Steamboat Island: Project will improve ‘mosaic of river habitats’

PRINCETON, Iowa – A $33.6 million habitat restoration project is underway with the goal of creating a better, healthier ecosystem for wildlife on an island near this Scott County community. “This (project) is all about the habitat; getting the correct habitat on the island,” said Julie Millhollin, the project manager for the Steamboat Island Habitat […]

PRINCETON, Iowa – A $33.6 million habitat restoration project is underway with the goal of creating a better, healthier ecosystem for wildlife on an island near this Scott County community. “This (project) is all about the habitat; getting the correct habitat on the island,” said Julie Millhollin, the project manager for the Steamboat Island Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project.

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Ms. Millhollin was among about 50 people who attended the project’s ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 4, to celebrate work on Steamboat Island. The ceremony attracted members of the community, officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including  Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, chief of engineers and commanding general of the U.S. Corps of Engineers. If all goes according to plan, the two-phase restoration of the island will be done in a few years, and provide a better place for animals – such as bald eagles and many species of fish – and increase the diversity of plants. “I’m really excited to see this project move forward. … This is going to make this island a more resilient place,” Sabrina Chandler, an area supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said during the brief ceremony on the south side of the Princeton Wildlife Management Area and just across the Mississippi River from Steamboat Island. The project, which began in 2018 with a feasibility study, will ultimately restore aquatic, wetland and floodplain habitats “as well as restoring the natural processes that maintain the mosaic of river habitats,” according to information from the Corps of Engineers. Here is the two-stage plan for the island restoration project:

• Stage One: This will include placing rocks to help fight erosion at the head of the island and the northeast bank line. A contract for this stage was awarded several months ago to Architectural Consulting Group of Chicago for $8.8 million. Ms. Millhollin said this work began in January and much of Stage One has already been completed.
• Stage Two: Dredging backwater channels in the upper lake, topographic placement nearby and at the head of the island. There also will be timber stand improvements and plantings in future stages. The Stage Two work will take about two years to complete, Ms. Millhollin said. (The Steamboat Island project is part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program that has completed 62 habitat projects since 1986 in the Midwest.)

When the work is complete, some of the animals that will benefit from the restored Steamboat Island include bald eagles, the Higgins eye pearlymussel, the northern long-eared bat and the grass pickerel, according to information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Steamboat Island project is also expected to create 607 acres of aquatic habitat and 2,013 acres of floodplain habitat. In addition to praising the creation of that habitat space, much of Wednesday’s event was spent thanking the community and partnerships that are helping move the project forward. For instance, Lt. Gen. Spellmon said he was especially pleased to see the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Fish and Wildlife Service coming together to get the job done. “I wish I had this level of partnership on other projects,” he added. Steamboat Island is a 2,620-acre island and backwater complex located in the middle section of Pool 14 of the Upper Mississippi River, between the town of Princeton and the Wapsipinicon River in Clinton and Scott counties in Iowa, and Rock Island County in Illinois.  It includes  interconnected backwaters, secondary channels, wetlands and a floodplain. See more on the project by going here. “Human activity over the past two centuries within (the area) has altered the hydrology, topography, and biotic communities present. Years of silt deposition has allowed willows and silver maples to colonize the once-aquatic portions of the project area, resulting in degraded aquatic and wetland complexes,” according to project information from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.