Missouri WRP Success Story

Pike, Chariton, Vernon, New Madrid, Johnson, and Knox Counties

Northeast (Pike County)

Greg Blackmore and Tim Pogrelis entered their land into the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) in 1997. They collectively own 470 acres in the Mississippi River bottoms. The area was farmed extensively before entering the program. After restoration, the emergent marsh totaled 329 acres. There are 63 acres of bottomland forest (planted) and 68 acres of riparian corridor. Ten acres of bottomland forest already existed on the tract prior to enrollment. Both families enjoy the outdoors and hunt, fish and trap. This site now provides these activities and more. One of the purposes of entering the tract into WRP was that both families wanted to protect the land and its wetland resources and create recreational opportunities for their families.

North Central (Chariton County)

This 763-acre tract involved combining two contracts into one restoration project. The tract is located along a very volatile portion of the lower Grand River and is less than three miles from the Missouri River. The whole tract is located within the 500-year floodplain of the Missouri River. Frequent floods place existing levees and cropping options at risk. Almost 70 percent of the tract was cropped. The two groups of landowners essentially were tired of cropping failures and repairs to existing levees. Restoration of the site involves significant tree restoration for riparian buffers, lowering sections of the existing levee to allow floodwater equalization and the installation of a water control structure big enough to allow for floods and the discharge of water for wildlife management. 342 acres of emergent marsh and 328 acres of bottomland forest resulted from restoration efforts. The remaining acreage is a remnant oxbow and other existing sloughs.

Southwest (Vernon County)

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has an existing major wetland complex (Four Rivers Conservation Area) totaling 6,696 acres in Vernon and Bates counties in southwestern Missouri. The acreage was non-contiguous and divided into three tracts.

The land between these tracts, totaling 7,036 acres, was entered into the 30-year portion of the WRP and simultaneously purchased by the MDC. Coordination between the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), MDC, and Ducks Unlimited, as well as a donation by August A. Busch III, has provided a unique opportunity to consolidate this bottomland piece into a more contiguous 13,732-acre complex. This also fostered working partnerships in the design and management of the WRP site. Restoration is near completion on this WRP 30-year easement area with 2,400 acres of emergent marsh, 300 acres of Prairie Cordgrass, and another 850 acres of bottomland hardwoods.

This area has some of the most extensive bottomland forest existing in this portion of the state. Three major rivers and a drainage ditch that converge at the site contribute to the wetland resources.

Southeast (New Madrid County)

A 578-acre tract within the New Madrid Floodway was enrolled into WRP in 1995. Before enrollment into the program, 446 acres of this tract were being cropped and 132 acres were existing wooded wetlands. Farming was risky because the tract is located in the New Madrid Floodway, which still receives backwater flooding from the Mississippi River.

Enrolling this property into WRP was an option for the landowner. WRP allows the landowner to avoid the cropland flooding risk and provide income from a perpetual easement on the land.

Soon after the landowner was paid for the easement, he sold the property to a group interested in the recreational opportunities that this site would provide. Today, restoration work has been completed by both the original owners and new owners with financial and technical assistance provided by NRCS, MDC, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The mix of habitats is attracting large numbers of waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, reptiles, amphibians, wetland dependent mammals, and fish. In addition to the wildlife benefits, this site provides significant floodwater storage. The constructed wetland pools fill when the Mississippi River begins to rise into the New Madrid Floodway, and then water is slowly released or evaporated after the river recedes.

Without this connectivity to the Mississippi River, most of the floodwater storage benefits of this site would be lost. So would the site's contributions to the fish that are adapted to utilizing floodplain wetlands for significant portions of their life cycles. This area illustrates how farmers, recreational landowners, and society in general can all benefit from conservation programs such as WRP.

West Central Missouri (Johnson County)

This 40-acre tract owned by Roy Krause is located along the volatile Blackwater River and floods on a regular basis. Mr. Krause used to plant row crops on the entire tract. After a succession of crop losses and failures due to frequent floods and standing water, Mr. Krause considered the Wetlands Reserve Program. Today, instead of crop losses and the financial burden of crop maintenance and insurance, the tract has been restored to a marsh with a mixture of emergent and persistent vegetation. Mr. Krause has been very vocal in his community about how pleased he is with the restored wetland and the abundant wetland wildlife that has resulted throughout the year.

Northeast Missouri (Knox County)

Jerry Plowman owns a 114-acre tract of bottomland next to the South Fabius River. The tract was farmed extensively but subject to flooding by the river and drainage from uplands. The restoration provided 42 acres of wetlands, 13 acres of native warm-season grass plantings, 10 acres of natural regeneration of trees along the riparian portion of the tract, and protection of the existing 49 acres of bottomland timber with remnant wetlands intact. Two wetland cells have independent drain/fill capability for increased diversity of wetland management by the landowner. A mixture of switchgrass, big bluestem and alsike clover was established as a buffer along one of the wetlands to enhance waterfowl nesting efforts (Mallard and Blue-winged Teal). Mr. Plowman has been extremely happy with the restoration efforts and still continues to farm near the easement site. He has been successful at leasing the rights to hunt waterfowl in the Fall.

< Back to Missouri Program Information
< More Success Stories
< Back to State Programs
< Back to Wetlands Reserve Program