In February, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced its intention to develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to identify options for conserving fish and wildlife resources of the northern region of the tallgrass prairie in northwest Iowa and western Minnesota. Although within an area beginning at the Canadian border and extending to near Des Moines, Iowa, prairie preservation will occur only on widely scattered prairie remnants within some of the 85 counties under consideration in the two states.
An important early phase of the planning process is "scoping" which is getting peoples ideas and concerns so that alternatives and issues important to them are considered in early planning. The Service hosted a series of open houses February 26 through March 8 at four Iowa and six Minnesota locations to give the public an opportunity to discuss the EIS with Service representatives and provide comments.
Information gathered before, during and after the scoping meetings helped the Service identify three alternatives which will be developed in the draft EIS. Combining all stakeholder responses, nearly 1,400 people provided comments and other input. "This will play an important part in determining how the Fish and Wildlife Service meets its stewardship responsibilities for the valuable and diverse natural resources of the Tallgrass Prairie," Bill Hartwig, Service Regional Director, said. Important Service trust responsibilities that need to be met include protecting migratory birds, endangered species, and lands for which the Service already has stewardship responsibilities, such as National Wildlife Refuges.
"It is obvious from the response received that people desire the non-traditional approach to preserving prairie supported and promoted by the Service -- one of cooperative public and private partnerships at many levels and a Habitat Preservation Area (HPA) complementing the prairie preservation efforts of others," Hartwig said.
The three alternatives under consideration in preparing the draft Environmental Assessment include:
* No action
* Permanently protect and enhance prairie remnants through partnerships, incentives, education, and cooperative agreements -- any conservation easements, or acquisition of full title would be done by the Service and non-Service partners through existing or future programs.
* Permanently protect and enhance prairie remnants through partnerships, incentives, education, and cooperative agreements -- any conservation easements, or acquisition of full title would be done by non-Service partners through existing or future programs.
Key issues identified during scoping for the effort to preserve remaining tallgrass prairie include: utilize and encourage partnerships; involve private landowners as key partners; use the full range of preservation options to include acquiring lands or limited property rights, or securing specific use of the land from willing sellers; integrate any Habitat Preservation Area project fully with other prairie preservation programs; address the loss of livestock forage lands; and address the loss of taxes resulting from government ownership. These issues of greatest importance will be addressed in information "Bulletins" to be mailed to stakeholders from a project mailing list that now numbers over 1,300. News releases will also be distributed periodically. A summary of all issues is on file and will be considered during the writing of the draft EIS which will be available for public review and comment this fall.
The original tallgrass prairie extended from western Indiana to the eastern portions of Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas, and from the southern portions of Canada to Oklahoma and Texas. The rich, deep prairie soils attracted early settlers and subjected the vast prairie to the plow and later developments. The northern region in Iowa and Minnesota, originally containing approximately 25 million acres, is one of the most fragmented and rarest landscapes (ecosystems) and in gravest danger of vanishing. Less than one percent of the original prairie remains.
Fish and wildlife thrive in diverse plant communities rooted in the deep prairie soils and associated wetlands found within the tallgrass prairie. Preserving the prairie would benefit a diversity of fish and wildlife resources including native lake and river fishes, amphibians, reptiles, insects, mammals, waterfowl, shorebirds, and songbirds and would help in the recovery of federally-listed endangered and threatened species. Preservation, enhancement and restoration of the biological diversity of this landscape would be for the continuing benefit of the American people.
Comments may be submitted at any time during the planning process to Howard A. Lipke, Project Manager, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Route 1 Box 32, Audubon, MN 56511. For more information or to be placed on the mailing list, contact the above office at 218-439-6319. Other field offices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service within the area of consideration of the EIS will have project materials for distribution as well.
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 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 530 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. 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://midwest.fws.gov
