Why EMP? the Context for Restoration

Congress authorized the Environmental Management Program in 1986 because of what humans had done to the Mississippi River over the previous 120 years.  Navigation improvements, floodplain levees, a refuge and even early biological manipulations transformed the upper  Mississippi River=s physical and ecological character.  The 9-Foot Channel Lock and Dam system, largely completed in 1940, redefined the upper river from a constricted but free-flowing river into a series of reservoirs.  At first, the river seemed to rebound, but by the 1980s, many biologists feared the river’s health was collapsing.  This presentation provides the historical context for the EMP program and offers some lessons from the past that we should consider today as undertake our own manipulations of the Great River.