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The Great Rivers Partnership was
launched with a generous gift from
Caterpillar Inc., through its
foundation. It is part of many efforts
at The Nature Conservancy to
advance freshwater conservation
around the world. Visit
nature.org/freshwater for more
information.
February 2009
News and Updates
Brazil
Training Course is Expected
to Improve Forest Restoration
Efforts in Brazilian Cerrado >>
China
U.S. Geological Survey and
Nature Conservancy to
Participate in Third
Yangtze Forum >>
United States
Conservationists and
Farmers: Working Together to
Improve Water Quality in
the Mississippi >>
In the News
News from the world‘s great
rivers
Conference Alert
March 10-12, 2009:
Living with Floods —
From Science to Policy,
University of Iowa,
Iowa City, Iowa
March 12, 2009:
Emiquon Science
2009: Rebirth of Emiquon,
Dickson Mounds Museum,
Lewistown, Illinois
New Collaborative Effort Launched
to Restore the Mississippi River
In December, The Monsanto Company and its partners —
The Nature Conservancy, Iowa Soybean Association, Delta
Wildlife and The National Audubon Society — launched an
initiative to improve water quality and wildlife habitat in the
Mississippi River Basin.
The 2,320-mile-long Mississippi River is the third largest river
system in the world and provides habitat for thousands of fish,
birds and other wildlife. Its basin contains some of the most
productive soil on Earth and is at the heart of the nation’s
agricultural economy.
The partners will work with farmers to implement conservation
projects that help reduce nutrient and sediment movement from
agricultural fields into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of
Mexico. Too much sediment in streams can cover fish spawning
beds and increase the river’s flow rate, while elevated nutrient
levels can cause algal blooms that rob the water of its life-giving
oxygen. Best conservation practices will be shared with
conservation and agriculture groups, government leaders and
others interested in the health of the Mississippi.
More >>
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March 16-22, 2009:
5th World Water
Forum: Bridging Divides for
Water, Istanbul, Turkey
July 12-17, 2009:
First Triennial Symposium for
the International Society of
River Science,
St. Pete Beach, Florida
July 20-24, 2009:
3rd National Conference on
Ecosystem Restoration,
Los Angeles, California
August 10-13, 2009:
Visions of a Sustainable
Mississippi River: Merging
Ecological, Economic, and
Cultural Values,
Collinsville, Illinois
Pictured Above: Wetland tour at
Franklin demonstration farm in the
Mackinaw River watershed, Lexington,
Illinois. © Timothy T. Lindenbaum/TNC
Great Rivers is the electronic update of
the Conservancy's Great Rivers
Partnership. Please forward story ideas,
events or announcements to
charrington@tnc.org.
Gretchen Benjamin accepts an award from Lt. Colonel Michael F. Clarke, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, in November 2008 for her many contributions to conservation of
the Mississippi River. © Doug Blodgett/TNC
Q & A with Gretchen Benjamin
Assistant Director, Upper Mississippi
River Program
A native of Winona, Minnesota, Gretchen Benjamin joined
The Nature Conservancy in November 2008 as Assistant
Director of the Upper Mississippi River Program. She will help
organize the Conservancy’s efforts to develop a basin-wide
strategy that recognizes the river’s ecological and economic
value. Gretchen will also serve as the primary liaison to partners
including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service.
Q: You’ve been working on the Upper Mississippi River for
almost 25 years. Can you share a few highlights with us?
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A: I got started on the Mississippi in 1984 when I went to work
for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as a
biologist doing fisheries research. Over time, my research
expanded to include long-term monitoring of water quality and
aquatic vegetation. It was a great way to get to know the river
and understand how it functioned as a whole system. When I
moved from being a field biologist to being a river manager, one
of the highlights was working with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers on water level management. We started with smallscale drawdowns in the backwaters in 1997 and eventually
progressed to large-scale drawdowns, first on Pool 8 and later
on Pool 5. Seeing this restoration tool reinvigorate aquatic plants
like arrowhead, river bulrush, wild rice and, to a lesser extent,
submersed aquatic vegetation like wild celery and water star
grass has been a rewarding experience. This vegetation is so
critical for fish, waterfowl and other wildlife.
More >>
Copyright © 2009 The Nature Conservancy
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New Collaborative Effort Launched to Restore the
Mississippi River (continued)
“We’re proud to work on this bold conservation initiative which we believe offers a sustainable vision
for agricultural landscapes wherein farmers can support our world’s growing needs for food, fiber and
fuel in ways that not only preserve water quality, but also support diverse and abundant wildlife
populations,” said Jerry Steiner, executive vice president at Monsanto.
As part of the new initiative, The Nature Conservancy will ramp up its efforts in four watersheds in the
Upper Mississippi River basin: the Root River in southeastern Minnesota, the Pecatonica River in
southern Wisconsin, the Boone River in northern Iowa and the Mackinaw River in central Illinois. The
Conservancy will work with farmers and other local partners to study and implement conservation
techniques that most effectively reduce nutrient and sediment concentrations in streams by reducing
runoff from agricultural fields. Through this effort, the Conservancy will determine which techniques
work best in a larger, sub-watershed system and communicate its findings to crop producers to help
guide their farm stewardship decisions.
The Iowa Soybean Association will conduct research on paired, micro-watersheds in two areas: the
Boone and Raccoon rivers. The group will also coordinate conservation outreach in those watersheds
including monitoring, measurement and evaluation of environmental outcomes.
“Farmers are emerging in key leadership roles through their investments, and by participating in the
planning and implementation of practices that perform environmentally. It’s our goal to support them
and help them make meaningful progress,” said Roger Wolf, director of environmental programs at
the Iowa Soybean Association.
Delta Wildlife will work with crop producers to install Best Management Practices (BMPs) on working
farms in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta region of the Lower Mississippi Valley. BMPs will be designed to
reduce the movement of nutrients and sediments into streams while improving fish and wildlife habitat
and water conservation. Results will be monitored, assessed and shared broadly with farmers across
the region’s rural landscape.
Audubon will raise awareness of how people can be good stewards of nature in their own backyards.
The project will focus on promoting specific individual actions to enhance water quality and habitat for
birds and other wildlife. Audubon will broadly communicate these best practices throughout the
Mississippi River watershed.
Monsanto will commit more than $5 million to support these projects and work with its four partners to
share data generated from all projects with its agricultural customers. The company will also
encourage on-farm adoption of management practices that contribute to water quality improvements.
“This new effort by Monsanto will help show how we can make farming and conservation in the
Mississippi River Basin more compatible so that nature and people alike benefit from improved water
quality and enhanced wildlife habitat,” said Michael Reuter, who oversees The Nature Conservancy’s
Great Rivers Partnership, which was created to help advance conservation of the world’s major river
systems, including the Mississippi.
Back to top
Q & A with Gretchen Benjamin
Assistant Director, Upper Mississippi River Program (continued)
Q: How do you think your work with The Nature Conservancy on the Mississippi River will be
different from your previous experience?
A: I’m still figuring that out. But thanks to some early exposure to the conservation work the
Conservancy is doing in the tributary watersheds that feed into the Mississippi, I’m pleased to see the
connections the Conservancy is making between the river and its watershed. Working in both places
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is a huge undertaking, but leadership along these lines was definitely needed, and I’m glad the
Conservancy has gotten involved. The organization has formed important partnerships with
landowners, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and county agencies in the watersheds and
with state and federal agencies on the river and its floodplain, and I hope to help deliver steady,
dependable funding to all of this innovative work.
Q: Speaking of funding, you’ve been a longtime advocate for the Navigation and
Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP).
Why is it critical that Congress appropriate the
funds that have been authorized under
this program?
Noteworthy
The Conservancy is working with a
coalition of navigation, state government
and conservation partners to advocate
that Congress appropriate funds to
implement the Navigation and Ecosystem
Sustainability Program. One of the
coalition’s recent initiatives was a letter to
the editor promoting “green infrastructure”
projects that would grow the economy
while restoring the ecological health of the
Mississippi River and easing traffic
congestion by improving navigation.
A: For years, we’ve done a lot of good monitoring
and restoration work on the Upper Mississippi,
including building islands, dredging backwaters
and restoring side channels, with funding from the
Environmental Management Program. But on a
system the size of the Mississippi, it just hasn’t
been enough to do what’s really needed to restore
lost habitat, and some things like pool drawdowns
couldn’t be funded through that program. NESP
provides us with some exciting new possibilities
including the ability to reconnect the river with its floodplains. For example, under NESP, the Army
Corps, conservation groups and others will be able to buy land behind a levee and either remove the
levee or partially breach it to restore that vital interchange of water between the river and
its floodplain.
Q: Why is consistent funding for NESP so critical?
A: On the monitoring side, we need consistent, long-term data to make good restoration decisions. If
we have to stop collecting data for a year because we don’t have the funding, we miss important
seasonal changes on the river. On the restoration side, we are talking about large, complex projects
that take lots of planning up front to make them happen. So you need to know the money will be there
when they’re ready to go. It’s similar to a large highway project. You’ve done all the planning and are
into your first year of construction and then the funds suddenly aren’t available for a year or two and
you have to put the project on hold. It’s the same on the Mississippi River but less noticeable to the
public than an unfinished highway. The Conservancy has developed a strong partnership with the
navigation industry, the five Upper Mississippi states and other nonprofits to advocate for consistent
appropriations for NESP, and I look forward to assisting with this effort in every way I can.
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Letter to the Editor from Minnesota’s union carpenters and
The Nature Conservancy, January 2009
Invest in the Mississippi River
With the current economic crisis, Minnesota’s union carpenters, through the Waterways Council, join
The Nature Conservancy in urging Congress to create immediate construction jobs by investing in the
Mississippi River System. Restoring the Mississippi and Illinois rivers will grow the nation’s economy
and create green jobs that help address the region’s long-term economic, energy and
environmental problems.
Congress authorized a groundbreaking dual-purpose plan for these rivers in the NavigationEcosystem Sustainability Program last year. It now has a chance to put skilled tradesmen and
tradeswomen to work on “green infrastructure” projects that restore the ecological health of the
Mississippi River and ease traffic congestion by improving navigation.
Ecosystem enhancement projects under NESP would provide a healthier river by restoring native
plants, fish and wildlife, benefiting people who enjoy and rely upon a healthy ecosystem. They would
also minimize opportunities for invasive species to wreak havoc on native species as well as our
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water quality and supply.
NESP projects also represent infrastructure investments that help ensure the efficient movement of
coal, cement, petroleum products, steel, agricultural products and other commodities.
Moving more than 625 million tons annually, worth over $70 billion, our river system provides answers
to our transportation, energy, and economic challenges. A single barge tow moves the same capacity
as 1,050 trucks for dry cargo, or 2,160 trucks for liquid cargo. As many as 35,000 jobs would be
created for each $1 billion investment, according to federal government estimates.
Creating jobs that restore the environment and enhance commerce is a sound investment.
Kyle Makarios, Political Director
North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters
Vince Shay, Upper Mississippi River Program Director
The Nature Conservancy
Back to Q & A with Gretchen Benjamin
Training Course is Expected to Improve Forest Restoration Efforts
in Brazilian Cerrado
In late 2008, the Conservancy trained 25 rural
technicians in the São Lourenço watershed on
forest restoration techniques. The technicians
are forestry and agricultural engineers who work
with private landowners on land restoration.
The training course is part of the Conservancy’s
ongoing effort to provide landowners with the
knowledge and resources they need to restore
forests and other native vegetation along
streams in the São Lourenço watershed.
The watershed is located in the Brazilian
Cerrado, which is the world’s most biologically
rich savanna. Restoring forest habitat along
streams in the Cerrado region will help protect
water quality in local streams and downstream
in the Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater
wetland. At 68,000 square miles, it is almost
10 times the size of the Everglades.
Illustration from a Nature Conservancy manual on low-cost
restoration techniques that shows a fenced area (left) where native
vegetation is recovering in the absence of clearing and cattle
grazing versus an unfenced area (right) where most of the native
vegetation is gone. © Esalq/Usp
The course consisted of four weeks of theory and practical application during which technicians
learned: 1) the basic concepts of forest restoration, 2) how to use satellite photo interpretation and
field checking to identify vegetation cover and create maps of restoration areas, 3) how to create a
restoration plan, 4) restoration techniques including identification of existing seed banks and seed
nursery establishment and 5) monitoring techniques to evaluate restoration progress.
To support this training, the Conservancy published a manual on low-cost restoration techniques
including the need to control factors that cause degradation such as cattle grazing near streambanks
and the use of fire for pasture management.
The need for this type of restoration training was identified after a study, which was conducted by the
Restoration Ecology Lab at the University of São Paulo, showed that 40 percent of the riparian forests
in the 1.8-million-acre São Lourenço watershed have been destroyed and 17 percent of the legal
reserves have been converted for agricultural use. Legal reserves — required by Brazilian legislation
on all rural properties — are lands set aside by landowners and maintained in a state of natural
vegetation. In the Cerrado, at least 20 percent of each property must be protected as a legal reserve.
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The study is part of the Great Rivers Partnership Sustainable Cerrado, Agriculture and Conservation
project, which is designed to protect freshwater habitats in an important agricultural region. The
Conservancy has mapped more than 2,000 rural properties in the São Lourenço watershed using
satellite images and is working with landowners and partners to restore at least 370,000 acres of
riparian forests and legal reserve areas in the watershed.
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U.S. Geological Survey and Nature Conservancy to Participate in
Third Yangtze Forum
The Third Yangtze Forum will take place on April 20-21, 2009, at Pudong Shangri-La in Shanghai,
China. This forum, hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Government and co-organized by the
Changjiang Water Resources Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources, is part of an ongoing
effort to engage society in protecting, managing and developing the Yangtze River in a way that
ensures a healthy river for future generations.
This year, The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Geological Survey will co-sponsor a “Great Rivers”
sub-forum. Five USGS scientists have been invited to participate including Dr. Susan Haseltine,
Associate Director for Biology, who will talk about USGS strategies and research related to climate
change; Dr. Gregory J. Smith, USGS National Wetlands Research Center Director, who will talk
about the Delta Research and Global Observation Network; and Dr. Michael Jawson, USGS Upper
Midwest Environmental Sciences Center Director, who will talk about the Navigation and Ecosystem
Sustainability Program for the Upper Mississippi River.
The theme of the Third Yangtze Forum is “Yangtze • Estuary • Cities,” and the proposed sub-forums
include Climate Change and City Safety, Estuary Management and Ecological Protection, Integrated
Management in River Basins and Great Rivers.
Representatives from several governmental authorities in China, including the Ministry of Water
Resources, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the State Forestry Administration and
11 riparian provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, have confirmed their participation.
International guests from more than 20 countries representing governments, institutions, corporations
and non-governmental organizations will also participate.
The Yangtze Forum is the most prominent conference in China that focuses on policy and science
issues for the dual purpose of sustainable development and environmental protection of the Yangtze
River. It is supported by the Chinese government and open to the general public including academia
and non-governmental organizations.
For more details, please visit the Forum’s website.
Back to top
Conservationists and Farmers
Working Together to Improve Water Quality in the Mississippi
Across the Upper Mississippi River basin, Nature Conservancy scientists are discovering new ways
to improve the quality of water running from farmland into the Mississippi River and, ultimately, the
Gulf of Mexico.
Read more about how wetlands and bioreactors placed in corn and soybean fields in Illinois and
Minnesota are helping improve water quality across the system, from the smallest tributaries all the
way to the Gulf.
View a slide show of innovative new techniques to reduce agricultural runoff into the Mississippi River
and get more details from the lead scientist working on one of them.
Back to top
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In the News
China
Tibetan Plateau in Peril
Far Eastern Economic Review
Political advisor suggests closer monitoring to protect world's highest wetlands
Xinhua News Agency – China
China plans water conservation, control projects along Yangtze River
Xinhua News Agency – China
United States
Biologists concerned dredging Savannah River could affect prehistoric fish
The Beaufort Gazette – Beaufort, South Carolina
Great Rivers
African Fish Need a Little Electricity for Love to Bloom
The New York Times
Lao Dams Muddying the Waters
The Phnom Penh Post – Cambodia
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