European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 17, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                National geographic Kissimmee River released from its flood control canal resumes its old meanderings. Bullfrog a thrum. Dragonflies sizzle. An Osprey glides Over the tall Marsh grass. A slice of Eden hardly. This 30-acre River Marsh near Washington d.c., was created last Spring by the . Army corps of engineers. It s still. A tentative assemblage of dredge soil and Nursery grown Marsh plants held together. With stakes wire and Bales of Hay. Nature May never adapt Kenilworth Marsh but this Small improvement on the other Side Silt smothered Anacostia River a tributary of the better known Potomac represents a new commitment to go beyond cleaning up polluted water and restore some of America s Rivers and streams to their pre Industrial age Quality. Quot Kenilworth Marsh is the first positive change in the ecological balance of this River Quot says Robert Boone an Anacostia advocate. Dozens of waterway restoration projects Are under Way around the country. So far they have tended to be Small a a  for a Creek straightened years ago a stand of Willows for an eroded embankment but recovery plans for last summer s rampaging Mississippi River May give the movement new urgency and scale. _. People remember when they were kids. They could swim in Rivers drink the water catch fish says Jay West of the Izaak Walton league of America who teaches people How to restore Waterways. Those people Are seeing the consequences of damming Rivers changeling water through Concrete culverts and draining wetlands. Bottoms Silt up Banks erode fish and wildlife disappear. Quot their River stinks it s full of sediment nothing lives in a it a says West. A. A a. ,. A a. Many of the nation s 3 million Miles of Rivers and countless More Miles of smaller streams have been altered to control floods Drain land for other uses or produce electric Power. Only 2 percent of River Miles Are natural and free flowing enough to qualify As wild and Scenic under the Federal definition. Quot people Don t like what they see a West says. Quot they re taking Back their Rivers and  residents along Clear Creek which tumbles out of Colorado s Rocky mountains have decided their beloved waterway has been abused Long enough. A coalition is looking for Money to Stop toxic leaks from abandoned mines and is negotiating irrigation schedules with Farmers so that the Creek won t dry up in the summer. Restorations can be expensive a Kenilworth Marsh Cost taxpayers More than $2 million. But problems in Small Waterways often can be solved with Low Cost Quot soft engineering techniques. ,. At the Izaak Walton league s demonstration project on Dunlop Creek in West Virginia erosion has been stopped by Trees cabled to Bare embankments. A Home for new Plant life has been created with bundles of Willow branches anchored in the Creek Bottom. Pools for fish have been scoured out by the pressure of current forced around logs placed at right angles to the Shore. Quot these techniques were used in biblical times. We re just rediscovering them a West said. Dams that Cut off fish migrations have become a major focus of the River restoration movement. At least a third of american native fish species Are extinct or declining a frequent Price of cheap hydroelectric Power says Randy Showstack of american Rivers a National conservation the overflow wetlands wetlands. Most prominent and familiar of flood Plain features Harbor an especially Rich Assembly of plants animals and microbes. Wetlands and the narrow strips of Green habitat along streams depend on occasional flooding and Are destroyed or degraded when water is Cut off by levees or. Diversion channels. Riven deprived of wetlands about 54 percent of the original 215 million acres of wetlands in the 48 contiguous states have been lost. Since european settlement. Most of the loss resulted from drainage to create farms. Stu co the Halu Rol hazards research and applications  University of Colorado Al  j a estimates vary trying to alter o after the we Wisconsin s i organization. _. No one know s How Many dams Block the nation s Rivers. Of 64,000 to 80,000. Conservationists Are remove some of them. Olen Mills dam was knocked Down on Waukee River Bass and Pike returned. Y y i Jav i. A a a activists Areca a paining to have the times Canyon am removed from he Elwha River in Washington state a spawning for All five native species of Pacific 53 As 230 Hydro electric dams come up for Federal re licensing Dur no the year conservationists will argue that the dams Shou i either be knocked Down or equipped with ladders Ard screens to protect fish. River activist i emphasize the importance of the riparian zone the biologically Rich strip of land along Waterways.  along Oregon s Willamette River have a reserved 250 Miles of riverfront Green Way for wildlife and recreation Denver and other cities have created smaller Green jays along Urban Rivers. Arizona has Ost 90 percent of its riparian zone to Javelo Kmentt a flood control projects. To make the a a int wildly Civ its distributed what came to be known pm the Quot Bunny pop Quot showing the diversity of life in the gaining undeveloped riparian zone along the Santa cru2 River ambit tributaries. The map cali1 Public s Eye. Tucson ariz., now protects Buffer zones around Waterways. Massachusetts is considering a similar Law. River ecologists argue that lasting benefits require skillful management of entire River systems which sometimes Span Many states. The Issue figures in deliberations on How to restore the flood damaged levee system on the upper Mississippi in states such As. Minnesota and Iowa. Quot out of this disaster can come an enormous Opportunity to restore the Basin american Rivers it. Showstack claims. Law requires the corps of engineers to rebuild the jeeves under its jurisdiction. But conservationists including some in the Agency argue that some recovery dollars would be better spent buying flood rights from. Farmers a. Stretches of land unaltered by levees would they say slow future floods and restore riparian zones. The Only systemic River restoration in the country a massive revamping of the Kissimmee River to restore. Florida s Everglades began last month. The corps will put curves Back in the River which the Agency straightened. With channels three decades ago to Drain the huge swamp for development. Quot like everybody else we re on a learning curve admits George Halford a spokesman for the engineers. Quot but we re . By the associated press in the 1960s, the government spent $30 million to turn the Kissir Nornee River into a 56-Miie-Long ditch. Now it has begun refilling part of that ditch to let the River return to a its old twisting course. The $372 million River restoration project the. Nation s largest according to the army corps of engineers a is also intended to improve the Quality of the water that flows to Lake Okeechobee and ultimately to the Everglades. Both have been suffering because of pollution from ranching and farming. The corps of engineers which dug the original ditch is also in charge of filling it in. Quot it s an exciting event a said Theresa Woody of the Sierra club. Quot it symbolizes a real commitment by this country to use the knowledge and skills of the army corps to Benefit the environment. These arc the Guys that have historically worn the Black hats. Bulldozers have begun Back filling some 1,000 feet of what is officially known As Quot canal 38&Quot feeding Lake Okeechobee. It is known As the Quot ditch to environmentalists and critics. A. The 60-Day, $860,000 Job will test construction. Methods to be used in the larger project. A the plan is simply to fill in 22 Miles of the canal and Force the River to spill out onto the floodplain and find its own Way to Okeechobee engineers expect the River will generally return to its old meandering bed which never was filled in. A a if All goes As designers Hope the River will in time abandon More of the ditch leaving Only about 13 Miles that will be maintained for flood control and to protect some nearby property. The work will result in restoring some 26,500 acres of wetlands and 40 Square Miles of River and floodplain ecosystem. _ the Kissimmee River has been on the Brink of death for. Two decades As a result of the flood control project which left it an oxygen starved drainage ditch 300 feet wide and 30 feet deep. The work was done after hurricanes caused some widespread flooding of bordering ranch and. Within five years state officials were admitting it was All a big mistake and began lobbying for restoration. Florida officials persuaded Congress in 1992 to fund half the Kissimmee restoration which includes compensating some of the ranchers and Farmers whose land will again be flooded. The state is paying the other. Half athe initial work will be monitored for several years Quot to see whether we did All the right things and to change anything we need to a said Patricia Scully project manager for the South Florida water management District. If the test fill can be stabilized and does t cause any further environmental problems full restoration work will begin in 1998. The entire project including work on he headwaters around Lake Kissimmee near Orlando is expected to take 10 to 15 years. The stars and stripes 17 the stars and stripes tuesday.01