E-Newsletter ■ June 2008

More wetlands would mean less flood damage

	The Army Corps uses sandbags and floodwalls to hold back the floodwaters in Hannibal, Missouri. TWI suggests a better way.

The Great Flood of 2008 has demonstrated yet again that we need a better way to manage our rivers and floodwaters. By replumbing our landscape, we’ve lost the rich wetlands and broad rivers that once held the seasonal deluges. Without wetlands to hold the rainfall, water can only rush downstream through the channelized Mississippi, where it cannot spill across its natural floodplain due to hundreds of federal and local levees. The water literally has nowhere to go—other than up and over the levees where it wreaks damages on crops and other development.

The Wetlands Initiative has been studying a solution for more than a decade—since the last “Great Flood” on the Mississippi in 1993. Our solution calls for restoring wetlands across the upper Midwest to store floodwaters.

Specifically, our study shows that if we could restore just one-quarter of our 100-year flood zone, we could greatly reduce flood damages. This would involve restoring 4 million acres of former wetlands that are now drained and used for farms or pasture on the 100-year flood zone in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. While this sounds like a lot of land, this is only about 22% of the 100-year flood zone in the five states and about 4% of the total land area of those states. In addition, we need to begin using the more than 2 million acres behind levees for flood storage during major flood events. By adding spillways to levees, we would be able allow floodwaters to enter the leveed areas in a controlled manner, without breaking the levee. This flood storage strategy is possible, but would require changes to our land use and subsidy practices. Rather than paying landowners to recover from damage after flooding, we need to develop mechanisms that pay landowners to receive floodwaters.

The Wetlands Initiative's nutrient farming strategy—in which farmers are paid to "harvest" nutrients from water—could also pay farmers and other landowners to store floodwaters on their floodplain land. The nation’s first nutrient farming pilot project is under development by the Wetlands Initiative on the Illinois River at Goose Pond, Illinois.

Engineers consider nutrient farming to solve hypoxia

The muddy, nutrient-contaminated water of the Mississippi (at left) pours into the Gulf, fueling excess algae blooms that deplete the oxygen. Photo by N. Rabalais.

In addition to addressing flooding problems, restored wetlands could be part of the solution to the growing “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the June issue of Civil Engineering, the magazine of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The low oxygen zone in the Gulf is fueled by excessive run-off of nitrogen and phosphorus from the Corn Belt, carried south by the Mississippi River. Recent  flooding in the Midwest is likely to only increase the amount of excess nutrients reaching the Gulf, adding to the dead zone.

“The only economic way to deal with this nutrient problem is to use wetlands,” said John Day, professor emeritus at Louisiana State University.

In the article, the Wetlands Initiative’s nutrient farming strategy was highlighted as a means to fund large-scale wetland restoration. Since 2000, the U.S. EPA and other federal agencies have called for reducing the size of the zone to less than 2000 square miles by 2015, yet it is predicted to be more than five times that size this summer, reaching all the way to the Texas coast.

“It’s not that we don’t know how to solve the problem,” Donald Hey, president of the Wetlands Initiative, said in the article. “We seem to not have the courage or the interest to come to grips with the problem. It’s time to start work on the solution.”

From Walden to Wall Street in Chicago

An Evening with the Wetlands Initiative
Thurs., October 16, 2008 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Arts Club of Chicago

Jim Levitt, acclaimed author of From Walden to Wall Street: Frontiers of Conservation Finance (Island Press, 2005), will be the guest speaker at the Wetlands Initative's annual Chicago dinner. The event will be held on Thursday, Oct. 16 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Arts Club of Chicago.

Our nation needs to embrace new ways of financing conservation, says Levitt, director of Harvard Forest’s Program on Conservation Innovation. Without innovation, we face a multi-billion-dollar funding gap over the next 40 years if we aim to protect our landscapes that provide sustainable resources, water, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities, says Levitt. In an era of widespread financial constraints, Levitt provides hope that we can address our mounting environmental concerns, if we harness creative solutions, such as nutrient farming.

This will be the Wetlands Initiative's third annual Chicago event--an evening for new and familiar friends to gather, explore new ideas, and enjoy cocktails and dinner at the historic Arts Club of Chicago, home to contemporary artists for the past century. Plan now to attend.

Natural curiosities found at Dixon Waterfowl Refuge

This spring, nature has been on the defensive at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin & Hopper Lakes. On at least two occasions, TWI restoration ecologist Gary Sullivan has roused defensive behavior from the native wildlife.
First, the breeding killdeer (left) launched into his “distraction display” in early May. This member of the plover family is known for its distraction dance where it feigns a broken wing and hops away to lure the intruder away from the nest.
 


Sullivan also encountered a hognose snake with a good bluffing trick. After holding the snake to examine it closely (below left), Gary returned it to the ground, where it promptly rolled on its back, stiffened up, and played dead (right). When Gary tried to right the snake, it resisted, remaining rigid while the threat of Gary the intruder remained.
We invite you to come visit the wildlife and natural beauty at the refuge. The 2,600 acre  restoration site in Hennepin, Illinois, is open everyday. Public fishing (in boats only) is available every Friday and Saturday.

Welcome new partners

The Wetlands Initiative welcomes the Lumpkin Family Foundation, Cargill, Inc., and Lawrence Foundation as new partners in restoring wetlands. We also thank the Community Foundation of Central Illinois in Peoria for renewing its support of restoration at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge in 2008.

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When you give to the Wetlands Initiative, you help restore the wetland resources of the Midwest to improve water quality, provide wildlife habitat and biodiversity, and reduce flood damages. Thank you for your partnership with the Wetlands Initiative.