Proceedings of the Floodplain Vegetation Monitoring Workshop for the Long Term Resource Monitoring Element of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, January 7–8, 2025, Moline, Illinois

Preface 

In anticipation for increased funding made possible by the Water Resources Development Act of 2020, the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program identified a need to conduct river-wide assessments of floodplain vegetation. In January 2025, we assembled a group of subject matter experts to perform the following tasks:

1. Review Upper Mississippi River Restoration’s current floodplain vegetation research portfolio,
2. Identify important features and goals for long-term floodplain vegetation monitoring,
3. Evaluate the suitability of existing datasets for system-wide vegetation assessments, and
4. Discuss emerging opportunities to learn about floodplain vegetation dynamics from local-scale restoration and management projects.

This document is a summarization of what occurred at the meeting and provides suggested next steps toward developing the capacity to conduct routine long-term monitoring and assessment of floodplain vegetation as part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program.