The public is invited to the open house session to be held at the Refuge Visitor Center, located 5 miles west of Missouri Valley, Iowa, on U.S. 30, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., September 14, 1999. Those attending may come at any time during the open house to view maps and other displays, consider refuge purpose and mission statements, visit one-on-one with Service representatives, and to give their suggestions for future management of the refuge. The input received will be evaluated and used to plan for future refuge programs and operations.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge is in the initial stages of preparing its comprehensive conservation plan that will guide refuge activities and operations for the next 15 years. The new plan will likely include most of the current refuge programs; but, unlike previous plans, there will be an extensive effort to obtain ideas and concerns from the public, refuge users and neighbors, and refuge partner agencies.
The Service is updating management plans for all lands in the National Wildlife Refuge System, which includes more than 500 refuges across the country. The planning effort is part of the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1997 which requires national wildlife refuges to reassess their capabilities to protect fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats while also providing compatible wildlife-dependent public uses.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1958, is located in the Missouri River floodplain approximately 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, a metropolitan area of about 700,000 people. Its 7,823 acres include a 7-mile, 750-acre oxbow lake. DeSoto Lake was created by a levee constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1960 to shorten and realign the main channel of the Missouri River. The principal refuge objective is to provide habitat for migratory waterfowl and endangered species. A secondary objective is to provide compatible public recreational opportunities, including wildlife observation, photography, fishing, hunting, interpretation, and environmental education.
Missouri River ecology and the steamboating era of the mid-1800s are dramatically presented at DeSotos visitor center and museum that focus on artifacts recovered and restored from the Bertrand, a mountain steamer that sank within the current refuge boundaries in 1865; the Bertrand was excavated in 1968 and 1969. Refuge lands containing approximately 2,700 acres of woodlands, 1,600 acres of grasslands, 900 acres of water, and 2,000 acres of croplands annually host up to 500,000 snow geese, 50,000 ducks, 100-plus bald eagles, and 310,000 people.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System comprising more than 500 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands, and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries 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 wildlife agencies. For further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our home page at: http://www.fws.gov/r3pao/
