Upper Mississippi River Wildlife & Fish Refuge

The Upper Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge is located along 284 miles of the Mississippi River valley extending from the confluence of the Chippewa River near Wabasha, MN, to near Rock Island, IL. The lands that make up the refuge lie in four states: MN, WI, IA, IL.

The Refuge is largely confined to the floodplain. The refuge provides migratory habitat for a large percentage of the migratory birds in the Mississippi Flyway. Tundra swans and canvasback ducks use the refuge as a resting and feeding area in the spring and fall.

Visitor Opportunities

Accessibility: The National Wildlife Refuge System is working to ensure that facilities and programs are accessible to visitors. Please contact the refuge office for information about accessibility at this unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The refuge maintains some 26 boat landings, although many are primitive and require upgrading for accessibility and rehabilitation after damaging floods of 1993 and 1997. However, access to the refuge is almost unlimited, due to in excess of 300 public boat landings and marinas. The refuge also maintains interpretive kiosks and interpretive signs at about 60 locations—at refuge access areas as well as at parks and waysides overlooking the refuge, including many at blufftop locations giving sweeping panoramic views of the refuge.

In recent years, the refuge has cooperated with local governments, sporting clubs, civic organizations, and volunteers to develop wildlife observation decks with interpretive signs at five locations. One deck, at Alma, WI, was built on Corps of Engineers land, which is managed as part of the refuge, using refuge funds to purchase materials, construction done by the city, signs provided by the refuge, and staffed during Tundra Swan migration by 30 volunteers. Last year "Alma Swan Watch" attracted over 10,000 visitors.

The refuge has four district offices. Two have small interpretive areas. It is hoped that we will eventually have more adequate interpretive facilities in all four districts.

The refuge is open year-round with no fees, except for trapping permits and fees associated with the Potter's Marsh waterfowl hunt.

Visitors are attracted to the refuge by the wide diversity of birds that migrate along the river corridor. Spectacular waterfowl migrations, including large numbers of tundra swans and canvasbacks as well as raptors, bald eagles, neotropical migrants, and shorebirds. Hugh rookeries of great blue herons and great egrets exist on the refuge as well as over 60 eagle nests. In recent years, summer has seen large populations of white pelicans and double-crested cormorants loafing on Upper Mississippi and Trempealeau refuges.

Management Programs
The Refuge receives $5-8 million annually for habitat projects under the Corps of Engineers-funded Environmental Management Program. These projects include a mix of wetland management, grassland/forest management, and fisheries attributes. Types of projects include active water level management, island building, closing structures, bank stabilization, oxygenation of backwaters, and dredging areas for over wintering fish. In addition, the refuge works with the Corps to find ways to make their channel maintenance program much more environmentally friendly. This presently involves environmentally sound means of handling dredged material disposal, but will ultimately involve notching, building, or eliminating parts of the navigation infrastructure to redirect flows and eliminate sedimentation problems in critical habitat. Current management work also involves planning for a pool wide drawdown to revitalize one of the navigation pools, with more pools to follow. More typical refuge programs include restoration of native grass prairie, forestry management work, waterfowl banding, surveys for waterfowl, neotropical migrants, colonial nesting birds, eagles, and marsh and water birds, invertebrate sampling, and vegetative monitoring.

Directions
Located in downtown Winona, Minnesota, on the corners of 4th and Center Street.

51 E. 4th St., Rm. 101
Winona, MN 55987
Phone (507) 452-4232
Fax (507) 452-0851
E-mail jim_fisher@fws.gov