Landowners enlisted for creek plan
The Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Mississippi Departments of Environmental Quality and Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks are working with landowners and others to begin a major aquatic restoration project in the region.
A 63-mile section of Deer Creek in the alluvial plain of western Mississippi below Rolling Fork would benefit from the effort.
The work is supported in part by a $50,000 grant to the LMRCC from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress and dedicated to the conservation of natural resources through the formation of public-private partnerships.
Deer Creek was a major distributary of the Mississippi River in the Yazoo Basin before the river changed course, which removed its connection to Lake Bolivar. The lake is the headwaters of Deer Creek. Before the Mississippi changed course, Deer Creek was subjected to dynamic fluvial processes, which created a perched channel and a natural levee ridge.
Flood-control projects in the southern part of the watershed, including the Whittington Auxiliary Canal, have left portions of the creek essentially dry in summer. Except during periods of extremely heavy rainfall, the creek’s entire flow is diverted at Rolling Fork and routed southeastward into the Little Sunflower River.
Also, water quality in the creek is degraded by the dumping of household trash, abandoned farm equipment, plastic and steel containers, and other waste. The adjoining agricultural land is mostly cleared to the bank of the creek, which has caused large amounts of sediment to wash into the waterway. And numerous crossings of the creek have been constructed, with many of them restricting flow and contributing to poor conditions for aquatic life.
As a partner in the Deer Creek project, the Fish and Wildlife Service began discussions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about a study of solutions to the creek’s problems, including the installation of weirs to provide year-round water depths necessary to support aquatic life. The Fish and Wildlife Service also is working with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service to establish vegetation buffers along the creek to reduce the runoff of sediment and other pollutants. Various government programs, including the Conservation Reserve Program, offer payments to help landowners establish buffers.Other activities planned include the recruitment of local volunteers to help clean debris from the creek, the development of a conservation education program with local schools and the formation of a conservation "alliance" among local communities bordering the creek.
Benefits of the project include the restoration of fish populations to help increase opportunities for recreation in the region.
Creek-side communities also can learn how their natural resources can make eco-tourism more important in the economically depressed Mississippi