Time to get involved….!

MISSISSIPPI RIVER DRAFT POOL PLANS READY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

Mississippi River managing agencies have announced a series of meetings in

mid-September to gather public reaction to draft pool plans for the St. Paul

District river reaches. Pool plans are maps and descriptions of desired

future conditions of the Mississippi River. Once approved, they will become

guidelines for future programs and projects for river management. The

agencies see general public understanding and acceptance of the final plans

to be vital for cooperative river management.

Knowledge about river management tools such as water level management,

island stabilization and creation, backwater dredging, and channel

modifications has increased greatly over the last decade. Pool plans will

provide the guidelines for applying these tools and others in a reach-wide

and pool-wide river management effort.

Maps and descriptions of current and desired conditions of area river will

be displayed for discussion and public input. The public will be encouraged

to draw, describe, or otherwise comment on desired future conditions as well

as specific projects to achieve those conditions.

Maps and pool plans will be available on the pool plans page of the St. Paul

Corps District Website, at http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil. The public is encouraged

to view and download any parts of this website.

Meetings are scheduled to run from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., with audio/visual

presentations starting at 5:30 and 7:00, and staff available for discussion

in an open-house format for the entire evening.

Meetings are scheduled for:

Prairie du Chien, WI, Pools 9 – 11, September 6, Huckleberry’s

Lansing, IA, Pools 9 – 10, September 12, Lansing Community Center

Onalaska, WI, Pools 7 – 9, September 13, US Fish and Wildlife Visitor’s

Center

Winona, MN, Pools 5A – 6, September 18, Winona Middle School

Wabasha, MN, Pools 4 – 5A, September 20, Wabasha-Kellogg High School.

I was on there yesterday and couldn’t find any maps or pool plans. Are they not there yet? Did anybody else find anything?

I have to urge evrybody to get involved. The reason that you won`t find ALL the information on the USACE site is that they are hiding it.

Months back I read some articles in B.A.S.S. Times about the underhanded stuff the corps was doing. They were doing a study to assess their plans to build bigger locks for more barge traffic. Well, they got caught by a watchdog group and by some of their own people “fudging” numbers to sell their case. They falsified numbers and filed false reports that made it seem like the construction was needed and that it would have no impact on the backwaters or the rest of the river system.

Even though they were caught doing this, our House of Representatives voted to go ahead with the project and OK`d it. Guess who is watching over the project????? The Corps, that`s who. Kinda like the fox guarding the hen house isn`t it?

Take it from me, the USACE has only one agenda and that is barge traffic. If they could, the would make the Mississippi River a straight rock lined waterway much like a huge barge canal. Don`t beleive a word that they say. They could care less if they ruined every backwater area. As long as they get bigger locks to double the amount of barge traffic, they could care less about the enviromental impact. And too, so it seems, the people that we voted into office are going right along with it.

The USACE is a rouge agency that reports to nobody. They do what ever the [censored] they want to.

Call your Representatives and find out why they would vote to allow the corps to take over the river. That`s what is going on and nobody is standing up to stop them.

They don`t care about you or I or our fishery. All they care about is barge traffic. Ask them and they`ll tell you that. Their job is to maintain a usable barge channel……aparently at any cost.

Don`t let them.

I sent copies of the most recent articles to James. The only way they`ll get on the board is if he retypes them. Perhaps he could just post some of the highlights, or should I say lowlights.

If you are a BASS member, get BASS Times, they keep you up to date on all sorts of water quality issues. If you know a BASS member, ask him or her if they have the latest BASS Times newspaper and read it for yourself.

Mark my words, the corps will ruin the river if nobody stops them. Signed, one pissed off Beaver

are these meetings that are being held and the input they receive going to be used the same as the public input was on mille lacs? hope not other wise we could be in trouble.

The final…let me repeat..FINAL..plans have already been made. The corps is going to do whatever they want to do.

They were caught cheating to get things their way and never got so much as a slap on the wrist. The plans have been finalized and the House voted to go ahead.

This might get long, but it`s worth reading. I`m quoting from the articles that I read in BASS Times.

Washington,D.C.—Ignoring revelations that it manipulated cost-benefit numbers to justify expansion and reconstruction of the lock and dam system on the upper Mississippi River,the USACE is proceeding as planned.

“The Corps is proving itself once again to be a rogue agency,driven only by institutional self-interest,” said Jeff Ruch,executive director of the Public Employees for Enviromental Responsibility.(PEER)

The agencys military leadership has decided to blow off every reform recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences and the Army Inspector General, so there will be no independent review of the Corps study, nor will the Corps address the inherent conflicts of interest embedded within its planning process.”

One of the Corps own senior economists originally disclosed that the Corps was using inaccurate numbers to support a project that many conservationists and environmentalists say WILL CAUSE IRREPARABLE HARM TO FISH AND WILDLIFE HABITAT ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER!!!! Information that the project to enhance commercial navigation could not be justified economically led to critical reports by both the National Academy of Sciences and the Armys Office of Inspector General.

Ignoring this,Corps leadership has decided to proceed with the original project with no new data collection or analysis, while admitting that this approach DOES NOT ADDRESS ANY ISSUES RAISED BY ITS CRITICS.

That`s just one part of one article. There is more about the Corps welands policy, or should I say lack of one. Basicly, they don`t care about what happens to the river or the backwaters.

Another article goes on to say that the Corps in bowing to pressure from builders and developers and has proposed dozens of measures to weaken national wetlands policy.

THE CORPS IS NOT ON OUR SIDE. THEY WANT TO DO WHATEVER THEY WANT TO DO NO MATTER WHAT THE COST TO THE RIVER OR THE BACKWATERS.

CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN TODAY!!!!

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY!!!

The wheels are already in motion and we, the river anglers, are the ones that are going to suffer from it.

I haven`t been this fired up since the anti-war movement. We`ve got to do something or the fishery that we enjoy will be gone..FOREVER!!!!!

I noticed that on my PC, whenever I log onto your web site that the threads that have new postings always move to the top of active listings. I’m responding to this issue to keep it active because it is much, much too important for those of us that hold this river near and dear to our hearts to allow this issue to drop into the bin of inactive threads.

Thanks fishsqzr, I was going to do it myself. You`re right, this is far too important to not do anything about it.

I would hope everyone who reads this thread would mark it on there calendars and spread the word to any fishing buddies who do not read, get as big a turn out as possible. I am looking forward to the time when the same type of meetings will be held in my area. I’ve already planted the bug in a lot of fishermans ears, talked to the bait shop and local guides, etc. Trying to drum up attention and get them thinking what they would like to see. I do believe this is a critical time for setting the future of our treasured river. As my daddy would say, “If the wheel don’t squeek, it don’t get oiled!” We need a lot of squeeking!

I’ve been told that the people in St. Paul will be setting up the link to the Pool Plan info today or tomorrow.