Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife & Fish Refuge

 

John Lindell, District Manager
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Upper Mississippi Refuge
McGregor District Office
McGregor, IA 52157

modified from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service document RF3-32579-1-11/86

 

        Introduction

The upper reaches of America’s mighty Mississippi River have seen many changes since their exploration by French missionaries and traders.  Cities and towns now occupy the sites of historic Indian villages and trading posts.  Modern highways have replaced the ancient trails along the riverbanks.  Legions of small watercraft, yachts, and ponderous barges travel the waterways.  A lock and dam system maintains a 9-foot navigation channel.  Yet the visitor viewing the great valley from the bluffs today still notes much of the Upper Mississippi’s wilderness beauty as the early explorers saw it.  The great cliffs still loom above the river.  A carpet of woodlands shrouds the cities and other evidences of man’s presence.  Fish and wildlife still abound in many places, and the Father of Waters continues to roll ever southward to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge was established by Act of Congress on June 7, 1924.  Original acreages for the project were acquired through purchases, donation, and by withdrawal from the public domain.  The area was later enlarged by additional land acquisitions of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for navigational improvements.  These additional tracts are managed as a part of the refuge.  Today the Upper Mississippi Refuge consists of about 200,000 acres of wooded islands, waters, and marshes extending more than 260 miles southward along the river bottoms from Wabasha, Minnesota, to nearly Rock Island, Illinois.  The river bottoms forming the refuge are from 2 to 5 miles wide.  This great river refuge demonstrates man’s ability to preserve scenic, recreational, and wildlife resources amidst the needs of modern civilization.

The Upper Mississippi Refuge is unique among wildlife conservation areas.  Its boundaries are the longest of any refuge in the lower 48 states, for it extends hundreds of miles along the river in four states – Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois.  Containing differing life zones and climactic conditions, some 270 species of birds, 57 species of mammals, 45 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 113 species of fish are found here.  Eleven dams and locks within the refuge boundaries form a series of pools that vary from 10 to 30 miles long.  The dams have raised water levers, creating a maze of channels, sloughs, marshlands, and open lakes over the bottomlands.  Excellent stands of aquatic plants have developed, creating habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.

The Upper Mississippi Valley is a major migration route for birds.  Among the more spectacular seasonal flights are those of the waterfowl.  Thousands of tundra swans stop at favorite resting areas during the Spring flight.  Large numbers of canvasbacks use the refuge, especially during Fall migration.  At times, up to 75% of the canvasback continental population may be seen on Pools 7 and 8 (between Genoa and Trempealeau, Wisconsin) alone.  Other diving ducks – principally lesser scaup, ringnecks, redheads, buffleheads, and ruddies – gather on open pools above the dams.  Mallards, wigeon, gadwall, teal, and other surface-feeding species are found in the shallow backwaters along the riverbanks.  The Mississippi River bottoms are favorite haunts of the wood duck (Fig. 3).  Thousands of these brilliantly marked birds feed in the protected sloughs and shallows and nest in the hollow trees along the islands and bluffs. 

The bald eagle, our national emblem, nests and winters in numbers on the Upper Mississippi Refuge.  These majestic birds concentrate below the dams or near the mouths of tributaries where fish provide a ready food supply.  Spectacular migrations of other birds are noted during spring and fall when hordes of warblers, vireos, thrushes, and sparrows drift through the trees and shrubs of the river islands and bluffs.  Whip-poor-wills and pileated woodpeckers call in the remote woodland areas.

The refuge bottomlands harbor myriads of marsh and water birds such as herons, egrets, bitterns, and rails.  Many large rookeries may be observed in more remote reaches where hundreds of great blue herons and egrets raise their young.

Major furbearers along the Mississippi include muskrat, mink, beaver (Fig. 4), otter, raccoon, skunk, weasel, and fox.  A few nutria have appeared in recent years.  Other mammals include gray and fox squirrels, cottontails, jackrabbits, and white-tailed deer, which are abundant in the timbered areas, plus about 40 smaller non-game animals.

 

Visiting the Refuge

The Upper Mississippi Refuge offers unsurpassed opportunities for sightseeing, outdoor recreation, and nature study.  It accommodates some 3 million visitors annually for such activities as wildlife observation, environmental education, boating, fishing, hunting, bird study, and sightseeing.

The river valley is rich in historical lore. Traces of ancient mound-building tribes are found along the bluffs and bottomlands.  Signs and markers point out the sites of old Indian battlegrounds, villages, forts, trading posts, and the routes of early explorers.  Black Hawk, the famous Sac and Fox chief, fought here.  Names like Marquette and Dubuque recall early French settlement and influence in the valley.

 

McGregor District

 

The McGregor District of the Upper Mississippi Refuge was established in 1924.  The District’s jurisdiction stretches for 97 miles along the river, including 78,441 acres around Navigation Pools 9, 10 and 11. The District serves about 910,000 visitors annually.  The McGregor office (Fig. 5) is located just a few miles north of the park and about 1 mile north of McGregor, Iowa, on Highway 18.  It also houses a Visitor Contact Station with displays and written information. To contact the office:

          U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
          Upper Mississippi Refuge
          McGregor District Office
          P.O. Box 460
          McGregor, IA 52157

          Phone: (319) 873-3423

          Fax: (319) 873-3803

 

Additional information about the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife & Fish Refuge can be obtained at any of their offices, including the Refuge Headquarters in Winona, Minnesota, or district offices in Winona, LaCrosse, Wisconsin; Savanna, Illinois, or at McGregor.

 

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* Figures 2, 3, and 6 modified from U.S.G.S. Photo Archive.

Figure 6.  The Walleye is a favorite Mississippi River game fish *. Stizostedion vitreum vitreum The largest U.S. member of the perch family, the walleye has a record weight of 25 pounds. They occur throughout central and eastern continental North America from the freshwater areas adjacent to Hudson Bay southward to extreme northern Mississippi and Alabama and stocking continually extends their range. Walleye inhabit open waters of large and small lakes, reservoirs, and the deep pools of streams; and voraciously feed on other fishes, insects and crustaceans. The walleye is considered to be one of the best eating of all freshwater fishes. Spawning occurs at night, sometimes in extremely shallow water.  USFWS   _____________________________________________ from Anderson, R.R. (ed.), 2000, The Natural History of Pikes Peak State Park, Clayton County, Iowa: Geological Society of Iowa Guidebook 70, p. 1.

 

 

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