According to NASA the Mississippi River carries roughly 550 million metric tonnes (500 million tons) of sediment into the Gulf of Mexico each year.
Unless current sedimentation rates in UMR backwaters are reduced, many wetland and aquatic habitats will be converted to less-desirable upland habitat types in the future.
Solving this problem will be an extraordinary task because it will involve taking action throughout the 100+ million acres of the UMR watershed. Reducing sediment input will require remedial actions from the river’s main stem to the heads of tributaries hundreds of miles upstream and involve diverse stakeholders throughout the watershed.
