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Pumping System Brings Back Midwest Wetlands

Posted by: Nate Berg

13 April 2007 - 5:00am

A navigation channeling project started in the early 1900s destroyed more than 300,000 acres of midwest wetlands. Now, a new pumping system on the Mississippi River is reviving the wetlands and rejuvenating their wildlife populations.

"A 'state-of-the-art' pump station along the banks of the swirling Mississippi will now allow state conservation biologists to draw water from that river and pump it to one of seven new wetland pools at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area."

"Two submersible pumps have been operating for a few months, and the newly created wetlands have drawn large flocks of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds."

"Development of a 9-foot-deep navigation channel from St. Louis to Sioux City, Iowa, began in the early 1900s and contributed to the loss of more than 300,000 acres of wetlands, flood plain forests, sandbars and other wildlife habitat in Missouri, Hoskins said."

Full Story: Man-made devices re-create wetlands
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 2007
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