State Facts
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The Service employs
441 people in Minnesota, and about half of those are at the Regional
Office at Ft. Snelling.
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The Fiscal Year
2006 Resource Management budget for Service activities in Minnesota
totaled $40.6 million
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13 National Wildlife
Refuges totaling more than 214,000 acres
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Eight Wetland Management
Districts totaling more than 267,000 acres
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In 2004, more
than 4.4 million people visited national wildlife refuges and wetland
districts in Minnesota to hunt, fish, participate in interpretive
programs and view wildlife
Federal Assistance
to State Fish and Wildlife Programs
In 2006 Minnesota
received:
Waterfowl Production
Areas
Incorporated into the
refuge system in 1966, nearly 95 percent of waterfowl production areas are located in the prairie wetlands or “
potholes” of the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin. If wetlands in this vast prairie pothole region were not saved from drainage, hundreds of species of migratory birds would have been seriously threatened or become extinct.
Although waterfowl
production areas, easements, and National Wildlife Refuges account for
less than 2 percent of the landscape in the prairie pothole region states,
they are responsible for producing nearly 23 percent of this area’s
waterfowl. That is why working with private landowners through voluntary
partnerships to enhance wetlands is so critical to protecting waterfowl.
By law, waterfowl production
areas are open to hunting, fishing, and trapping. Other important wildlife-dependent
uses include wildlife observation, photography, and environmental education.
Protecting Endangered
Species The Twin Cities Ecological Services
Field Office works
to conserve and protect the 16 federally listed endangered, threatened or candidate species in Minnesota. Actions to save these species from extinction result in improved water quality, preservation and restoration of natural areas, clean up of contaminants, and restoration of degraded rivers and streams.
The Service leads recovery
work for the winged mapleleaf, an endangered species considered to be
one of the rarest freshwater mussels in North America. The Twin Cities
Ecological Services Field Office works with researchers from the University of Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, USGS, the La Crosse Fishery Resource Office, and National Park Service. Recent accomplishments include identifying channel catfish and blue catfish as suitable hosts, undertaking river studies to ensure artificial propagation and reintroduction follows the mussels’ natural cycle, and monitoring range expansion of invasive zebra mussels.
