GALENA, Ill. -- First comes the tagging, then comes the evaluation.

On a mild, early November morning in Fish Trap Lake, a Mississippi River backwater, Mike Steuck delicately installs a radio transmitter through the dorsal fin of a white crappie.

The intent is to track the fish over the next 441 days.

"It's exciting," said Steuck, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist. "We can get a lot of good information."

It's the first piece of a multi-partnered and multi-tiered project designed to improve the river's Pool 12 fishery. The backwater sloughs are popular fishing areas, and crappies are a popular game fish.

DNR fisheries biologists are tagging 200 crappies in four different Pool 12 Illinois backwater areas -- part of a collaborative effort. The fish will be tracked to see where their overwintering areas are, how and where they disperse in the spring, and if they return to the same backwater.

Crappies typically disperse an average of about one or two miles during the summer to deeper side channels.

Kirk Hansen, a DNR fisheries biologist who heads the Pool 12 effort, said crappies, like other panfish, need sufficient water depth in the backwaters to maintain needed oxygen levels for survival. Using the data collected from the transmitters, biologists can determine what backwater areas require rehabilitation.

"They make it deeper and make it more hospitable for the fish, which ultimately improves the fishery," Hansen said.

The project is part of the federal Environmental Management Program. Under the program, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers plans, designs and builds numerous environmental enhancement projects that restore and create spawning and feeding habitats for fish and wildlife in the river's backwaters and side channels.

Pool 12 is part of a new generation of projects within the program. It is similar to the successful rehab projects in Pool 11's Mud and Sunfish lakes. Fish survival is evaluated and documented.

The Corps will analyze the data to determine which of six overwintering areas need improving.

According to Marvin Hubbell, regional manager of the Environmental Management Program with the Corps' Rock Island District, the initial plan is to address three areas, yet to be determined.

"There's a common interest in a healthy river," said Hubbell, of the Iowa DNR's efforts in Illinois waters. "Fish don't recognize a state's boundary or water quality. There's a lot of interplay between the two states."