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Introduction

The Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP), a component of the Environmental Management Program for the Upper Mississippi River System, is administered by the U.S. Geological Survey's Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (Center) in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The LTRMP supports six field stations operated by state agencies in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin (Figure 1) to collect most of the monitoring data. Data on important ecosystem components, including water quality, vegetation, macroinvertebrates, and fish, are obtained using standardized operating procedures. Monitoring activities focus primarily on six study areas: Navigation Pools 4, 8, 13, and 26 and the Open River reach on the Mississippi River and La Grange Pool on the Illinois River. Information from monitoring activities and a variety of other sources are available at the Center's Data Library Web site http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/data_library/data_library.html. This report summarizes activities, results, and highlights of the LTRMP during 1999 for hydrology, water quality, vegetation, macroinvertebrates, and fish.