Channelized riverbeds.

100 years ago the Nishnabotna River in western Iowa was dredged to form a straight channel from the headwaters to where it empties into the Missouri River. In its natural state was a very slow moving and winding river. Old timers said the fish and wildlife populations were unbelievable before straightening. Such a mistake.

I would have thought the Army Corpse (sic) of Engineers would have learned their lesson by now. You can't force Mother Nature to do your bidding.

Why would they do such a thing ? What was the purpose ? Flood control ? Navigation ?

typically they did that to improve drainage in surrounding lands to allow farming.
There is one small river in my area that had that done to it many years ago.

This not new stuff or recent political BS stuff. During and after WW11 when the USA and the Marshall plan fed most of Europe the government eased drainage and tiling regs and or even paid farmers to tile milllions of acres, drain wetlands and ditch and straighten thousands of miles of rivers, streams and ditches. I trap about 5 miles of a wadable size river of which about 2.5 miles of which has been ditched and straightened . Now they are getting paid to plant 30 foot buffer zones along the streams for catching erosion runoff clay and silt. All the tile lines and straightning make the water move faster and we get flashier sreams with high water quickly and less water later.
At the time those measures were thought to be the best options to create more and better yielding crop land. Not everying over time works the way we hoped that it would.

Bryce

The Corp of Engineers will use their toys at the first, and last, opportunity. A fine example of "improving" a watershed is the Kissimmee River in southern Florida. All that needs to be said about how they improved the Kissimmee can be summed up by the fact that now millions of taxpayer dollars have/are being spent to restore it to as close to original as is possible! What an enormous and expensive cluster it has been.

The lower Chariton River in Missouri is just as you describe. Hundreds of miles were cut off when it was channelized. Tremendous wildlife habitat was lost and is gone forever. Now it floods easily and is getting wider and shallower. The flood control levees are being built higher and higher. And all this with a big reservoir upstream in Iowa.(Lake Rathburn) Now the old channel is causing major drainage issues.
What a huge mistake.

I like my rivers like I like my ladies-straight, wide and shallow…

Agree 110% with Clay. It’s really sad at spots on my side of state simple wildlife management would have worked. And I do mean simple.

Aldo Leopold wrote about this way back in the 30’s and 40’s. How we straightened rivers and then realized it was a mistake. If you haven’t read “sand county almanac” I highly recommend it. A lot of wisdom in that man

they straightened out the kankakee river here in nw indiana. it was 250 miles long and they straightened it to a 90 mile long ditch. drained the largest lake in indiana into the ditch and built a town where the lake once was.

there is a really good documentary about it if you can find it. its called (everglades of the north, the story of the grand kankakee marsh)

here is a trailer to it.

https://youtu.be/2U4eR9v6n0w

They straightened the Allegheny River and channeled it going through the town of Coudersport here in PA. It's sad to see what the city folk do to wild rivers.

They channelized and concreted the Kinnickinnic River in Milwaukee years ago. It seems about every year one or more people drown after a storm.

The Long Tom river near me was straightened and rip rapped back in the 30's by the army corp of engineers. Now they are paying to put some sections back to natural state. The word ridiculous comes to mind.

Another great example of gov at its finest. Honestly have you EVER known the gov to actually "solve" a problem?

I like my ladies with lots of curves, fast and always with the feeling that if you step the wrong way you may get in over your head.

DirtyD-Bahahahahaha!

The old Nish is now down cutting and getting crooked as before. Dumping concrete chunks along the banks is helping some.

Anything we pilgrims have done to this beautiful landscape has been a mistake. The pure fact that we put dams in rivers just for electricity is atrocious and is responsible for a lot of the problems in the USA natural resource wise. The fact that we suck water from our freshwater in a commercial manner id also atrocious, its ok to me for well water for residential only but man. We should have been desalinating since 1900, the technology would be a lot further along amd we wouldnt have caused as much destruction. Just remember fellas 60M beaver, 60M bison, elk, deer, bear, wolves, we had the world paradise. Our greed and lack of macro thinking and long term suitable(1000 years+) have all but destroyed what was pristine all over.

Any work to restore the rivers to their natural state or as best as possible is good, but we need to outlaw hydro electricity and knock every one out, Including the hoover dam.

I generally Agree with you.
Lots of small rivers/creeks around here with old dams on them. The State says they are in bad state, either repair or take out. Sometimes they have silted up so badly they are nothing but a shallow pond choked with weeds all summer long. The only fish one finds is usually carp.The cost to repair is always highest, dredging usually comes next then cheaper usually to remove. Removal is always better for wildlife and fishing.
But the residents around these impoundments like their "lake" views.

I have seen one medium sized river that had a dam removed that the impoundment became a park/natural area with a fast flowing river now with smallmouth and walleye where there was only carp and northerns before. A big improvement.

Removing Hoover dam tho. That has lots more to it than just electric. Water supply for alot of the S.W. comes from that dam.

Trouble is alot of the S.W. would loose over 1/2 of its population if they had to reduce water and electrical power. But one big point is if you've ever been to Las Vegas its amazing to see all the water wasted while they complain about droughts and lack of water. I would think first step should be limiting electrical and water useage then look at dam removal.

The USACOE is the biggest destroyer of wetlands in the US. I'm from the government and here to help you!

Yes, please!

Not only that, they justify destroying wetlands by having developers pay to replace them with something that does not even function nearly as good. They call it mitigation.