Upper Mississippi River Long-Term Resource Monitoring Program

Walt Popp, Team Leader
walter.popp@state.mn.us
DNR Lake City Office
1801 S Oak St
Lake City, MN 55041
tel. (651) 345-3331

The purpose of the Upper Mississippi River Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) is to provide long term trend information to river managers that will allow for more informed management of the Upper Mississippi River, insuring its survival as a viable floodplain river ecosystem. Lack of information on the river has made it difficult for federal and state agencies to manage it for competing uses.

The field station at Lake City started in 1990 and is one of six federally-funded field stations in five states on the Upper Mississippi that conduct monitoring of chemical and biological parameters using standardized procedures as part of the LTRMP. The Program is coordinated by the US Geological Survey's Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The Lake City Field Station monitors water quality, aquatic vegetation, fish and some macroinvertebrates on Pool 4 which extends from Red Wing, Minnesota to Alma, Wisconsin. Much of the data is available at the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center's website.

Staff in addition to the Team Leader include: Rob Burdis, Water Quality Specialist
Steve DeLain, Fish Specialist
Megan Moore, Vegetation Specialist
Todd Koel, Fisheries Research Biologist