Doom to Flatheads, Mussels and other species in Upper Yazoo

[sportsman450]

( I know some of you will find that hard to believe ---me fussing about something ).

No, but for you ta be fussin about something and ta be on the right side is hard ta believe!

On a serious note. Hammer has been fighting these people for a long, long time. It's a bad, bad deal for wildlife and sportsmen.

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Sportsman 450, I'm almost always right. History will reveal my true genius. And the sooner you accept and come to grips with that, the better off you will be.

[FnW man]

Hey Po,

Did you know Po Monkey's Lounge in Merigold was featured in National Geographic magazine back in July? Saw it yesterday.

If not, check it out. The cover has 2 panda bears on it.......

[mudsucker]

They had Panda Bears at the PO Monkey Lounge???

[sportsman450]

:shock: They had Panda Bears at the PO Monkey Lounge???

Naw, but they did have a couple bare-breasted African women. Why does ya think PoMonk likes it so much???

[mottlet]

:shock: They had Panda Bears at the PO Monkey Lounge???

Naw, but they did have a couple bare-breasted African women. Why does ya think PoMonk likes it so much???

A thread as worthwhile as this and yall wanna talk about pandas and bare-breasted Africans? Meanwhile back on the ranch....

It's been mentioned, but bears repeating. The folks plowing right to the edge of the riverbank are what causes this problem. But what sort of responsibility are they imposed for being the creator of the problem and the benefactor of its correction? None. The logical thing to do would be to say, you have to leave riparian buffers. But nope, instead our government tries to bribe folks with programs like CREP and WHIP. Do not mistake me for being against these programs. I think they're great and should be fully funded in the pending Farm Bill....we'll see how that goes. But why should we have to pay people to do the right thing? This dredging is gonna happen. But before it has to be done again, why not implement some practices that could possibly (most would say probably) keep us from having to dredge again ten or twenty years down the road? A rational person would think that the money saved by the taxpayer should be reason enough, but the benefit to the environment and wildlife kinda pushes it over the edge, dontcha think?

And the Yazoo Pumps? Lord help us...The South Delta's days as wintering habitat for waterfowl might be numbered and those pumps could be at the top of the list for reasons why.

mottlet

[mudsucker]

HEHE You said "BEARS" repeating! I work for the ACOE so I guess I am the bad guy,Eh? I need to remain neutral!

[mottlet]

HEHE You said "BEARS" repeating! I work for the ACOE so I guess I am the bad guy,Eh? I need to remain neutral!

Mudsucker, I've never met you and am sure you're a good dude. But yeah, I've got some real problems with your employer and a lot of their conduct in the northwestern quadrant of Mississippi. However, I think there's a real difference between dredging to keep the nation's main inland commerce highway open and dredging the Coldwater River so that a few more bushels of beans can be sent to Guam.

mottlet

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Mudsucker, I don't think any of us are saying that all Corps of Engineers projects are bad. But, I just don't see the need to dredge the Tallahatchie, Yazoo, and Yalabusha rivers as part of this Upper Yazoo project. IMO, its bad for the ducks, bad for other wildlife, bad for the environment, bad for hunters, and bad for the taxpayers. This money could be put to much better use.

IF the COE would actually carry out the proposed mitigation for the project,, and give the public feedback on what it has done and what remains to be done, then it might be at least more tolerable.

Perhaps that might be a good area of inquiry. I have a copy of the mitigation requirements somewhere. I will dig them up and post a highlight summary post in this thread. Then I will call the Vicksburg office to see how much of the mitigation has been done, and if not, why not, and when they intend to do it . I haven't stirred up much schit in a while. The power of the pen and a little light of day shed on this matter might make a diff.

For a while, it appeared that the project was dead in the water due to lack of funding. But, thanks to the Levee Board and our members of Congress, the money is flowing again. I saw the dredging going on during my last trip to the Delta. Looks like they are carving out a mini version of the grand canyon.

[mudsucker]

I agree. Those rivers mentioned do NOT need to be dredged for navigation purposes as the small crop of beans/cotton that would come out of there can come out by truck. Now it is possible that parts are so silted in that it MIGHT have to be dredged to allow for uniform flow of "excess" rain water to drain properly! YES I know us duckhunters say that during the winter months there is NO excess water, but, some land owners do not think as we do. I am sure they(ACOE) have done modeling to determine a desired flow. I just hope they are not trying to make it into a navigable waterway for tugs and barges! I too do not agree with all of my employers decisions. I wish, as a sportsman, that the Miss. River Gulf Outlet would be closed for good. I think it should have never been dug in the first place as it changed the whole ecology of the St. Benard marsh. Nice cypress swamps were killed, almost with in a year of opening, by saltwater intrusion!

[Wingman]

Navigation is not an issue north of Greenwood. None of the bridges are high enough to let a tug pass under. I went all the way down to Glendora yesterday in my work boat; saw 2 crews of surveyors marking for the COE in Quitman and Tallahatchie counties.

This is being done so that low-lying, flood prone land will not flood as frequently. In my opinion, this land should've never been cleared in the first place. People are now finding that out and are putting that land back into trees.

The problem is, you've got houses being built in areas flooded 3 out of 5 years and land being farmed that floods naturally 3 out of 5 years. The solution should not be dredge the river and continue living/farming in these areas. The solution should be to leave the river alone and farm the high ground. I talked with a farmer last winter who told me that about 35% of Quitman county is now re-forested. He suspected that in 10 years, 50% of the county will be in trees. Only the landformed grain fields and the high sandy cotton ground will be farmed.

If you want to know if an area is flood prone, just look at how high the highway is built or how deep the ditches are on the sides of the road. Areas that don't flood will have a highway built up only 2 or 3 feet. Areas that do flood (like Marks) will have the highway built up 10 feet or more. If the highway department had enough sense to build the road so high, you would think a person would reconsider building his house in that area.

If you've ever spent much time in a CRP field in the winter, you know that not much soil runs off into the ditches. I have trapped in these ditches and after a heavy rain, you can still see almost to the bottom of ditches in CRP fields. In farm fields, the water looks like chocolate milk after a rain.
What this tells me, is that buffer strips, filter strips and CRP on highly erodable land and along all ditches and streams will greatly reduce the amount of silt that dumps into the rivers. All one has to do is boat down the Coldwater (old Tallahatchie) to where Tillatoba Creek and the Panola Quitman Floodway intersect to see where the silt is coming from. The water from the Coldwater is visibly more silty than that coming from the other two. It actually looks like chocolate milk vs. tea. Cut out the siltation from area fields and the dredging problem takes care of itself.

There was also a study done about how holding water in grain fields in the winter reduces the amount of soil that washes out of the fields. I think it's on the waterfowl forum here.

I'm not the smartest guy, but it seems that in this area, farmers would be willing to hold water in their fields, go to no-till practices to leave more grain on the ground for the ducks and put in filter strips to help stop erosion. But some folks refuse to leave out any acreage and continue to till the land right up to the river bank and all ditches and drainages. And other people continue to build homes and subdivisions in low-lying areas, then they have to build levees around them, install pumps to take the water out and then beg the COE to dig the river deeper. Makes you wonder.

[Wingman]

Words from a local DU biologist:

Personally, I strongly oppose the dredging of these rivers. Natural flooding is a very important phenomena that waterfowl depend on each year. This is one region of the Delta that is quite prone to flooding and we need to keep it that way.

From a conservation planning standpoint, we build natural flooding into the model. For Mississippi, we allocate 30-35% of foraging habitat objectives to be provided via natural flooding in the Delta. So, it is a significant component of habitat objectives in Mississippi.