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Trumpeter swans at Union Slough NWR
Tour Route will be open again from May 9-18, 2025

The Auto Tour Route is currently closed to reduce disturbance to migrating waterfowl using the Core Area of the refuge.  The Tour Route will be open again from May 9-18, 2025 in celebration of World Migratory Bird Day.

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USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program logo featuring a crane and a fish in a wetland
Partners for Fish and Wildlife

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a program called Partners for Fish and Wildlife that provides free technical and financial assistance to landowners, managers, tribes, corporations, schools and nonprofits interested in improving wildlife habitat on their land.  

If you're interested in prairie, wetland, and/or oxbow restoration, please contact the Iowa Private Lands Coordinator: Drew Diallesandro, andrew_diallesandro@fws.gov, 515-994-3400

Union Slough is all that remains of a pre-glacial riverbed. Actually, the area is a connection point, or union, between two watersheds - the Blue Earth River of Minnesota and the east fork of the Des Moines River. Before European settlement, the area was so level that the wind determined which way the slough flowed. Established in 1938 as a migratory waterfowl refuge, Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge provides critical habitat for native prairie and wetland wildlife in a landscape dominated by intensive agriculture.

Visit Us

National wildlife refuges offer the outdoor enthusiast an opportunity to escape from the stresses of daily life and reconnect with nature. Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge has excellent ways for outdoor enthusiasts to connect with the natural world.

Location and Contact Information

      Our Species

      More than 240 species of birds have been seen on Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge, with more than 100 species known nest on the refuge. The refuge is the epicenter of trumpeter swan nesting in Iowa. Federally threatened prairie bush-clover and state endangered Blanding’s turtles are found on the refuge.