What We Do
Station Goals
- Provides a permanent forum for facilitating management of the aquatic natural resources of the Lower Mississippi River leveed floodplain.
- Restore and enhance aquatic habitat in the Lower Mississippi River leveed floodplain and tributaries.
- Collaborate on multi-agency partnerships to implement strategic objectives identified in the National Control and Management Plan for Invasive Carps.
- Conserve, restore, and enhance aquatic habitats benefitting at-risk and T&E species.
- Increase public awareness and encourage sustainable use of the Lower Mississippi River's natural resources.
Management and Conservation
The Lower Mississippi River Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office implements collaborative conservation projects in the region and raises awareness of the many values of America’s Greatest River. LMRFWCO also provides coordination for both the Lower Mississippi River and the Arkansas, Red and White Rivers Sub-basin Asian Carp partnerships. In addition, the LMRFWCO fosters partnerships for conservation efforts to preclude the listing of at risk species such as the Yazoo Darter, a species endemic to the Yocona and Little Tallahatchie River drainages in North Mississippi; to date three habitat restoration projects have been implemented to improve fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.
Learn more about fish passage for Yazoo Darter.
Our 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.
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 50 years prompting most states within their historic range to enact...