Between Cairo, Ill., and the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River and its tributaries meandered for millennia depositing deep soils and creating a vast alluvial plain. Winter and spring floods historically spread across the terrain, nourishing bottomland forests and a remarkable assemblage of plants and animals. Over time, this land has undergone dramatic changes. Virgin forests were harvested to provide needed lumber, making way for valuable crops. The region s forested wetlands have been reduced from 24 million acres to less than 4.4 million. To prevent flood damage and enhance riverine transportation, waterways were leveed and straightened and dams were built. These and other changes altered seasonal flooding and water flow patterns. A new voice emerges. As natural habitats diminished along the lower Mississippi, some species disappeared and many others declined. Thus, balancing the needs of human beings and the needs of the environment became a growing concern. Now, the Lower Mississippi River Program, made up of seven Nature Conservancy state chapters and many partners, is implementing conservation practices at local sites while simultaneously working on region-wide issues, such as water flow and quality and the need to reconnect and enlarge fragmented bottomland hardwood forests through reforestation.
What s to Gain? Fresh water. Though making up only three-tenths of 1 percent of all water found on Earth, fresh water is an essential factor in human well-being and in the planet s intriguing diversity of non-marine life. Groundwater recharge. States in the Mississippi River s lower basin are among the nation s leaders for producing rice, soybeans and cotton. Fresh water from underground and surface sources has boosted crop production, thus benefiting the regional economy and the global food supply. Wildlife habitat. As its bottomland forests have been reduced to about 20 percent of their historical range, the cougar and the red wolf have disappeared from the lower Mississippi region and the remaining numbers of American black bear are perilously low. Fisheries. The freshwater ecosystems found along the Lower Mississippi River and its tributaries are home to 240 fish species and some 40 known species of mussels. Water quality. Every terrestrial species requires fresh water human beings included and depends for survival upon the healthy functioning of natural systems to provide an adequate freshwater supply of suitable quality. The Might of the Mississippi Storied Past, Hopeful Future To gain a sense of the Mississippi River s might, one needs only to stand on New Orleans downtown riverfront and watch huge, oceangoing vessels make the river s wide and sweeping bend as they head upstream. Like the world s other great rivers, the Mississippi shapes the land, influences the history and infuses the culture along its path. At some 24 million acres, its alluvial plain is the nation s largest. The establishment of navigation on the Mississippi and its major tributaries helped build the nation, providing avenues for regional crops and goods to reach the world. Culturally, the river influenced great American writers, musicians and naturalists. Working at scale, big river conservation Now the time is at hand for the Mississippi basin to come full circle by providing for thriving commerce and for healthy, great river ecological functions. The Nature Conservancy, working with numerous governmental and private-sector partners, is pursuing a comprehensive effort along the Mississippi s entire 2,350-mile length to restore the health of freshwater systems and habitats, thus conserving the plants and animals that reside there, while promoting sustainable economic practices. The work of the Conservancy s Upper Mississippi River Program, created in 2001, and its Lower Mississippi River Program, established in 2005, is linked to the organization s Great Rivers Partnership, an effort focused on the world s largest and most important rivers. The global Great Rivers Partnership enables new ecological science and innovative methods tried and deemed successful in any river basin to be exported to benefit other such basins around the planet, thus brightening prospects for Earth s fresh water and its related resources.
M iss issi ppi Mississippi River Alluvi Arkansas Protecting The Big Woods In the 550,000-acre Big Woods, the Conservancy is leading a project to restore a 2.5-mile ditched section of Benson Creek. The project will reduce sedimentation in Bayou DeView where the ivory-billed woodpecker was rediscovered in 2004 and restore habitat for native plants and animals. With funding from the Wetlands Reserve Program of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service s Private Stewardship Grant program, the project includes the planting of more than 13,000 hardwood seedlings on 440 sur rounding acres. MISSOURI Springfield ack Bl Ozarks ttl Li Bl ac e k 7 ite Wh 5 Bla c k 5 ou D eview 8 Ba y Ca che ARKANSAS Arkansas White Memphis Ouachita Mountains Little Rock 9 10 Tennessee Sediments in the Hatchie Mi ssi ssip pi 5 Co ou r Ba Yazoo B ay th o ew lom 11 ua O Texarkana c hi ta Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain 12 Shreveport MISSISS Monroe 13 Jackson Tensa s hit a LOUISIANA Vicksburg 14 Ou a c The Hatchie River has never been dammed nor channelized. Thus, naturally occurring floods along its path still support bottomland forests, canebrakes, swamps, sloughs, rivers and lakes that host more than 100 fish species, 35 mussel species and about 250 species of resident and migratory birds. As part of a five-year plan to protect those habitats, the Conservancy is seeking to reduce sediment flow into the Hatchie, much of which originates in the basins of previously channelized tributaries. 4 15 TEXAS R ed 16 17 Lafayette Beaumont n 18 M Bay e ch Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes Baton Rouge e ou T West Gulf Coastal Plain hafalay a Atc The 1.1 million-acre watershed of Bayou Bartholomew, which has never been channelized, is home to more than 125 species of fish and at least 40 species of mussels, many of them considered globally or regionally rare. While working with partners such as the Bayou Bartholomew Alliance and the Louisiana State University Cooperative Extension Service, the Conservancy is seeking to restore marginal agricultural lands, to encourage ecologically sustainable forestry and to protect habitat by establishing a model conservationeasement program. East Gu Coastal P Vermil lio Arkansas, Louisiana Bayou Bartholomew iss Lake Pontchartrain issi ppi New Orle G u l f o f Me x i c o N W Northern Gulf of Mexico 0 0 S 25 25 50 50 75 10
1 2 ILLINOIS 6 Reelfoot Lake l Plain Obion Hatchie 3 Cr. Bayou de Chien Jackson Tennessee Ohio KENTUCKY Clarksville Interior Low Plateau TENNESSEE Mississippi Lower Yazoo Basin Containing one of the few remaining large-remnant bottomland forests in the Mississippi River alluvial plain, the Yazoo River s lower basin of more than 1.1 million acres provides key habitat for black bears and many songbird species, as well as species of particular concern such as the alligator snapping turtle, pallid sturgeon, interior least tern and rock pocketbook mussel. The Conservancy is seeking to promote reforestation of marginal farmlands adjacent to critical natural areas and is working with the Corps of Engineers to replicate aspects of the basin s natural water patterns. Action Steps for the Lower Mississippi River Working at local, state, regional and national levels with public agencies, private landowners, corporations and non-government agencies, the Lower Mississippi River Program is working to: Lower Mississippi River Upper Program Priority Sites East Gulf1 Horseshoe Lake astal Plain 2 Sand Ridge Lands 3 Obion Creek- Bayou de Chien 4 Mingo 5 Big Woods ans IPPI lf lain E 75 0 kilometers 6 Donaldson Point/ Reelfoot LakeTuscaloosa 7 Black River 8 Chickasaw-Lower Hatchie River 9 St. Francis National Forest 10 Pine City 11 Dahomey 12 Bayou Bartholomew 13 Lower Yazoo River 14 Tensas River 15 Rodney 16 Cat Island Hattiesburg 17 Atchafalaya River 18 Cypress Island 100 miles Mobile Legend Mississippi River Alluvial Plain ecoregion Federal land National Wildlife Refuge State Wildlife Management Area Conservancy project area Conservancy project area (Big Woods) City County boundary State boundary Interstate highway U.S. highway Louisiana For the Birds and Bears Contained within the approximately 1.5 million acres of the Tensas River Basin are nine important bird conservation areas and all the habitat in northeastern Louisiana known to be occupied by a threatened population of black bears, including sites deemed important to the bears recovery. Reforestation of key tracts through government-based incentive programs and the development of a plan to restore the area s natural freshwater cycles are among the Conservancy s goals in the basin. Arkansas Parks and Tourism Louisiana Cat Island/Tunica Hills Complex Bounded by the Mississippi River and the Tunica Hills, this site includes annually flooded bottomlands and an upland, beech-magnolia-holly forest with many plant species typical of the southern Appalachian Mountains. The Conservancy is encouraging area landowners to take advantage of the federal Wetlands Reserve Program, which offers financial incentives for taking marginal agricultural lands out of production and placing them under a conservation easement that becomes part of the owner s title to the land. Improve water quality by working toward best management practices that reduce water-polluting runoff and sedimentation, through the use of demonstration sites, expanded incentives and targeted outreach Advance compatible forestry through reforestation of private lands and developing carbon sequestration projects throughout the region Restore altered hydrology by working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other natural resource managers to stabilize river channels and reestablish the natural flow and function of key Mississippi River tributaries Restore forests and corridors of forested land at scale, acreage great enough to sustain native species and the natural ecological processes that ensure their survival, by supporting federal incentive programs for forest and wetland protection, acquiring and restoring land and providing technical assistance to public and private land managers
Steering the Ecological Current through science, with partners During the past three decades, increased conservation efforts have begun steering the health of the Mississippi River and its floodplain towards a more positive course. Still, the region s environmental challenges remain substantial. Stream alterations have limited and prevented seasonal floods that supplied freshwater to critical habitats. Increased sedimentation and run-off of excess nutrients has reduced water quality, particularly in streams and lakes where adjacent wetlands are no longer present to filter the fresh water flows that renew them. Declining groundwater resources are casting a cloud over the future of rice production. And, in some areas, unsustainable harvesting of trees and the conversion of marginal lands to agriculture fields, has resulted in small, fragmented bottomland hardwood forests that are less suitable as habitat for many species. Forestry is no longer a powerhouse of the alluvial plain s economy. The region s economic welfare and the health of its ecology history has made clear are inextricably bound. Coordinating for conservation These and other challenges occur with consistency across the Mississippi s vast plain. Deciding to address them regionally as well as at individual sites, the Conservancy s Lower Mississippi River Program coordinates the work of its state chapters in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee, as well as with scientists from around the nation. Joining the Conservancy in various aspects of this effort are such partners as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forest Service, other branches of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state wildlife agencies, private businesses, legislators, farmers, landowners and other nonprofit organizations. As an essential part of ensuring that the ecological current in the lower Mississippi region continues its positive turn, the Conservancy is applying measurable scientific research to water management policies by developing standards and approaches that can be implemented to meet human needs for water while simultaneously supporting healthy freshwater ecosystems. Sustainable Rivers Project Solid science and cooperation with partners can be seen in the Sustainable Rivers Project, in which the Conservancy has partnered with the Corps to implement innovative methods of water management. This approach seeks to modify water flows through Corps-operated dams to aid downstream ecosystems. In the lower Mississippi valley, the Conservancy and the Corps are undertaking this effort on the White and Little Red rivers in Arkansas and the Black River in Arkansas and Missouri. Rest and Residence For Traveling Birds The bottomland forests of the Mississippi River s alluvial plain play an important role in the life cycles of millions of birds. More than 265 migratory bird species use this region to recuperate as they make long, difficult journeys between nesting grounds in Canada and the northern United States and winter territories in the southern United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. Other birds, though, aren t merely passing through. Arriving in spring, they stay over summer, building their nests and raising their young in swampy woodlands of the lower Mississippi region. Notable among these are increasing numbers of swallow-tailed kites, colorful neo-tropical songbirds, such as prothonotary and cerulean warblers, and several species each of herons and egrets. Each winter, the region s forests and associated habitats host the world s largest wintering population of mallards and large numbers of other duck and geese species. Some communities actively market recreational opportunities and special events related to the abundant birdlife along the Lower Mississippi, thereby gaining economic benefits by attracting visiting birders and outdoor enthusiasts.
Conservation That Pays Ecosystem Services and the Return of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Forested wetlands provide valuable services to humanity they store flood waters, keep pollutants and sediment out of rivers, and remove carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) from the atmosphere. But since nature doesn t send us a bill, it s hard to realize just how valuable these services are to our economy and way of life. The Nature Conservancy, Duke University, USDA National Agro-forestry Center, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey and other partners are working together to determine the monetary value of the services wetlands in the lower valley provide. By looking at nature s services in economic terms, conservation can be seen as a business investment that protects the bottom line. The results of this work will help the Conservancy and its partners create voluntary markets that compensate landowners for ecosystem services that wetlands provide. Much like existing carbon-trading markets, where businesses offset carbon emissions by purchasing credits from non-emitters, the currency of a wetland services market might be nutrient reduction in the Mississippi River or flood mitigation in its plain. The Conservancy will apply ecosystem services numbers to influence U.S. Farm Bill policy development and other conservation initiatives. The Conservancy is also pursuing a parallel course to evaluate the impacts on biodiversity associated with ecosystem services at restored wetlands. In the Big Woods of Arkansas, the recent rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker indicates a strong correlation between the two. The Delta s Lord God Bird Perhaps the greatest symbol of hope for the Delta is the 2004 rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in North America which was thought to be extinct in the U.S. for more than six decades. The bird was rediscovered in east Arkansas at the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in 1986 with the transfer of land from the Conservancy to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Along with providing critical habitat for the ivory-bill, the Big Woods are vitally important for the survival of numerous endangered species, 108 species of native fish and more than 265 species of birds. Sparked by new sightings and mounting evidence, the search for the ivory-bill was expanded to states throughout the South. To learn how you can support the efforts of the Lower Mississippi River Program, phone (501) 614-5077, e-mail lmr@tnc.org or contact a Conservancy chapter office in your state using the information below. Arkansas 601 N. University Ave. Little Rock, AR 72205 Phone: (501) 663-6699 Fax: (501) 663-8332 arkansas@tnc.org Illinois 301 SW Adams St, Suite 1007 Peoria, IL 61602 Phone: (309) 636-3300 Fax: (309) 673-8986 illinois@tnc.org Kentucky 642 West Main Street Lexington, KY 40508 Phone: (859) 259-9655 Fax: (859) 259-9678 kentucky@tnc.org Louisiana P.O. Box 4125 Baton Rouge, LA 70821 Phone: (225) 338-1040 Fax: (225) 338-0103 lafo@tnc.org Mississippi 964 N. Jefferson St. Jackson, MS 39202 Phone: (601) 713-3355 Fax: (601) 982-9499 Missouri 2800 S. Brentwood Blvd. St Louis, MO 63144 Phone: (314) 968-1105 Fax: (314) 968-3659 missouri@tnc.org Tennessee 2021 21st Ave. South, Suite C-400 Nashville, TN 37212 Phone: (615) 383-9909 Fax: (615) 383-9717 tennessee@tnc.org 100% Post Consumer Fiber 2007 The Nature Conservancy MRCSO1382