Mississippi River Basin

Today, the Mississippi River faces unprecedented challenges. Increasingly intense flooding, nutrient runoff that creates a dead zone in the Gulf of America, invasive species and changing flows strain the river’s infrastructure and threaten homes, communities and livelihoods.

What We Can Achieve Together

The Nature Conservancy has set ambitious goals to transform how we conduct and influence conservation across the whole basin to put the system on a path toward resilience. We develop projects, partnerships and policies that protect essential lands, habitats, and waters, while deepening our understanding of the connections between people and place.

Our achievable goal is to restore and protect the Mississippi River Basin’s natural systems so that it can sustain present and future generations. 

Our Priorities

At TNC, we prioritize strategies, projects and programs that achieve multiple outcomes and benefits to increase connectivity, support healthy habitats for wildlife and improve water quality. We equip partners and staff with research and science-based tools to inform planning and outcome measurement. We convene farmers, communities, government agencies and businesses and employ nature-based solutions to improve resilience to flooding and reduce flood risk. 

Resilient Flow

Floodplains—the marginal lands between farms, residences and cities and the river—absorb the increased flow of the river, help to filter harmful nutrients from the water and provide natural habitats for wildlife. Healthy floodplains are vital to a healthy river system. This is why TNC prioritizes restoring and protecting these marginal lands throughout the Mississippi River Basin.

We aim to protect and restore two million floodplain acres by 2030.

Together with partners, communities and leaders, TNC’s Mississippi River Basin program creates and participates in system-wide initiatives to reconnect floodplains at scale.

We employ science-based methods and tools to identify changes that will have the broadest impact on flood mitigation, water quality and habitat restoration.

Reducing Harmful Nutrients to Restore Healthy Water

Millions of people and wildlife species depend on the Mississippi River for fresh water. Nutrient runoff from farm fields and water pollution of all kinds have created a dead zone in the Gulf of America, which threatens drinking water, biodiversity and recreation throughout the basin.

Practices on land and water throughout the basin profoundly affect water quality and jeopardize health of both the river and those who depend on it.

Our goal is to reduce nitrate in the Mississippi River by 30% by 2030.

TNC partners with communities, businesses, landowners and policy makers to implement practices that can improve water quality using science-based solutions in places contributing the highest levels of nutrients.

We use two different methods—in-stream monitors and satellite images—to collect data and assess water quality. Together, we have proven the technical feasibility of a low-cost, satellite-based nutrient monitoring system in the Mississippi River Basin that turns satellite imagery into “virtual” water quality gauges.

Restoring and Protecting Wildlife Habitats

Reconnecting floodplains that have been cut off from the river and restoring wetlands protects natural structures that are critical for wildlife. Navigational structures and natural changes to the river can have the unintended effect of disconnecting floodplains and wetlands from the river. The resulting landscape changes can have detrimental effects on wildlife habitats. For example, some fish need the shallow water of oxbows to spawn, and migrating birds rely on islands in the river to rest.

TNC is working to reconnect floodplains and restore habitats throughout the basin. We developed a map-based modeling tool to assess locations that would benefit from restoration and scale our work basin-wide. We work with the Army Corps of Engineers, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as local governments and landowners to introduce nature-based solutions to protect and restore floodplains and wetlands now and for the future.