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Appendix A: Restoration Case Studies
Pages 379-518

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From page 379...
... Several case studies show that citizen participation (through either private citizen groups or public interest groups) in restoration activity was instrumental in beginning and continuing the restoration effort (i.e., Merrimack River, Upper Mississippi River, Hackensack Meadowlands, and Illinois River)
From page 380...
... First, seriously contaminated water supplies were restored at great expense in 1900 by diverting sewage from Lake Michigan to a river basin (see Illinois River case study, Appendix A)
From page 381...
... and undoubtedly contributed to degraded water quality in the Mississippi River (Turner and Rabalais, 1991~. Lake Michigan ~ Wl IL IN Ml ~ ,~ FIGURE A.1 Lake Michigan, the third largest of the Laurentian Great Lakes, is the only one to lie completely within the United States.
From page 382...
... _ In 4 2 _ O 1925 1950 1975 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 Year FIGURE A.2 Computer simulation of total phosphorus loads to Lake Michigan from 1800 to 1970 (adapted from Chapra, 1977~. Source: Reprinted, by permission, from Schelske (1988~.
From page 383...
... In summary, the case history for Lake Michigan provides important lessons about the limitations of restoration and other types of remedial action. Benefits resulting from restoration efforts include improved water quality and rehabilitation of fishery resources.
From page 384...
... fist _ ~Mysis \ ~ \ ' i| Pontoporeia ~ Zooplankton Am ,~ , ~ytoplankton| FIGURE A.3 Major exotic and native components of the food web of Lake Michigan. Source: Reprinted, by permission, of Kitchell and Crowder (1986~.
From page 385...
... The contribution from human waste increased rapidly until 1900, when sewage from Chicago was diverted to the Mississippi drainage by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Without this diversion, phosphorus loading to and phosphorus concentration in Lake Michigan probably would have increased exponentially, following the pattern observed in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
From page 386...
... The first of these is the inherent problem of obtaining a representative sample from a lake the size of Lake Michigan (22,400 square miles)
From page 387...
... , ~ EXOTIC SPECIES FOR lAKE MICHIGAN In this century, the food web of Lake Michigan has been almost completely reconfigured by a combination of exotic species invasions and deliberate stocking of sport fishes (Christie, 1974~. The ancestral offshore fish stocks were dominated by lake char and coregonines, although 114 native fish species representing 21 families were known from the lake.
From page 388...
... After 1960, smelt populations declined, whereas alewife populations boomed, culminating in the infamous die-offs that littered Lake Michigan beaches in the late 1960s. Control of the sea lamprey was followed by highly successful stocking of exotic coho and chinook salmon in Lake Michigan.
From page 389...
... Lake Michigan is also vulnerable to further invasions of exotic species, with consequences that are largely unpredictable. The recent invasion of the exotic zooplankter Bythotrephes cederstroemii has had a profound effect on the planktonic community structure of Lake Michigan (Lehman, 1988~.
From page 390...
... The atmosphere is a major source of PCBs to the ecosystem, and atmospheric concentrations of PCBs in the Lake Michigan airshed did not decline during the 1980s (Manchester-Neesvig and Andren, 1989~. Also, poorly contained waste materials continue to add PCBs to ground water and surface water systems draining into Lake Michigan.
From page 391...
... Fish and Wildlife Service, and the water quality and fisheries management agencies of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The next decade will reveal whether the interdisciplinary and interagency efforts needed to reduce PCB levels in Lake Michigan fish can be implemented.
From page 392...
... 1985. Distribution and characterization of PCBs in Lake Michigan water.
From page 393...
... At that time, the lake was characterized as having abundant rooted aquatic vegetation and very clear water until rooted aquatic plants were uprooted by a hurricane. A week after the hurricane the first plankton bloom was reported.
From page 394...
... However, in the fall of 1947, soon after a severe hurricane had uprooted large quantities of aquatic plants, the first plankton bloom was observed. The dense beds of rooted aquatics were never reestablished, probably because they could not compete with planktonic algae in the nutrient-rich waters.
From page 395...
... "Other bizarre schemes were considered but not seriously," according to Schneider and Little (1973~. The governor of Florida assigned complete responsibility for a 1970 restoration of Lake Apopka to the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Commission.
From page 396...
... Currently, the Saint Johns Water Management District is beginning a feasibility study on using marsh restoration to improve water quality in the lake (Lowe et al., 1989; Lowe et al., in press)
From page 397...
... 1978. Limnological and water quality studies on Lake Apopka and downstream lakes in the Upper Oklawaha River Basin.
From page 398...
... (Figure Aid. The Atchafalaya begins at the confluence of the Red River with a distributary that receives about 30 percent of the flow from the Mississippi River and the Red River.
From page 399...
... : ,~ . ._ , ~' ~ .Atchafalaya River Levee ' -- I ' ~Moroanza Fbodwav .~, ;, w , ~ , -- GIVER : East Atchafalaya ~ , Floodway Guide Levee ;3c = TON ROUGE chafalaya Floodway _¢ 'it N ~ " ,j,%~ AN CITY ATCHAFALAYA ~ BAY FIGURE A.5 Map of Atchafalaya River Basin.
From page 400...
... The Mississippi River builds, then abandons, deltaic lobes in an orderly cycle: six lobes in the last 8,000 years (Penland and Boyd, 1985~. If left to itself, the Mississippi River would have switched most of its water and sediment flow from its present course to the Atchafalaya River, which is 307 km closer to the sea and therefore a much more hydraulically efficient channel (van Heerden and Roberts, 1980~.
From page 401...
... These easements should forestall wholesale clear-cutting and agricultural development (Robert Campos, Project Manager, New Orleans District Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, personal communication, May 7, 1990 to C
From page 402...
... Fish and Wildlife Service, also a member of the AMG, made public its own plan to purchase the entire lower basin for the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge. The five public meetings, instead of focusing comments on all facets of the AMG plan, degenerated into protests against the "land grab." The public meetings were attended by 1,000 people and generated more than 4,000 written responses.
From page 403...
... In 1990, COE and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service updated earlier plans to modify management units in 11 hydrologically distinct areas within the Atchafalaya floodway.
From page 404...
... The Mississippi River is at a critical juncture in the natural delta switching cycle: if left alone, it would rapidly shift its flow of sediment and water to its Atchafalaya distributary, which provides a shorter and hydraulically more efficient route to the sea than does the present main channel past New Orleans. As a result, the Atchafalaya is enlarging its channel, filling its existing floodplain and backwaters with sediment, and building a new delta at the downstream end.
From page 405...
... 1989. Mississippi River fisheries: A case history.
From page 406...
... , but it is also a national fish and wildlife refuge system, totaling 280,000 acres arranged like a corridor, maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Upper Mississippi River Basin Association, n.d)
From page 407...
... Fish and Wildlife Service and the five states bordering the Upper Mississippi River. Although the master plan recognized that sediment loading from tributaries created major problems in the mainstream rivers and recommended that the already well-established programs for soil erosion control be accelerated, the Environmental Management Program focuses on restoration projects located within the floodplain of the mainstem rivers where there was no preexisting program (Upper Mississippi Basin Commission, 1981; U.S.
From page 408...
... Louis Scale: 500Km FIGURE A.6 Map of the six subbasins of the Mississippi River and an enlargement of the upper Mississippi subbasin (No.
From page 409...
... As of March 15, 1991, 6 habitat projects had been completed, 6 were under construction, and 41 were in various stages of design and review, out of several hundred that were submitted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the five states bordering the Upper Mississippi River.
From page 410...
... Fish and Wildlife Service and the COE. Results from the study reaches are expected to document broad upstream-downstream and year-to-year trends in water quality, fish and invertebrate populations, and vegetation.
From page 411...
... Upper Mississippi River Basin Association, St.
From page 412...
... (see Figure A.6~. The upper Illinois River was connected to Lake Michigan as early as 1848 by the Illinois and Michigan Canal, but the major link, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, opened in 1900, and the total distance from Chicago to the confluence with the Mississippi just above St.
From page 413...
... 1 1 Transferring Pollution from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River In 1854 and 1885 major rainstorms caused untreated sewage to be carried into Lake Michigan, where it entered water intakes and caused outbreaks of cholera and typhoid (Injerd, 1987~. In response to these epidemics, the flow of the Chicago and Calumet rivers was reversed, and sewage and Lake Michigan water were conveyed away from the lake and into the Illinois River via the Sanitary and Ship Canal, starting in 1900 (Injerd, 1987~.
From page 414...
... Restoration of Water Quality in the Illinois River In the late 1920s and early 1930s, most of the larger cities along the Illinois River constructed sewage treatment plants; and so dissolved oxygen levels improved, and aquatic plants and fish populations recovered (Starrett, 1972~. From the 1940s to the 1970s, municipal waste treatment capacity and technology did not always keep up with population growth: low oxygen levels occurred in both upper and middle reaches of the river in the mid-1960s, for example (Mills et al., 1966; Starrett, 1971~.
From page 415...
... Geological Survey (USGS) on the most recent 12 years of data available from 10 stations on the mainstem Illinois River.
From page 416...
... Cropland accounts for 70.4 percent of the land area of Illinois, and so changes in farming practices have a major impact on streams and rivers (Herman, 1987~. In the Illinois River basin, row cropland increased about 67 percent between 1945 and 1986, at the expense of pasture, forage, and small grains, which better protect the soil from erosion (Bellrose et al., 1979~.
From page 417...
... Channelization extended to the marshy or forested deltas where tributaries enter the Illinois River, so these areas no longer trap sediments before they enter the river (Roseboom et al., 1989~. Finally, approximately half the floodplain of the Illinois River was drained and leveed for agriculture (Bellrose et al., 1983; Thompson, 1989)
From page 418...
... (1990) described the probable sequence of events in the Illinois River from 1955 to 1960: increasing turbidity reduced light penetration and photosynthesis that, in turn, weakened or killed submerged aquatic plants growing in the deepest parts of the shallow backwaters.
From page 419...
... The Heartland Water Resources Council focuses on managing and restoring the river and its lakes around Peoria. The Illinois River Soil and Water Conservation Task Force, which was formed in 1985, received a public relations boost for its programs as a result of the conference.
From page 420...
... improved data collection, including hydrographic surveys, water quality monitoring, and sediment source identification; (3) installation of streambed and bank erosion controls on four of the tributaries that contribute the most sediment to the Illinois River above Peoria; (4)
From page 421...
... Selection of techniques was based on an experimental, long-term study conducted by the Illinois State Water Survey and the Illinois Department of Conservation on a tributary to the Illinois River, Spoon River, and one of its tributaries, Court Creek (Roseboom and White, 1990~. Tree cuttings are used at all of the sites on the three tributaries to establish vegetative cover and stabilize the banks (Condit, 1989~.
From page 422...
... Based on these experiments, earlier projects on the Upper Mississippi River, and standard waterfowl management practices, nine major rehabilitation projects have been proposed for the lower 200 miles of the Illinois River. The field experiments are described below, and the design features of the major projects are discussed briefly.
From page 423...
... These projects are part of the Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Subprogram of the Environmental Management Program for the Illinois and Upper Mississippi rivers. Advertisements for construction bids for the project in Peoria Lake are to be issued in December 1991 and include a barrier island (the material dredged for the island will also deepen a small portion of the lake)
From page 424...
... In the meantime, the high turbidity and sediment concentrations must be factored into the design of restoration projects in the mainstem river and its backwaters. This usually means that not all functions of the river-floodplain system can be restored simultaneously.
From page 425...
... Does the answer change if the herbivorous grass carp, Ctenopharyugodon idella, invades the Illinois River from the Upper Mississippi River and establishes reproducing populations? Is there some threshold surface area that has to be protected from waves or revegetated before plants begin to exert sufficient control over sediment resuspension and turbidity to maintain themselves or expand outward from planted areas (i.e., what levels of "treatment" will trigger rapid regeneration of plant beds)
From page 426...
... The federally supported habitat rehabilitation projects can be installed only on public land, which is in short supply along the Illinois. Although the General Plan for the Environmental Management Program on the Upper Mississippi River System (U.S.
From page 427...
... Summary The Illinois River was an unusually productive floodplain-river ecosystem, until impacted by municipal and industrial waste loading from Chicago and sediment loading resulting from land use changes associated with agriculture (drainage and leveeing of floodplains, channelization of tributaries, removal of riparian forests, and excessive soil erosion)
From page 428...
... Based on these successful results, artificial island breakwaters are being planned for four of nine restoration projects that are part of the federally funded Environmental Management Program for the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Material to build the islands will be dredged from the bottom, thereby re-creating deep areas that may be used as wintering areas by some fish.
From page 429...
... The greatest uncertainties about the Illinois River restoration are whether thresholds exist for rapid regeneration of submersed aquatic plants, which are important biological mediators in the ecosystem, and if thresholds exist, how long it will take to reach them and what resources will be required. The most encouraging aspect is that the coalition of private landowners, advocacy groups, advisory groups, private businesses, and local, state, and federal agencies appears committed to a long-term, comprehensive restoration program that embraces accelerated soil erosion control on the uplands, bank stabilization and habitat improvement in tributaries, and rehabilitation of the ma~nstem river and its associated backwaters and bottomland lakes.
From page 430...
... 1980. Projected effects of increased diversion of Lake Michigan water on the environment of the Illinois River Valley.
From page 431...
... 1989. Soil erosion, sediment yield, and deposition in the Illinois River basin.
From page 432...
... 1975. Environmental inventory and assessment of navigation pools 24, 25, and 26, Upper Mississippi and Lower Illinois rivers.
From page 433...
... A documentary videotape produced by the State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality also reinforces this view with highly laudatory remarks about the river's condition (State of Oregon, Department of Environmental Quality, 1989~. A department spokesperson recently stated that the river today is as clean and trouble free as in the 1970s.
From page 434...
... \ In ct u' n In In ( ' .= I ~C`
From page 435...
... . Major tributaries are the Middle Fork Willamette, McKenzie, Santiam, Molalla, Pudding, and Clackamas rivers (State of Oregon, Department of Environmental Quality, 1988a)
From page 436...
... Release of cool bottom waters from impoundments at Lookout Point-Dexter Reservoir complex on the Middle Fork often reduces the river's summer temperature above RM 120, but elsewhere has little effect (USGS, 1977~. History of Pollution Control Efforts The river basin was first settled by people of European ancestry in 1812 (Weber, 1989~.
From page 437...
... Progress toward clean water came slowly. It took 8 years after the establishment of the State Sanitary Authority for the first municipal primary wastewater treatment plant to be built on the river, and it was not until 1957, 10 years later, that all municipalities on the river had primary treatment (U.S.
From page 438...
... The standards also prescribed minimum dissolved oxygen levels for different reaches of the mainstem, with a minimum of 5 mg per liter in the lower reach. To meet the new standards, the state gave grants to municipalities for sewage treatment plants and tax credits to industry for pollution control equipment.
From page 439...
... This provides an opportunity to have inactive agricultural lands put into the conservation reserve program. The second problem affecting the greenway is timber harvesting.
From page 440...
... . The state has an overall water quality management plan as well as the Oregon Clean Water Strategy, a comprehensive geographic approach to meet clean water goals and fulfill requirements of the federal Clean Water Act of 1977 and the federal Water Quality Act of 1987 (State of Oregon, Department of Environmental Quality, 1988c)
From page 441...
... Sources of these problems are land "surface erosion and disturbance of riparian vegetation and stream banks" caused by logging, farming, landslides, and surface runoff from roads (State of Oregon, Department of Environmental Quality, 1988a)
From page 442...
... 442 o Cal o No o ~o As; hi A)
From page 444...
... 444 o .~ Cat o o U)
From page 445...
... 445 o o · ~ · ~ I · r ' _ ' ~ · _~ · ~ ~ ~ ~5 ~ ~5 C; US _ ~J ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~O ~ O ~ ~ ¢ C:, ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ =0 .E ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ¢ ¢ in in ~ ~ in~ ~ ~ ¢ ~ ~.
From page 449...
... Among the specific water quality problems cited by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in the River are turbidity, low dissolved oxygen, bacteria/viruses, solids, erosion, low flow, sediment, pesticides, and plant growth.
From page 450...
... Kengla, Department of Environmental Quality, Portland, Oregon, personal communication, 1990~. The most dangerous form of dioxin- 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD)
From page 451...
... Some river miles today are not meeting water quality standards with respect to dissolved oxygen and dioxin (Lydia Taylor, Division Administrator, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, personal communication, 1990~. "Degradation has set in but the level of intensity is so small it would be difficult to measure," according to T
From page 452...
... "Some of the anadromous fish stocks are in real trouble" due to competition from introduced exotic species, including bass, bluegills, catfish, pumkinseed, and strains of nonindigenous salmonids (Max Smith, Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, personal communication, 1990~. Interbreeding between wild and hatchery fish and overharvesting of wild adults in mixed-stock fisheries are also problems (State of Oregon, Department of Fish and Wildlife, 1988~.
From page 453...
... THERMAL IMPACTS ON FISH Referring to research efforts by the COE to devise ways to overcome thermal disturbances to the river resulting from reservoir releases, Morse (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland, Oregon, personal communication, 1990)
From page 454...
... The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has recently received $25,000 from the Oregon legislature to form a technical steering committee to produce a work plan for a comprehensive River Water Quality Study. This study would reassess the current condition of the river, determine its capacity to accept waste, project the effects of further growth in the basin, and revise the current river management plan (State of Oregon, Department of Environmental Quality, 1990~.
From page 455...
... The river restoration effort has not yet been successful in maintaining natural fish migration routes or in re-creating the predisturbance structure of the native fish community, species by species, to its previous percentage composition. Dams serve not only as barriers to migration of organisms within the river, but also as sediment barriers and obstructions to flooding of riparian areas, which once returned nutrients and sediment to the land.
From page 456...
... 1976. Methodology for River Quality Assessment with Application to the Willamette River Basin, Oregon.
From page 457...
... rises south of the town of Whitehorn in Northern California's Humboldt County and flows 62 miles northwest to the Pacific Ocean, which it meets 8 miles south of Cape Mendocino (Mattole Restoration Council [MRC]
From page 458...
... ~ 0 Thorn Junction A\ \oWhitehom FIGURE A.8 Mattole River Basin. SOURCE: Reprinted, by permission, from MRC (1989~.
From page 459...
... Newly eroded soil and rocks filled in the river channel and pools, silting in spawning gravels used by native king and silver salmon. The result was channel migration, flooding, bank erosion, loss of riparian vegetation, and disappearance of riverside farmland (MRC, 1989; House, 1990~.
From page 460...
... and who initiated erosion control, reforestation, salmonid habitat repair, and habitat enhancement. After meeting informally from 1979 to 1985, the Mattole Restoration Council was incorporated in 1985 to conduct active watershed restoration, to make long-range plans, and to oversee their implementation.
From page 461...
... Federal and Local Agency Roles For the past 5 years, the MRC in cooperation with the State Coastal Conservancy and the Redwood Community Action Agency has been conducting annual cross-sectional surveys of river channel depth at 14 sites to monitor sediment movement in the river (Focus, 1990~. During the same period, the MRC has been conducting a study of the estuary in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management and, since 1983, has been studying a major landslide in cooperation with the California Department of Water Resources, the Redwood National Park, and the California State Coastal Conservancy (Focus, 1990~.
From page 462...
... Silver salmon have also reoccupied the North Fork of Honeydew Creek from 1989 to 1991. The population is thought to be self-sustaining in Lower Mill Creek, but introductions are continuing in Honeydew Creek, Squaw Creek, Thompson Creek, Bear Creek, and the mainstem of the river have also had introductions of king salmon.
From page 463...
... 1989. Elements of Recovery: An Inventory of Upslope Sources of Sedimentation in the Mattole River Watershed with Rehabilitation Prescriptions and Additional Information for Erosion Control Prioritization.
From page 464...
... The Merrimack River Basin is the fourth largest in New England and has a maximum length of 134 miles and a maximum width of 68 miles. Of the 5,010-square-mile basin area, 3,810 square miles lie in New Hampshire and 1,200 square miles in Massachusetts.
From page 465...
... Citizen Power Local citizen groups have been very effective at helping to restore the Merrimack River. For example, the Merrimack River Watershed Council, begun in 1977, is an interstate organization dedicated to the protection of the Merrimack River.
From page 466...
... The council has helped people realize that the Merrimack, despite 100 years of neglect and abuse, is a natural resource of critical value to the economic and social well-being of the region. The Merrimack River Watershed Council has been key to managing in the public interest the increasing demands on the river and to achieving equitable resolution of upstream and downstream and out-ofbasin conflicts.
From page 467...
... A stretch of 36.4 miles of the Merrimack River from its start in Franklin to northern Manchester in New Hampshire meets water quality standards for Class-B waters, with coliform concentrations of 240 ppm or less per 100 ml, drastically reduced total organic loadings, levels of suspended solids reduced by one-third, and a much higher dissolved oxygen content (U.S.
From page 468...
... In addition, the cooperation and financial assistance of private industry have helped bring the Merrimack River to health. According to the October 1988 bulletin of the Merrimack River Watershed Council, current policies affecting the water resources of the Merrimack include the following: · The Clean Water Act of 1977 and its recent reauthorization, which reflect strong commitment to support water quality programs that improve or maintain water resources at fishable and swimmable quality.
From page 469...
... As the Department of Environmental Services Commissioner told the Merrimack River Watershed Council recently, "It is clear that there is sufficient minimum flow for usage of the Merrimack as a principal water supply source for south central New Hampshire in the future" (Hanley, 1990~. References and Recommended Reading Brochures and bulletins from the Merrimack River Watershed Council, 694 Main Street, West Newbury, MA 01985.
From page 470...
... It focuses on the channel stabilization and fishery problems encountered and the processes used to solve them. Before repair work began in 1987, target sites on both branches of -the Blanco River were broad, shallow, and braided with no pools.
From page 471...
... Origin of the Problem: Improper Flood Control A major difference between the Blanco and the San Juan River is that the Blanco was channelized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE)
From page 472...
... The active bank erosion contributed high sediment loadings to the stream, which in turn led to bar building and other types of sediment deposition. Agricultural land along the river was made unusable and agricultural facilities, including a barn, were threatened.
From page 473...
... Previous to Rosgen's stabilization work, the Blanco River project sites were so wide that the floodplain had been eroded away, and no land was adjacent to the active channel. Cost and Benefits Restoration costs on the Blanco, about $30 per lineal foot of stream, were half those on the San Juan River project, because equipment operators had been trained during the earlier project and were able to work more efficiently (D.
From page 474...
... Project Permits The Blanco River project design was reviewed by the following agencies prior to the granting of a construction permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-217~: the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the U.S.
From page 475...
... Geological Survey, and interpreting over time the behavior of stable and unstable channel forms and types. Rosgen then created a design based on existing flow and other variables similar to the natural stable form for that flow.
From page 476...
... Willows in this project were transplanted by front-end loaders from an adjacent terrace located about 150 yards from the river channel to the river banks. Cuttings were also taken from willows adjacent to the river, utilizing the same species of willows.
From page 477...
... The Kissimmee River basin, the enormous lake, and the Everglades to
From page 478...
... _, Hi Run / \\ / f Lake Okeechobee \ FIGURE A.11 Kissimmee River basin and Lake Okeechobee area. SOURCE: Reprinted by permission of the South Florida Water Management District, n.d.
From page 479...
... Restoration of the Kissimmee River would be a centerpiece of the effort to restore the KissimmeeOkeechobee-Everglades ecosystem. This case study describes the Kissimmee River Restoration Demonstration Project, begun in the late 1980s, and assesses that experiment in the context of (1)
From page 480...
... More hurricane-induced flooding in the 1940s in the upper Kissimmee lakes basin and throughout South Florida led the state of Florida to request additional federal flood control help in the Kissimmee River basin (Dreher, 1986~. The COE responded to the state's desire for flood control and developable land by proposing the excavation of a canal from Lake Kissimmee to Lake Okeechobee to replace the Kissimmee River (U.S.
From page 481...
... and is only 5 percent of what it was before drainage efforts began in the nineteenth century (Brumbach, 1990~. Ecological Effects of the Kissimmee River Channelization The channelization of the Kissimmee River alone drained 34,000 acres of Kissimmee floodplain wetlands, wiping out 5 billion small fish and 6 billion shrimp (Loftin et al., 1990; Toth, 1990~.
From page 482...
... Lehtinen sued both the South Florida Water Management District and the state's Department of Water Resources for allowing this. The suit was suspended for 2 months in February 1991 as part of a state-federal agreement to work together on a water cleanup plan (New York Times/AP, 1991; Schneider, 1991~.
From page 483...
... After 7 years of restoration studies, the coordinating council in 1983 issued a report that called for dechannelization of the Kissimmee River along with other measures (Dreher, 1986; Toth, 1991~. The report, a milestone in the restoration effort, specifically recommended that the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)
From page 484...
... and was a highly significant step toward restoration of the Kissimmee. Kissimmee River Restoration Demonstration Project The physical restoration work was conducted in Pool B of the canal and began with construction of three notched weirs (steel walls)
From page 485...
... DEMONSTRATION PROJECT RESULTS The water-level manipulations and increased flow through remnant river channels produced encouraging results. Whereas the demonstration project experiment by no means "restored the Kissimmee River," it did demonstrate that wetland vegetation and other wildlife would readily recolonize the reflooded areas, and that riverine ecosystems would respond favorably to resumption of natural flow regimes.
From page 486...
... A Loftin, former project manager, Kissimmee Alternative Plan Evaluation and Preliminary Design Report, South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, Fla., personal communication, April 24, 1991~.
From page 487...
... The fundamental challenge now remaining for Kissimmee restoration planners is to bring about the restoration of ecological integrity species composition, physical structure, and ecological functionsof the Kissimmee's riverine-floodplain system, while avoiding unwanted future flood drainage. Political Context The pivotal role played by former Governor Bob Graham and his staff in establishing and providing firm guidance to the Kissimmee River-Lake Okeechobee-Everglades Coordinating Council, in launching Florida's Save Our Everglades Program in 1983, and in lobbying federal officials for their support in protecting the Everglades illustrates the tremendous political power that a governor committed to ecological restoration can wield.
From page 488...
... A Loftin, former project manager, Kissimmee Alternative Plan Evaluation and Preliminary Design Report, South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, Fla., personal communication, April 24, 1991~.
From page 489...
... After years of studies and debates in Florida over what to do about the damage to the Kissimmee, a consensus emerged at the 1988 restoration symposium on what the specific goals and objectives for the Kissimmee River restoration ought to be. Reestablishment of the Kissimmee River ecosystem's ecological integrity emerged as the primary restoration goal.
From page 490...
... 4. Fill as much of the canal as possible without affecting flood control in the Upper Kissimmee River basin and at the outlet of the lower basin.
From page 491...
... Areas of Critical State Concern: A Mechanism for Encouraging Restoration The lower Kissimmee River basin along with the East Everglades area was one of the state's 12 designated resource planning and management areas under an amendment to Florida's Areas of Critical State Concern Program (Graham, 1984; Brumbach, 1990~. Each area was to have a resource and management committee under Chapter 380, Florida Statutes, to carry out tasks assigned to it.
From page 492...
... The Areas of Critical State Concern Program and the cogent directive given to the Kissimmee River committee are well worth study by resource managers interested in new institutional mechanisms for guiding complex restoration programs (Graham, 1984~. Current Status of the Kissimmee River Restoration Congress in 1990 agreed to appropriate another $6 million in federal funds for the Kissimmee restoration, bringing the total federal contribution to $12.3 million in addition to the $20 million put up by the state of Florida (Woody, 1991~.
From page 493...
... That role would be consistent with what some observers believe is COE's desire to be the environmental engineers of the 1990s. Conclusion The Kissimmee River Demonstration Project was the largest restoration project examined by this committee.
From page 494...
... 5. The South Florida Water Management District prudently had a much more extensive scientific peer-review process than many restoration projects have, although others, such as the Des Plaines River restoration project, had scientific peer review.
From page 495...
... Toth of the South Florida Water Management District for briefing it on ecological impacts to the Kissimmee River system and on restoration efforts, and for providing the committee with documents essential for understanding the situation. The committee also especially wishes to thank M
From page 496...
... Atlanta, Ga. A Detailed Report of the Fish and Wildlife Resources in Relation to the Corps of Engineers' Plan of Development, Kissimmee River Basin, Florida.
From page 497...
... Currently, along the lower Mississippi River, areas of bottomland hardwood forest still are being cleared for agriculture in tracts up to 12,000 ha at a time (Gosselink and Lee, 1989~. Disastrous floods of the Mississippi River in 1927 and 1929 led to massive government programs of levee construction and a myriad of other water control works.
From page 498...
... The Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge complex consists of five national wildlife refuges located on the Mississippi-Yazoo rivers alluvial plain. The total area is approximately 24,000 ha.
From page 499...
... Fish and Wildlife Service, and have wildlife and waterfowl values of major importance. One of the largest bottomland forest restoration projects is currently under way near Monroe, Louisiana, where 1,821 ha purchased by the state in 1984 are being reforested to create a corridor between the existing Russell Sage and Ouachita wildlife management areas.
From page 500...
... Other support for bottomland forest restoration results from the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, and the Environmental Protection Agency's policy of no net loss to wetlands. Scientific Basis Most bottomland forest restoration projects focus on techniques of planting and establishing forest species.
From page 501...
... suggest that bottom-land hardwood forests planted on abandoned farmland could become self-regenerating communities in 40 to 60 years. RESEARCH BENEFITS AND NEEDS Success criteria for evaluating wetland forest restoration projects in the Southeast are generally inadequately conceived.
From page 502...
... Smaller seeds are more susceptible to heat and dry soil. From a comparison of 4- to 8-year-old stands in the Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge, Allen (1990)
From page 503...
... Overall Evaluation Reforestation and restoration efforts are proving successful in reestablishing bottomland hardwood forests for commercial and wildlife habitat values (Haynes et al., 1988; Allen and Kennedy, 1989; Clewell and Lea, 1989~. A variety of forest establishment techniques have been employed, such as direct seeding of oaks and planting of seedlings of several bottom-land species.
From page 504...
... 1988. Reestablishment of Bottomland hardwoods within national wildlife refuges in the Southeast.
From page 505...
... Water Resources Development Act of 1986.
From page 506...
... , and some restoration programs have been initiated. Federal laws (e.g., the Clean Water Act of 1977 (P.L.
From page 507...
... Fish and Wildlife Service, 1990~. Twelve restoration projects were visited in Meeker County and six in Rice County.
From page 508...
... Fish and Wildlife Service. The service acquired the following rights: 1.
From page 509...
... Clean Water Act of 1977.
From page 510...
... SOURCE: Reprinted, by permission, of the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission, 1990.
From page 511...
... Galli, Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission, personal communication, 1991) , the commission usually monitors 500 to 600 development projects in the district at a time (HMDC, 1989b)
From page 512...
... Smith, Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission, personal communication, 1991~. This environmentally oriented activity was in keeping with the declaration, in the Act establishing the HMDC, that "the ecological factors constituting the environment of the meadowlands and the need to preserve the delicate balance of nature must be recognized to avoid any artificially imposed development that would adversely affect not only this area but the entire state .
From page 513...
... Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Marine Fisheries Service (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1982~.
From page 514...
... Army Corps of Engineers, 1982~. The Hartz Mountain project was allowed to proceed with the stipulation that the company would have to mitigate its impacts by construction of a 63-acre brackish marsh.
From page 515...
... Methods The mitigation site was sprayed with the herbicide RODEO by helicopter and later by hand-sprayer to eliminate the common reed. The site was then shaped and graded with Priestman variable counterbalanced excavators imported from England for the marsh work, because of their low ground pressure and ability to accomplish the very fine gradations in elevations necessary to successfully establish the elevation-sensitive cordgrass.
From page 516...
... Almost all the fish found at the control and mitigation site were mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) , an important secondary consumer in the eastern salt marsh food web, but their physical distribution was wider in the mitigation site, as was the case for zooplankton (TAMS, 1990~.
From page 517...
... However, as the Committee on Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems has pointed out elsewhere, river restoration involves more than water quality improvement and increased wildlife use. Also required are a return of ecological integrity, structure, function, and ecosys
From page 518...
... Lyndhurst, N.J. Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission.


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