FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
EA 07 -40 Don Hultman, 507-494-6218
May 7, 2007 Chuck Traxler, 612-713-5313
Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge
Comprehensive Conservation Plan Moving Forward
– Some Actions Will Be Delayed
Several actions outlined in the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for the Upper
Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge are moving forward, while other
key provisions will be delayed one year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The CCP for the 240,000-acre refuge — which includes areas in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota
and Wisconsin — was approved in November 2006, following a four-year development
process including significant public involvement. The plan will guide management and
administration of the refuge for the next 15 years.
Refuge Manager Don Hultman said the rule making package for changes to hunting on
the refuge is in Washington and the proposed rules are expected to be published in the
Federal Register this summer, perhaps as early as June. There will be a 30-day public
comment period once the rules are published.
“In addition to the required Federal Register notice, we’ll also notify the media and post
the proposed rules on our website to help ensure the public is aware of the rule and can
provide comments if they would like,” Hultman said.
The rule, which amends the current hunting and fishing regulations for the refuge,
reflects changes approved by the CCP, fine-tunes language in the current refuge-specific
regulations for clarity and ease of enforcement, and will include other modest changes to
modernize the regulations and make them consistent with sound fish and wildlife
management practices.
-MORE-
2-
Hultman said the refuge regulations process is independent of the rulemaking of the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, although he has been coordinating with the
DNR and will continue to do so.
Votes at recent spring hearings across Wisconsin showed a large majority of the people in
attendance did not want the state to adopt closed area rules that matched those of the
refuge.
“We hope in the end that Wisconsin regulations match ours so their officers can enforce
the closed area changes and help us improve waterfowl populations on the refuge. But as
we have said all along, we are prepared to move forward on actions approved in the CCP
regardless of the outcome of the state’s rulemaking process,” Hultman said. “The other
three states the refuge includes can automatically enforce refuge regulations.”
Waterfowl Hunting Closed Areas Changing
Hultman said the biggest change for the 2007-08 hunting season will be changes to the
system of waterfowl hunting closed areas that provide resting and feeding areas for
waterfowl in navigation Pools 5 through 14. As called for in the CCP, changes to the
closed areas in Pool 4 have been delayed until 2009 as monitoring of waterfowl use in
these areas continues.
For fall 2007, the proposed rule calls for eight new closed areas scattered throughout the
261-mile-long refuge. Three existing closed areas would have modest expansions, three
would be reduced in size and eight large closed areas would remain unchanged.
According to the CCP, when all changes are implemented in 2009, there will be 23
closed areas or sanctuaries, totaling 43,652 acres, compared with the current 15 areas
totaling 44,544 acres. Another 1,406 acres will be closed only after November 1 in the
Wisconsin River Delta area of Pool 10.
Also planned for this season is a change to open water hunting regulations on 4,000 acres
of Pool 11 in Grant County, Wis., and the prohibition of permanent hunting blinds on the
refuge in Pool 12. The Grant County area remains open to hunting, but restricts open
water hunting from boats to protect large rafts of scaup and canvasback ducks.
Even with the above changes, Hultman said more than 187,000 acres of the refuge
remains open to all hunting, and this acreage will continue to increase as new lands are
acquired.
-MORE-
3-
New Signs Will Soon Appear
Hultman said beginning this month, refuge staff will be changing the signs on those
boundaries of closed areas and no hunting zones that are remaining the same.
The new signs look similar to those used for decades, although all signs related to hunting
will now have an orange bar on the top of the sign face so hunters can more easily
distinguish them from other boundary signs used on the refuge now or in the future.
Hultman said posting over a dozen closed areas totaling about 40,000 acres is a time
consuming task, and it is important to get started well-ahead of the fall hunting seasons.
Signing of other boundary changes will await the outcome of the rule making process.
Besides signs, the refuge will make available a new hunting brochure and pool-by-pool
maps prior to the hunting season, although the timing of distribution is dependent on the
final rules approval.
New Electric Motor Areas and Slow, No-Wake Areas Delayed
The establishment of four new electric motor only areas and eight new seasonal slow, nowake
areas will not take place until sometime in 2008 versus 2007 as earlier anticipated
in the CCP.
In the electric motor areas, watercraft must be powered by electric motors or nonmotorized
means. In slow, no-wake areas, watercraft must travel at slow, no-wake
speeds from March 16 through October 31. Also, operation of airboats or hovercraft in
the slow, no-wake areas would not be allowed during these dates.
Hultman said establishing these areas is considered a new federal rule, and thus has a
longer review and comment process compared to amendments to existing rules like those
governing closed areas.
“There is just no way could we get this new rule through the system in time for
implementing in 2007,” Hultman said. He said the rule package for these areas, as well
as other general recreation regulations governing glass containers and some other
components of the CCP, will be submitted to Washington in the coming weeks.
These proposed rules will also be published in the Federal Register for public comment,
with local media and public notification and posting on the refuge website.
“I’d be surprised if these were even published before the end of the year given the more
lengthy internal reviews in Washington,” he said.
-MORE-
4-
Decision Made on Black River Bottoms Area
Hultman also said he has made a decision on the location and configuration of the
proposed Black River Bottoms slow, no-wake area in Pool 7 upriver from La Crosse,
Wis.
“As outlined in the CCP, we held further meetings with individuals in the area and are
making changes to the boundaries of the area to accommodate power watercraft travel
needs,” Hultman said.
He said the northern third of the area is being deleted above and including Hammond
Chute so there will be unrestricted access west from the Black River to the main river
channel and other areas of the refuge. An approximately 85-acre area was added on the
southwest side. The new slow, no-wake area will now total 815 acres versus the 1,165-
acre area originally shown in the CCP.
Hultman said this change will be reflected in the rule making package covering all
electric motor areas and slow, no-wake areas. A map of the proposed area is available on
the refuge’s website.
Step-Down Plans Moving Ahead
Hultman said in the coming weeks he expects the release of draft plans for furbearer
management, or trapping, on the refuge and for waterfowl hunting in the Gibbs Lake area
in Pool 7, just north of the existing Lake Onalaska closed area.
“We have received a lot of input already from the states and interest groups on the
framework for these plans, and held two public workshops on the Gibbs Lake plan,” he
said. The furbearer plan will be distributed for a 30-day public comment period and the
Gibbs Lake plan for a 60-day period. Implementation of either final plan will not occur
until fall 2008.
Hultman said work continues on a step-down law enforcement plan in coordination with
the four states, along with several land acquisition packages, large Environmental
Management Program habitat projects, and interpretive signing and wildlife observation
overlooks, all of which were identified in the CCP.
-MORE-
5-
For More Information
Hultman said the CCP and Final Environmental Impact Statement remain available at the
refuge’s planning website: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/planning/uppermiss. The CCP
contains detailed information on proposed changes, as well as tables and pool-by-pool
maps. For maps and other details, persons should click on the “CCP November 2006”
link.
Information on step-down plans such as Gibbs Lake, and the Black River Bottoms slow,
no-wake area will be posted on the refuge’s regular website:
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/UpperMississippiRiver
With an estimated 3.7 million annual visitors, the “Upper Miss” Refuge is the most
visited in the U.S., exceeding levels at most national parks. It also has the added
complexity of a major navigation system, including 11 locks and dams within its
boundary. It is also a world-class fish and wildlife area which harbors 306 species of
birds; 119 species of fish; more than 160 active bald eagle nests; thousands of heron and
egret nests; spectacular concentrations of canvasback ducks, tundra swans, and white
pelicans; and several threatened or endangered species. The refuge was established in
1924.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for
conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the
continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 96-million-acre
National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses 546 national wildlife refuges,
thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66
national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field
stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species
Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries,
conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments
with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes
hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state
fish and wildlife agencies.
May 7, 2007 at 11:09 pm
#1216811
