Contacting the Refuge:

Complex Manager: Don Hultman
e-mail: UpperMississippiRiver@fws.gov or MidwestNews@fws.gov

51 East 4th Street
Room 101
Winona, MN 55987
Phone: 507-452-4232
Fax: 507-452-0851
TTY: 1-800-877-8339 (Federal Relay)

The Refuge office is located
in downtown Winona

Home Page: http://midwest.fws.gov/UpperMississippiRiver/

View Refuge profile page

Refuge Facts

• Established: 1924

• Acres: nearly 240,000

• Refuge covers 261 miles of the Mississippi River Valley from Wabasha, Minn., to Rock Island, Ill., and is divided into four districts

• The refuge includes land owned by both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 19 counties across four states

Financial Impact of Refuge

• Seven-person staff at Refuge Headquarters 3.5 million visitors annually (refuge-wide)

• FY 2006 budget: $793,000 (headquarters) and $5 million (refugewide)

• Mississippi River annually contributes an estimated $1 billion in recreational benefits to the region

Natural History

• Scenic river area with broad pools, braided channels, islands and bluffs rising several hundred feet

• Critical migratory bird corridor for waterfowl, songbirds and raptors

• Thousands of tundra swans are present during migration

• Over 160 active bald eagle nests and more than 4,000 nests in 13 heron rookeries

• Refuge and river support many fish species valuable for both commercial and recreational fishing

• National Scenic Byways on both sides of the refuge

• 50 percent of the world’s canvasback ducks stop on the refuge

• 40 percent of the continent’s waterfowl use the Mississippi River flyway during migration

Refuge Objectives

• Protect and preserve one of America’s premier fish and wildlife areas

• Provide habitat for migratory birds, fish, plants, resident wildlife and endangered species

• Provide interpretation, environmental education and wildlife-dependent public use opportunities

• Conserve a diversity of plant life

Public Use Opportunities

• Hunting, trapping and fishing

• Environmental education

• Wildlife observation

• Boating and camping