High Meadows Rum River Re-meander

This project will restore and enhance aquatic and terrestrial habitat by reconnecting over a mile of the Rum River to its historic channel using natural channel restoration principals including woody debris and native plants. We will repair a shortcut in the river channel caused by anthropogenic sources prior to the 1950s, which has since grown into a much larger eroded channel. This shortcut has caused excessive sedimentation, channel headcutting, floodplain disconnection and erosion of adjacent MN DNR lands. The repair design includes removal of aggraded sediment from the natural channel in order to activate the channel. Once the natural channel is activated sheer stress will be reduced enough to put a plug (fill with two toe-wood sod mats) into the man-made diversion. The river will then flow stably through its natural 1-mile plus channel. The bank will be revegetated with native plants.