The day started with orientation sessions to familiarize participants with data collection and recording and vegetation identification. Afterwards 20 crews headed out on the Mississippi River to sample a total of 296 points.  - FWS photo by Cindy Samples

 On July 31st of this year, 60 staff and volunteers from six agencies and one university converged on Pool 6 of the Upper Mississippi River to sample submersed vegetation as part of an Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee effort. 

Twenty boats, vegetation rakes, transparency tubes, and field guides also arrived.   After receiving orientation to data recording, the sampling procedure, and vegetation identification 20 crews went out to sample about 15 points per crew along the 14-mile stretch of river.

Some of the information being relayed to data recorders may have sounded like the beginning of the old preschooler show “Romper Room,” but with very strange sounding names.  The person raking vegetation gazed out over the first sampling area on the water saying “I see Elodea, Sagittaria, Nelumbo… oh, and there’s a little bit of Ceratophyllum,” and then proceeded to rake through the area to determine the density of the submersed vegetation in that particular spot. This was repeated five more times around the boat. The water clarity was also determined before moving on to the next point.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, Army Corps of Engineers, Minnesota DNR, Wisconsin DNR, Iowa DNR, and University of Wisconsin – La Crosse all participated in the day’s effort.  Over half the personnel were Service staff and volunteers from seven different offices in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa and the Service also provided nine boats.  Jon Sobiech, Forester with the La Crescent, MN Corps of Engineers Office commented “Not only are we getting valuable information, but it’s great working with our various partners in a setting other than a meeting room.”

Similar efforts were completed in different pools in 2005 and 2006 by the Veg Ad Hoc group of the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee which is made up of a number of partners including the Service.  The group was interested in determining the submersed aquatic vegetation condition in various pools of the Mississippi River.  In particular, they wanted to focus on those pools not monitored by USGS’ Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP).  The Veg Ad Hoc group decided to monitor two pools on two different days by gathering as many boats and crews as possible.  The first two years pools 9 and 19 of the Mississippi River were surveyed then the group was ready to move to two new pools in 2007.

At the same time, the Water Level Management Task Force of the River Resources Forum was planning a drawdown in Pool 6 but had very little information on the natural resources in that pool. Previous drawdowns in other pools included monitoring submersed and emergent vegetation using LTRMP protocols, the same protocols being used by the Veg Ad Hoc group.  The Task Force requested the Veg Ad Hoc group consider monitoring Pool 6 in 2007 in order to get pre-drawdown submersed vegetation information to compare to post-drawdown vegetation.  It was a perfect fit.

Four agencies have also committed resources to reviewing and entering the data and efforts are being made to get funding for analysis.  Through the participation of the various partners, a relatively large effort for one agency to fit into a tight schedule has turned into a manageable effort when divided among the agencies.