Habitat Restoration: Delayed Until 2022

To our members and community, 

Read the ACOE’s Project Feasibility Report & Integrated Environmental Assessment here. Additional information is available on our website.

The highly anticipated habitat restoration project near Bay City, Wisconsin almost made it through 2020 unscathed. But it is unfortunate now that the start date for construction has been pushed back until the spring of 2022. More than six years of work has gone into bringing this project to fruition, beginning with our advocacy in 2014. Needless to say, we share your frustration. 

This past August, Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance (LPLA) attended the River Resources Forum - an interagency meeting for the Upper Mississippi River - where our partners projected to start construction next summer (2021). Over the last few months, a new timeline was put together to account for some unanticipated challenges. In short, our selection as 1 of 10 projects nationwide to be included in a federally funded pilot program has complicated planning efforts due to unclear implementation guidelines. The global pandemic has further reduced staff capacity within the Corps of Engineers. The good news is that once the design and engineering work is finally complete, we will have more federal dollars funding local restoration. 

Assuming no further delays, the project is set to move forward in the spring of 2022. You can be sure that we will be watching closely the process over the next year to ensure all funds raised by LPLA (totaling $867,500) can be used as intended within the appropriate timeline. You can help by contacting your U.S. Representative to express your support for the project and ask them to protect against any additional delays:

 
 

LPLA’s leadership has paved the way for restoration to proceed by removing and mitigating obstacles (read: The Path to Habitat Restoration). Our ability to obtain the endorsement of local municipalities, state and federal legislators and our partner agencies show the irrefutable value of having a local voice about the river. We will continue as that voice. In the meantime, there is work to be done and we look forward to sharing the details of our strategic plan with you in early 2021. Thank you for helping us shape the future of Lake Pepin. 

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Rylee Hince

Executive Director, Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance

rylee@lakepepinlegacyalliance.org | 630-806-9909

Hay Creek: restoration efforts have made it a top-level trout stream

Of the five Minnesota streams that drain directly into the Mississippi River Lake Pepin watershed (MRLP), Hay Creek is likely the best known. With its abundant brown trout population, one-hour proximity to the Twin Cities, and multiple easements creating easy public access, Hay attracts both local and metro-area anglers, who can easily stop by for an afternoon of casting. Restoration efforts over the past several decades have bolstered both the quality of its fish habitat and its correlating popularity.

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Bullard Creek: upland water storage limits erosion, but its sediment still impacts Wacouta Bay

Bullard Creek is a coldwater trout stream and one of the smallest creeks in the Mississippi River-Lake Pepin watershed. Like others, it is considered impaired for high levels of e-coli and is vulnerable to precipitation runoff and erosion. A long legacy of conservation efforts focused on water storage has protected Bullard from major erosion problems and the stream is considered to be in good condition overall. Sediment concentrations meet water quality standards, but it still carries sediment to Wacouta Bay, an area at the head of Lake Pepin that is also impacted by sediment from the Mississippi River via the Minnesota River.

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Red Wing graduate reflects on Lake Pepin's far-reaching importance

Jayden Jech graduated from Red Wing High School in 2019 and is currently pursuing a degree in Biology and Environmental Studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Over the last two years, he completed a high school and college internship with the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance. Learn what Jayden discovered about Lake Pepin this past summer, how it connects to what he observes along the coast of Florida, and what it all means for his future aspirations!

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Wells Creek: a dynamic stream with many trout, but rising sediment concerns

Wells Creek flows into Lake Pepin and the Mississippi River after passing through Frontenac State Park in Minnesota. Naturally dynamic, its flow and course have exhibited big changes over time. It runs through erosive terrain where sediment flows easily and is exacerbated by a century+ of agricultural land use. Its trout populations have been successfully re-established, but sediment concerns are rising again. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is now poised to designate Wells as impaired for aquatic life due to excess sediment.

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Low Water Uncovers Sediment Problems

In a year defined by lows, Lake Pepin water level is no exception. This year’s drop in water level is somewhat dramatic because it comes on the heels of last year’s record high water, which together, illuminates the sedimentation problem in Lake Pepin. High water pushes sediment to the lake and low water uncovers it, along with a slew of transportation issues. The Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance (LPLA) responded to recent boat groundings by visiting affected areas and discussing channel maintenance with the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE).

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Gilbert Creek: now proposed as exceptional water body

Gilbert Creek is a small trout stream that flows through northern Wabasha County, cuts across the easternmost corner of Goodhue County, and enters Lake Pepin and the Mississippi River just north of Lake City, MN. In 2011, it was listed as an impaired tributary due to elevated E-coli and poor fish populations and habitat. Since then, the fish populations and habitat have improved remarkably.

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The Path to Habitat Restoration in Lake Pepin & the Upper Mississippi River

For decades, many people have yearned to see Lake Pepin benefit from restoration via the dynamic Upper Mississippi River Restoration program. But the dream has been thwarted largely because the area is not federally owned. So, unlike projects on federal lands, the Lake Pepin restoration requires a substantial local funding contribution, a non-federal sponsor to manage the area after construction, and the complex coordination of numerous project stakeholders—all formidable challenges. LPLA has instrumentally paved the way for restoration to proceed through its hard work to remove or mitigate obstacles. Its leadership and accomplishments showcase the irrefutable value in having a local voice for the river.

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Water protection efforts proceed in Miller Creek, even as E. coli situation baffles

Miller Creek is one of several small tributaries flowing into Lake Pepin out of the Mississippi River-Lake Pepin (MRLP) watershed. Originating about five miles southwest of Lake City in northern Wabasha County, it meanders northeast for several miles then turns east near County Hwy 9, entering Lake Pepin about a half mile south of Lake City. Its 11,000+-acre watershed includes an upland landscape of gently rolling croplands and pastures and a downstream landscape that drops steeply through forested valleys and grasslands. Like several other MRLP tributaries, Miller Creek is a designated cold-water trout stream. Also like others, in 2012 it was listed as impaired by fecal coliform bacteria, specifically E. coli.

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For more than half a century, our family lived off the fruits of the lake. That’s why this is personal.

Our mobile app, SPAVE is designed to help consumers give more to the causes they care about, while at the same time empowering nonprofits to generate new revenues without spending precious overhead. We invite you to join us. Together, we’ll accelerate LPLA’s mission to improve water quality, habitat, and accessibility in Lake Pepin. Find more information here.

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Continuous Living Cover: The new way forward

Most of our current water quality issues (40% of Minnesota waterways are impaired), including the accelerated disappearance of Lake Pepin, can be traced back to this one fundamental change in land use. That’s why scientists, water advocates, and farmers are excited about a new cropping strategy that gets to the “root” of the problem.

Continuous Living Cover (CLC) is the use of diversified crops, including new perennial and winter annuals, to provide ground cover—and hopefully, profits—throughout the entire year.

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A Lifetime Protecting Lake Pepin: Dave Smith Member Profile

For generations, people have been sounding the alarm about Lake Pepin’s sedimentation. The alarm has been ringing for so long that a new concern is whether or not we are still hearing it. For too many, it is easy to shrug one’s shoulders at the muddy Minnesota River as it discolors the Mississippi River just upstream of Lake Pepin. “It’s been like that my entire life,” we’ve heard old-time river users say. But the fact is— time doesn’t make it right. If anything, it simply means that change is long overdue.

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(AUDIO) Waiting on the Wind: Time, Memory and a River Journey on Lake Pepin

by John van Vliet

In the morning, as I point my sailboat’s slender bow out past the breakwater at the Lake City Marina, the old diesel engine putt-putt-putting below my feet, there is no wind. Ampersand, my vintage 38-foot sloop, wrinkles her own reflection across the flat-calm steel-gray surface of the broad Lake Pepin. Six miles to the east, I can make out the rooftops of the town of Pepin; to the north, the tiny village of Stockholm lies nestled in a shadowed fold of the high limestone bluffs. The calm of mornings like this belies the wind at noon.

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