Mississippi River Diversion Builds Land, Enhances Fishing Opportunities

October 29, 2024

Southern Louisiana’s Neptune Pass, which formed naturally during higher river flows since 2018, provides a real-world example of the benefits of sediment diversions for a healthy delta

Neptune Pass didn’t even exist six years ago.

Today, the newest connection between the Mississippi River and its fish and wildlife-generating marshes moves enough water by volume into Breton Sound that it dwarfs all but about 15 other rivers in the world—and it’s a living laboratory for how a healthy, properly functioning Mississippi River is supposed to work.

Located about 70 river miles south of New Orleans and directly across from the world-renowned fishing destination of Buras, La., Neptune Pass was previously a narrow cut, known as a crevasse, in the Mississippi River’s east bank back in 2018, barely wide enough to pass a 24-foot bay boat through. A series of annual floods, especially a record-setting inundation in 2019, forced the river to find and exploit weaknesses in its banks along its lower east bank – an area where the river isn’t hemmed in by flood protection levees and so dozens of other cuts and crevasses exist.

Aerial view of Neptune Pass (center left) flowing off the Mississippi (top). Credit: Restore the Mississippi River Delta

What was a relative trickle of about 5,000 cubic feet per second in 2018 became a major pass by 2023, capturing nearly 120,000 cubic feet of water per second, or more than 15 percent of the total volume of the Mississippi during spring flooding. Almost immediately after its widening, Neptune Pass began delivering enough suspended sediment from river water to begin shallowing and filling in bays and open ponds along its path and at its mouth in Quarantine Bay.

A Natural Process

The Mississippi River was simply replicating the same processes at Neptune Pass that it had employed hundreds, if not thousands, of times over the last several millennia. It utilized a weakness in its bank as an easier way to move its abundant water and sediment toward the Gulf of Mexico. If not for that natural process, most of Louisiana and a large part of Mississippi wouldn’t exist. Preventing that natural process by blocking the river’s connection to its delta with levees is the primary reason more than 2,000 square miles of Louisiana’s delta has already sunk and eroded into the Gulf.

Increased Flows Mean More Fish

The TRCP recently hosted several river-savvy anglers on a two-day fishing and crabbing excursion in the Mississippi River, largely focused on the junction with Neptune Pass. Our goal was to talk about the importance of restoring the functionality of the river, in terms of water and sediment diversions, and see firsthand how effective they are at improving productivity and rebuilding land being lost to rising seas and storms. Regaining more historic flow patterns can occur naturally, as seen at Neptune Pass, or man-made, as TRCP and partners have worked for years to achieve with the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. This project is designed to breathe life back into the Barataria Basin by reconnecting the Mississippi River to the marshes, bayous, and islands it originally built, but through a gate on the river that can be regulated to optimize sediment and water flows.

If not for the sediment delivered by the Mississippi River, most of Louisiana and a large part of Mississippi wouldn’t exist.

Whether a natural or dredged river diversion, the results are the same. More oxygenated water, more nutrients, more land-building sediment, and more fish and wildlife. The anglers we hosted earlier this month – representing YouTube channels Outside the Levees, Cole & Jay, Marsh Man Masson, and River Certified – reaped the benefits as they hauled in boatloads of redfish, black drum, catfish, and blue crabs.

The Pass Today

Ducks Unlimited and state and federal agencies have worked with local fishing and duck hunting guide Capt. Ryan Lambert to build terraces in Quarantine Bay and adjacent Bay Denesse. The linear earthen berms act as speed bumps, slowing the water coming from the pass and allowing the sediment to more quickly deposit and form mud and sand flats. As the water shallows, vegetation takes root and marsh emerges, forming perfect habitat for migrating waterfowl and other birds, shrimp and crabs, and a host of sought-after sportfish and gamefish like redfish, black drum and largemouth bass.

The rapid widening and deepening of Neptune Pass quickly became a concern for the Army Corps of Engineers, who worried the changes in river currents would lead to sandbars forming in the main navigation channel of the Mississippi River and even steer ocean-going ships off course. There was talk of efforts to try and completely close Neptune in 2022 – a move that angling, hunting, and conservation groups, including the TRCP, roundly opposed.

After weighing all options and taking into consideration the remarkable habitat-creating capacity of Neptune Pass, the Corps has recommended stabilizing the pass with rocks to try and prevent it from growing larger while still allowing water and sediment to flow through into Quarantine Bay. The land-building capacity would be further enhanced by more terraces, building upon the groundwork laid by Lambert and Ducks Unlimited.

Balancing the needs of navigation, flood control, and the incredibly productive, but dwindling, coastal wetlands in the Mississippi River Delta is something wildlife and fisheries advocates have been demanding from the Corps for decades. Neptune Pass gives hope those pleas are being heard and appreciated.

Aerial Neptune Pass image credit: Restore the Mississippi River Delta; all other images credit Chris Macaluso, TRCP

Do you have any thoughts on this post?

Click here to cancel reply.

by: Rob Thornberry

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

Sagebrush, Snowberry, and Aspen, Oh My!

Federal restoration funds and volunteers help increase the wildlife value of Idaho’s Pine Creek Bench

At the southern end of Idaho’s Big Hole Mountains, the Pine Creek Bench lays tucked between the South Fork of the Snake River and Stouts Mountain.

This picturesque bench provides invaluable winter range for deer, elk, and moose, and is also fertile ground that has attracted farmers for over a century who have grown diverse crops: wildflowers to alfalfa, potatoes to winter wheat. Like much of eastern Idaho, the plow has ruled for generations, largely relegating the bench’s wildlife value to the back burner.

In time, however, concerns about development on the bench and the nearby South Fork Canyon prompted eastern Idahoans to begin a long-term conservation effort to restore portions of the area. Led by the Bureau of Land Management and local non-profit organizations such as the Nature Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, and Teton Regional Land Trust, thoughtful conservationists began leveraging support from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and other sources to buy and/or conserve through conservation easements properties that held the highest wildlife values. Over the last four decades, a large percentage of the bench’s acreage has been restored to quality wildlife habitat and most of the canyon’s rim is free of houses.

To stop there would mean a great conservation success story, but one without a perfect ending. Once purchased, the BLM and partners didn’t have money to return their newly acquired properties to their original wild state. In many cases, obtained acres had been enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program and were covered with nonnatives such as smooth brome to reduce erosion. Nonnative species and weeds outcompeted native plants and diminished the land’s ability to support wildlife.

That is, until now.

Using money from the recently enacted Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, the BLM, local landowners, and hunter conservationists have started returning native species to the bench on properties purchased for their scenic and wildlife values. Private land enrolled in conservation easements don’t qualify for the program.

Volunteers from Backcountry Hunters & Anglers plant aspen on Idaho’s Pine Creek Bench.

The BLM-led coalition is completing the work by enlisting nearby farmers, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and volunteers. Spearheaded by BLM’s restoration lead Devin Englestead, the BLM contracts nearby producers to farm the recently purchased acres for five years before eventually planting the ground in native grasses. By hiring local farmers, BLM keeps their costs for tilling the land down and increases buy-in from neighbors. Farming the ground for a short period of time is an effective way to remove non-native grasses and weeds that then allows native flora to return.

“[The challenge with this project has been] the daunting task of turning so many acres of farmed land back into native habitat,” BLM public affairs specialist Bruce Hallman told the Teton Valley News in July. “The reality is that it takes at least 5 years to turn CRP land back into native grasses and plants. That long timeframe requires good planning, adequate funding and commitments from agencies, patience as we wait for nature to do its thing, and hoping that volunteers will rise to the occasion.”

This summer, it all came together. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Backcountry Hunter & Anglers volunteers lent their shoulders to the wheel. The IDFG used Mule Deer Initiative money to provide seedlings, and BHA provided the labor needed to get the natives in the ground.

Volunteers pose with tools and native plant seedlings.

BHA, BLM, and IDFG volunteers planted native species on roughly 1,275 acres of the bench this past summer with the idea of continuing the work annually. Volunteers planted bitterbrush, sagebrush, juniper, serviceberry, chokecherry, snowberry, milkweed, aspen, and wood rose.

The BLM focused on the parcels that connect the South Fork of the Snake River corridor with the mountains to the north. The intention is to link high-altitude summer range to winter range along the river corridor and Pine Creek Bench. By connecting the two habitats, big game survival will increase and provide higher quality hunting opportunities.

“Partnerships have helped turn it from idea to reality,” said Hallman. “The manpower that has attacked this monumental challenge could not have come from BLM staff alone. Volunteers from the nearby communities as well as Idaho Fish and Game staff have been priceless to our efforts. And local nurseries growing native plants have made the project really shine.”

Learn more about TRCP’s work in Idaho HERE.

The TRCP is your resource for all things conservation. In our weekly Roosevelt Report, you’ll receive the latest news on emerging habitat threats, legislation and proposals on the move, public land access solutions we’re spearheading, and opportunities for hunters and anglers to take action. Sign up now.

Photo credits: Bruce Hallman

by: Noah Davis

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

October 22, 2024

Big, Wild Country: A Brooks Range Hunting and Fishing Story

TRCP’s Western conservation communications manager recounts his recent caribou hunt in Alaska’s Brooks Range, our country’s most remote landscape

A lot of folks who are lucky enough to take a fly-in hunting or fishing trip to Alaska say the extreme remoteness doesn’t fully hit them until the pilot takes off and the sound of the engine disappears.

But for me, it was on the flight in. I knew the pilot wasn’t going to stay. He wasn’t included in our float trip plans.

We flew over 150 miles from the airstrip, and once the Dalton Highway faded from view, the full expanse below was wild country. For 150 miles it was great mountains and long rivers and jeweled lakes and no roads or trails. To get out from where we were going was a distance that my brain was having trouble comprehending. I’d backpacked in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I’d hunted wild country in the Rocky Mountains. But this place, the Brooks Range of northern Alaska, held a remoteness to a magnitude I’d never experienced.

Only from above can one truly see the vastness of the Brooks Range.

Our group of four (Dan, David, John, and me) and three boats (I can’t row in a pool) spent the first day unloading gear, blowing up rafts, and staring in awe of a landscape we’d dreamed of for years. Since hunting on the day you fly in is illegal, we took up the fly rods and waded into the river expecting grayling and resident char.

However, when John made it to a cliff wall with an obvious pool below and yelped with excitement, I figured that must mean the sea-run Dolly Varden had made their way into the headwaters.

The fish—20-30 inches in length—hugged the bottom and were strung out in a line on the inside seam of the current. We crouched above them and swung purple, gold, and pink streamers in front of their noses. The Dollies ate with anger and ran with marine strength. Their wide, heavy bodies rode the pull of the river and their color flashed brilliantly in the cold, clear water. A few males tail danced, but most wanted to bully in the deep, giving the 8wts as much bend as they could stand.

The hens had bellies pink as a sunset and the tips of their mouths were lipsticked orange. The males sported blood-red bellies, kyped jaws, and sharp, jagged teeth. All sides were spotted red with blue halos. For an angler used to brook trout, this was the pinnacle of char fishing. That night, all I dreamed of was fish, despite being able to hunt caribou when the morning arrived.

Wouldn’t this fish keep you up at night? John Herzer admires a magnificent buck Dolly Varden.

The next day we floated downriver spooking Dollies in every hole, but our focus was on caribou. We made camp six miles downriver, then spent the afternoon and evening glassing the wide basin that opened to the river valley. Blueberries were ripe all around us, and I found a matching set of sheds below the glassing knob.

Yet no caribou showed in our hours of searching, though the landscape surrounding us displayed the scars of their meandering trails running south. The herd’s path was here, but the herd was not. Their presence etched in the foothills was a clear example of the massive ranges these animals demand for their seasonal movements. Despite supporting so much life, large mammals must travel thousands of miles across the Arctic to find forage and suitable habitats month to month. It will sometimes take a caribou herd years to use their entire range, but ensuring these habitats remain intact means the animals can move where they must in order to thrive.

After another night in the teepees, we woke early to climb a bench to the north that overlooked a wide drainage to the east. Before mid-morning, we reached a highpoint to look into the river bottom. And there, as obvious as the sun, were four bull caribou on the white rocks along the river.

We made a quick play down off the bench, following a spring seep to keep out of sight. Unfortunately, the caribou came up the bench one rise too far and spooked when the wind carried our scent to them.

As they made their way up over the bench and out of sight, I was struck by how they almost floated over the ground we’d been stumbling through. Their bodies made no wasted movements. Their heads held high carrying the Dr. Suess-esc antlers. Their fur still a dark, summer coat that popped against the willows going yellow and the blueberries and Labrador tea burning red.

The Brooks Range must be conserved to ensure future generations experience this remote country. To struggle through tussocks, to wade freezing rivers, to see grizzly tracks in the sand, to watch caribou cross country, to eat blueberries by the fistful, and to fall asleep exhausted at the end of the day and dream of doing it all again the next morning.

We followed the bulls and found them in the riverbed feeding. Dan and David traced the end of the bench out toward them, while John and I made a beeline across the dry basin to the east. After 400 yards, we hit the dry creek bed and waited to see what direction the caribou would go.

Either pushed by Dan and David or by their own sense of direction, the caribou crossed below us in a single file, and began to follow the rise that would curve them back our way. We scrambled to the cutbank, climbed up, and watched the group close the distance.

One bull was larger than the rest. His antlers tall and bent in a C. I traced him in my scope as the group closed the distance from 300 to 250 yards, and when John called the final “189,” the bull stepped up on a rise enough for me to see his vitals. With the shot he dropped into the tundra and laid still.

I thanked the bull when I set my hands on his neck and velveted antlers. The three remaining bulls made their way into the drainage to the east and disappeared. David and Dan arrived, and we all celebrated the first caribou of the trip, the immediate redemption of a missed opportunity, and the gift of good meat that would supplement the freeze-dried meals we all packed.

The day was cool and having shot the bull in the middle of a dry plain meant a grizzly wouldn’t easily sneak in on us. The clocks hadn’t yet struck 10 a.m. and so we took our time around the bull; admiring his antlers and the body that had carried him across thousands of miles of this wild country before we broke him down into quarters.

With many hands working, the quartering and packing was swift. And suddenly we were hiking back upriver, loaded heavy, with breaking down camp and meat care ahead of us. I shook my head in disbelief at the dream of a successful caribou hunt being realized so soon after our drop off.

That night around the fire, fingers greasy from tenderloins wrapped in caul fat, I knew there was over a week left of this trip, and my pulling the trigger only an instant in the whole tale. There were three tags that needed to be clipped onto antlers, and miles of river to ply for char and grayling. Those days would pass as days do, but for the moment, it was all before us, which makes for an adventure.

Take Action for the Brooks Range Today!

The hunt above occurred on the North Slope of the Brooks Range, hundreds of miles away from the proposed Ambler Road. However, the sweeping crescent of the Brooks Range running east to west across northern Alaksa offers, in its totality, the wildest country left in America. The land that the Ambler industrial corridor would cut across along the Kobuk River is different from the landscape of my hunt, but the remote character is similar, and barreling semis and thousands of culverts interrupting the movements of iconic Arctic animals and fish and degrading the wild space would ruin the experience that so many hunters and anglers travel so far to reach.

The Brooks Range must be conserved to ensure future generations experience this remote country. To struggle through tussocks, to wade freezing rivers, to see grizzly tracks in the sand, to watch caribou cross country, to eat blueberries by the fistful, and to fall asleep exhausted at the end of the day and dream of doing it all again the next morning.

The proposed Ambler Road would forever alter the wild character of this country. The 211-mile industrial corridor would slice across the southern foothills of the Brooks Range and require over 2,900 culverts with the potential to cinch off spawning areas for sheefish and Arctic grayling. The estimated 168 daily trips on the road would likely impact big game movement such as the Western Arctic caribou herd that migrates through the region.

Dan Crockett with a Brooks Range, Arctic grayling.

Fortunately, after an extensive public comment period where over 14,000 hunters and anglers voiced their opposition to the corridor, the Bureau of Land Management issued its final Record of Decision denying the Ambler Road permits in June 2024. The BLM has concluded that there is no way to adequately mitigate the potential impacts of any version of the proposed Ambler Road. Still, new threats to the Brooks Range are emerging.

An amendment in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act would rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s recent decision to defend Alaska’s Brooks Range and force the Department of the Interior to permit the Ambler Road. It’s critical that the Ambler Road amendment be removed from the final version of this must-pass legislation, which funds our military and will be negotiated by lawmakers in the coming months.

We need your voice! Send a message directly to your elected officials and urge them to remove the Ambler amendment from the NDAA by clicking HERE!

by: Michael O'Casey

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

October 21, 2024

Hunters Applaud USDA Secretarial Memorandum Directing Coordination and Action for Wildlife Migration

Memo will formalize and expand USDA’s commitment to migration conservation and enhance benefits for wildlife habitat connectivity and corridors in partnership with public land managers, state agencies, Tribes, private landowners, and NGOs  

Today, hunters and conservationists celebrated the signing of a Memorandum from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack that recognizes the importance of USDA’s role in conserving wildlife movement and migration habitats across public and private lands.

“This Secretarial Memo sends a clear message that the USDA recognizes the important role that the Department’s programs and policies play to enhance big game migration and habitat across the country,” said Joel Pedersen, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “The TRCP thanks Secretary Vilsack and the USDA for their leadership to highlight how voluntary efforts can improve wildlife habitat on public and private lands, which is crucial to ensure the next generation of sportsmen and sportswomen can experience healthy big game herds.”

To date, the USDA’s Migratory Big Game Initiative has leveraged programs within the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Farm Services Agency to support voluntary private land conservation projects in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

Today’s announcement enhances and expands upon this work and directs several USDA agencies, specifically NRCS, FSA, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to:

– Consider terrestrial wildlife habitat connectivity and corridors in relevant planning processes, programs, and assessments. This would include NRCS and FSA Farm Bill conservation programs, USFS Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnerships program, USFS land management planning and wildfire crisis planning, and APHIS wildlife disease management programs.

– Improve internal coordination and delivery of USDA planning processes and programs to increase outcomes for wildlife connectivity, such as through continued alignment of NRCS and FSA private landowner programs to maximize habitat connectivity outcomes, encouragement of innovation in conservation practices, and additional financial assistance.

– Improve coordination with states, Tribes, and other federal agencies, including recognition of Tribal sovereignty and individual state authorities, and improve direct collaboration with the Department of the Interior, Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, and other agencies.

– Collaborate with non-governmental organizations to facilitate engagement with and support of local communities.

“The Mule Deer Foundation applauds the signing of this Secretarial Memo to ensure that the full suite of USDA programs and resources are coordinated to sustain mule deer and other big game populations that migrate,” said Steve Belinda, Chief Conservation Officer for the Mule Deer Foundation. “Like DOI’s Secretarial Order 3362, USDA has the potential to facilitate on-the-ground conservation over a vast area of public and private lands that are critical to conserving and improving mule deer and other wildlife habitat.”

“The Department of Agriculture has an essential role in maintaining the movements of wildlife throughout the United States,” said Mike Leahy, Senior Director of Wildlife, Hunting, and Fishing Policy for the National Wildlife Federation. “We are glad the Department of Agriculture is expanding their commitment to keep elk, deer, antelope, and other wildlife moving through our fragmented landscapes, and look forward to the benefits this will bring to hunting, wildlife populations, and collaboration in conservation.”

“CSF thanks the USDA for initiating this effort that will help enhance conservation for migratory wildlife and their associated habitats,” said Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation President and CEO Jeff Crane. “CSF will continue to prioritize wildlife connectivity through Interior Secretarial Order 3362, the Wildlife Highway Crossings Pilot Program, USDA’s Migratory Big Game Initiative, the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, and now the USDA Secretarial Memo.”

“Big game migration corridors have been a policy and investment focus of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for many years, and we have been pleased by the strong bipartisan support for the issue across administrations and in Congress,” said Blake Henning, Chief Conservation Officer for RMEF. “This USDA Secretarial Memo aligns with the existing Department of Interior Secretarial Order 3362 and will help leverage private lands conservation programs to bolster habitat across the landscape in coordination with state-led action plans. RMEF appreciates that USDA recognizes the leadership that hunters have played in this and other conservation successes in America.”

The Secretarial Memorandum directs USDA agencies to establish a USDA Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat Connectivity and Corridors Committee charged with implementation of the Memorandum. An initial progress report is due to the Secretary by June 30, 2025.

Learn more about TRCP’s work on big game migration conservation HERE.

by: Liz Rose

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

October 18, 2024

Final Plan Amendments Align Colorado BLM Big Game Habitat Management with Colorado Oil and Gas Development Regulations

Plan amendment creates consistency between federal and state jurisdictions for oil
and gas development within high priority big game habitat, sets precedent for
efficiently updating management plans statewide

The Colorado Bureau of Land Management recently signed a Record of Decision on their Resource Management Plan Amendment for Big Game Habitat Conservation to align the federal agency’s oil and gas management with State of Colorado policies where there is overlap with high priority big game habitat. Hunters, anglers, and other wildlife conservationists appreciate BLM’s work to conserve important big game habitat while facilitating multiple uses when and where they’re most compatible.

“This ROD marks the conclusion of over two years of hard work by Colorado BLM staff, cooperating agencies including Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and local governments, and non-profit hunting and conservation organizations,” said Liz Rose, Colorado field representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “Thank you to those agency staff members, and to all the hunters and anglers who submitted feedback and comments to the BLM throughout the plan development process.”

This ROD amends land management plans for 12 Colorado BLM field offices, creating more management consistency across the state where important big game habitats overlap with oil and gas leasing and development activity. Colorado BLM manages 8.3 million acres of land for multiple uses, which include oil and gas development, renewable energy development, ranching, and recreational use such as hunting, fishing, camping, rafting, and hiking. A significant portion of these lands—approximately 6.3 million acres—is also top priority habitat for Colorado’s elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep populations.

This planning effort sets the precedent for efficiently incorporating new data and research and updating management plans statewide to facilitate responsible management of multiple uses on our public lands to conserve important fish and wildlife resources.

We encourage the Colorado BLM to leverage their expertise and updated repository of big game data and science to develop responsible management policies related to other uses of BLM land, including but not limited to renewable energy development and recreation, for which demand continues to grow.

Read more in TRCP’s recent blog covering the proposed final plan HERE.

Photo credit: Abid Karamali