Congress authorized the Upper Mississippi River Restoration - Environmental Management Program (UMRR-EMP) in 1986 to help address ecological needs on the Upper Mississippi River System.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers administers the program, which emphasizes habitat rehabilitation with long-term monitoring and research.  The habitat rehabilitation component includes techniques such as dredging backwater areas and channels, constructing dikes, creating and stabilizing islands, modifying flow into channels and backwaters, and controlling water levels to address habitat needs.  The long-term monitoring component addresses status and trends of selected resources, conducts research on river processes and functions, develops products to help make resource management decisions, and maintains river information databases.  The Program is implemented through a partnership including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Geological Survey; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. Department of Agriculture; the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin; and various non-governmental organizations, business interests, and private citizens. 

UMRR-EMP was the first program in the nation to combine ecosystem restoration with scientific monitoring and research efforts on a large river system.  The Program has completed 54 habitat projects benefitting approximately 100,000 acres of aquatic and floodplain habitat and contributed significantly to our scientific understanding of this complex system through monitoring and research.  UMRR-EMP has served as a model for other river restoration and monitoring programs, both nationally and internationally. 

The objective of this symposium is to address two main questions:  (1) what have we learned, and (2) how have we affected the system?  Presentations will address program history and organization, development of desired future conditions, insights gained from monitoring, restoration designs and planning tools, ecological and social benefits realized, case studies of rehabilitation projects, and application of adaptive management.