Projects and Research

We use science and innovative technology to drive the management and conservation of aquatic resources. We help facilitate multi-agency collaborations to conserve, protect, and enhance aquatic resources for the American people.

Noteworthy accomplishments include:

• Development of Restoring America's Greatest River Plan to restore natural resources in the 2.7 million-acre, leveed floodplain of the Lower Mississippi River. To date over 100 miles of secondary channel habitat along the Lower Mississippi River have been rehabilitated.
• Providing for long-term economic, environmental, and public recreation benefits to the region by cooperatively addressing aquatic resource management issues.
• Coordination with partners to develop Lower Mississippi River Basin Invasive Carp Control Strategy Framework, which includes the Arkansas, Red and White River Sub-basins to support the implementation of the National Asian Carp Plan.
• Primary partner in the Lower Mississippi River Resource Assessment, the region’s first comprehensive natural resources study in decades. The assessment covers information needs, habitat needs, recreation and access needs.

Alligator Gar Restoration in Lower Mississippi Valley

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to restore alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) populations in the Lower Mississippi River Valley.  Gar are not currently federally-listed as threatened or endangered. However, in some areas their populations have substantially decreased over the past…