Jerry Boardman doesn’t remember exactly when he started collecting acorns in the fall.
But the thousands upon thousands of them he gathers to share with people working to improve habitat along the Mississippi River makes the 81-year-old resident of De Soto, Wisconsin, a small village between La Crosse and Prairie du Chien, a pretty big deal.
“It’s like a myth or a legend,” Andy Meier, a forester for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who receives a portion of Boardman’s bounty, said of the integral role it plays in his work. “It just has always been that way.”
In reality, Boardman began collecting around the time when the need for acorns—a nut that contains the seed that grows oak trees—was growing critical. For the past few decades, the trees that grow in the Mississippi River floodplain, known as floodplain forests, have been struggling. Although they’re named for their ability to withstand the river’s seasonal flooding, they’ve recently been overwhelmed by higher water and longer-lasting floods.
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Overall, forest cover along the stretch of the river from Minnesota down to Clinton, Iowa decreased by roughly 6% between 1989 and 2010, according to a 2022 report on ecological trends on the upper Mississippi. In the years since, losses in some places have neared 20%—and were particularly acute following a massive flood event in 2019.Â
Jerry Boardman of De Soto, Wisconsin. Photo courtesy Jerry Boardman ” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jerry-b_agwater-only_courtesy-Jerry-Boardman.jpg?fit=169%2C300&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jerry-b_agwater-only_courtesy-Jerry-Boardman.jpg?fit=576%2C1024&ssl=1″ src=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jerry-b_agwater-only_courtesy-Jerry-Boardman.jpg?resize=576%2C1024&ssl=1″ alt=”An older man sits on a boat on the water holding a fish in his hands” class=”wp-image-51125″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jerry-b_agwater-only_courtesy-Jerry-Boardman.jpg?resize=576%2C1024&ssl=1 576w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jerry-b_agwater-only_courtesy-Jerry-Boardman.jpg?resize=169%2C300&ssl=1 169w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jerry-b_agwater-only_courtesy-Jerry-Boardman.jpg?resize=400%2C711&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jerry-b_agwater-only_courtesy-Jerry-Boardman.jpg?w=585&ssl=1 585w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jerry-b_agwater-only_courtesy-Jerry-Boardman-576×1024.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w” sizes=”(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px”>Jerry Boardman of De Soto, Wisconsin. Photo courtesy Jerry Boardman
What exactly is driving the excess water isn’t fully fleshed out, but climate change and changes in land use that cause water to run off the landscape faster are likely factors.
The result is mass stretches of dead trees that can no longer perform their functions
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