Dr. Andrew Wickert of the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory presented final results from an ENRTF‑funded study of sedimentation in the Whitewater River valley.

Wickert described digitizing and georeferencing historical cross‑section surveys (1939–1994) and combining them with auger borings to reconstruct pre‑settlement surfaces and measure valley infilling. He said the historical record shows roughly 2 to 2.5 centimeters per year of mean elevation change between 1855 and 1939 — approximately six to seven feet of sedimentation through portions of the valley — driven initially by poor agricultural practice and later partly mitigated by federal conservation programs.

The research team recovered many of the original survey monuments and collaborated with Winona State University, Minnesota State University (Mankato), and UW–Eau Claire for story maps and time‑series air‑photo analyses. Wickert emphasized the practical goal of using the long record for physics‑based river models to project how river channels and floodplain sedimentation will respond under future land‑use and precipitation scenarios.

Wickert told the commission the project budget was about $199,000 and said the team plans to publish modeling work in the coming months and make datasets available for public use. Commission members probed methods for distinguishing legacy sediment from contemporary erosion; Wickert described indicators in upland color signatures and noted continued work to separate ongoing erosion from legacy deposits.

Attribution: Dr. Andrew Wickert (St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota) presented the research and fielded questions. Chair Albright and commission members asked follow‑up questions.