Upper Mississippi River refuge celebrates 100 years of protection for fish, wildlife and habitat

High up on a bluff above the Mississippi River, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist positions a spotting scope to get a closer view of a marsh. It’s teeming with ducks.

Mallards, northern pintails and gadwalls dunk the front halves of their bodies under the surface to reach aquatic plants and mollusks. Further out, near the main river channel, a flotilla of American White Pelicans catch fish in their yellow bills, while Canada Geese fly in v-formations above.

In November, colder temperatures will draw even more birds, including tundra swans, says Billy Reiter-Marolf.

“Just in this area alone, we counted a peak of about 350,000 birds,” he said. “... Up and down the refuge, we get millions of waterfowl throughout the fall migration.”

The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge protects over 240,000 acres across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. It’s one of the largest blocks of floodplain forest habitat in the lower 48 states and a critical rest stop for migrating birds in the fall and spring. Around 40 percent of North America’s waterfowl fly through this corridor.

“This part of the Upper Mississippi River is really awesome,” Reiter-Marolf said. “It has quite a diversity of different habitat types, backwater lakes and marshes, channels, braided streams, wetlands, wet meadows, and also floodplain forest.”

Fishing, kayaking and hiking are popular on the “Upper Miss,” which hosts more than 3.7 million annual visits. Waterfowl migrations also attract bird watchers and hunters who are allowed to bag ducks in certain parts of the refuge.

“Our purpose is to protect wildlife and their habitats for the next generation,” said Kendra Pednault, manager of the McGregor District, one of four districts in the refuge. “Sometimes people think that ‘wildlife first’ means that we don't have recreational opportunities for people. And that's not it at all.”

For Pednault, there’s a clear connection between recreation and the mission of the refuge. She says people tend to protect what they love.

After all, it was a group of anglers and outdoor enthusiasts who saved this fish and wildlife haven from being drained 100 years ago.

Creating the refuge

Back in 1924, a grassroots effort convinced the U.S. Congress to establish the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

“It was a huge success to protect a really large area, and if we didn't have that protection on this place, it would look a lot different now,” Pednault said.

Spearheading the campaign was the fledgling Izaak Walton League of America and its first president, Will Dilg.

Scott Kovarovics, executive director of the conservation organization, said the founders were from the Upper Midwest and had a personal and intimate connection to the Mississippi River. Dilg worked in advertising in Chicago but spent his summers fishing near Winona, Minnesota.

“They knew the value of the marshes and the wetlands and the backwaters, the incredible habitat they provided, as well as the outstanding, and frankly, world class outdoor recreation opportunities that people could enjoy there, particularly fishing,” Kovarovics said.

Shortly after the league formed in 1922, Dilg and the others became aware of a plan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to drain wetlands along 300 miles of the river from Minnesota to Illinois.

“This was something that to them was just inconceivable,” Kovarovics said. “Dilg conceived of an audacious plan to convince Congress to establish at that time what would have been and was the largest national wildlife refuge in the country.”

They were able to bring attention to the plight of the Upper Mississippi through the league’s magazine Outdoor America. At the same time, the group was expanding its membership from the Midwest to 100,000 people across the country.

“It was a phenomenon — the first conservation group with a mass membership. Although concentrated in the Midwest, practically every state was represented,” wrote historian Stephen Fox.

The league also built a diverse coalition, which included the General Federation of Women's Clubs . Women had won the right to vote only a few years earlier. Together, they wrote letters to members of Congress and the White House. Dilg and other advocates also lobbied in Washington, D.C.

On June 7, 1924, Congress passed the “Upper Mississippi River Wild Life and Fish Refuge Act.”

Kovarovics said the 100th anniversary of the refuge is a “source of pride” for the league and its members. But it's a reminder that challenges don't disappear. They evolve.

“This has been a powerful call to recommit ourselves to the conservation work that still needs to be done,” he said.

Threats in the next 100 years

As U.S. Fish and Wildlife managers and biologists look to the next century, they say one of their biggest concerns is an uptick in more severe and longer-lasting floods.

“These big flood events, especially 2016 through 2020 really did a lot of damage to our floodplain forest. We lost acres and acres of trees up and down the river, and so that's a big concern, because we're worried that those habitats might convert to some other type of habitat,” said Reiter-Marolf.

Silver maples, cottonwoods and willows are adapted to wet conditions, said Pednault. But mature trees and their seedlings can drown when submerged in water long enough. A flood in 2019 lasted for 90 days.

These habitat disruptions make it easier for invasive plants, like reed canary grass, to take over.

Flood waters also move invasive carp , which compete with native fish, and large amounts of soil that fill in backwater habitat.

About 100 miles downriver in Illinois, Savanna District Manager Ed Britton drives a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service truck across a levee in the Spring Lake Unit. It’s a 3,600 acre bird sanctuary that’s mostly closed off to the public during the hunting season.

In one of the marshes, over 50 great egrets with bright white plumage and s-shaped necks wade through the shallow water, hunting for fish and frogs.

“They’ll stay here for as long as they can until the backwaters freeze,” Britton said. “With winters the way they are, we’re seeing birds stay longer, and they come back earlier in the springtime.”

Great blue herons perch on trees while sandhill cranes and wood ducks call across a wide expanse of water.

Britton says floodwaters have dumped a lot of sediment in Spring Lake, making most of it less than a foot deep. Some birds thrive in shallow water.

“But for diversity in terms of the number of species, it would be nice to have deep spots,” Britton said, explaining that this would better support mussel and fish populations, especially in the winter when shallow water freezes over.

Fast moving floodwater also eats away at barrier islands in the river. Britton has watched them disappear over nearly three decades working at the refuge.

These islands are important nesting sites for birds, he explains. They also slow down river currents, which support more diverse habitats for aquatic life.

The work ahead

To protect the refuge and its diversity, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey and state agencies, are working on large-scale habitat rehabilitation and enhancement projects.

Each one takes about three years to plan and involves public input along the way. Some projects focus on raising the elevation of islands to protect trees from higher water levels.

“The way we build these islands is usually dredged material from either the main channel or the backwaters, because all that flooding brings in that material, the silt, sand, and so we'll kind of plop it on top of an island and then stabilize that by growing vegetation,” Pednault said.

In other parts of the refuge, contractors are building new islands. Riprap, a layer of large stones, protects the banks from washing away. Mixing in smaller river rocks also provides habitat for native mussels.

Britton said future work at Spring Lake will excavate backwater channels that are eight feet deep and 60 feet wide to restore habitat for certain birds, fish and mussels.

A different project aims to create more diversity and underwater vegetation in lower pool 13 near the lock and dam. The plan is to add moon-shaped rock formations on the river bottom to slow the flow in certain areas. This will help aquatic plants get established and support more species.

Looking to the next 100 years, Britton said managing the refuge will require a lot of planning and careful action.

“And I think we need more public awareness,” Britton said. “A lot of people aren’t on the river. They go across a bridge or they go along the road and see the river, and it looks beautiful.”

Yet, he said, they don’t see how the river system is changing.

“We've got a lot of challenges. We need public support and Congressional support,” Britton said.

The National Wildlife Refuge System has lost more than 800 permanent positions since fiscal year 2011 — a 27% drop in capacity. The National Wildlife Refuge Association points to federal funding that has not kept pace with inflation.

“My office covers 80 miles of river, 64,000 acres in three states with three [full-time] people,” Britton said.

In the McGregor District, Pednault said they have four full-time positions to manage 92,000 acres on the refuge. They also manage about 1,500 acres in the Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge.

Along with wildlife surveys and monitoring for invasive species, staff are managing boat ramps and trails, working with partners to plan and monitor restoration projects and running visitor centers.

“The refuge system has a persistent shortfall in operation and maintenance funding,” Kovarovics said. “And that's across the board, whether it's people who do maintenance or the people doing the actual wildlife conservation law enforcement.”

Kovarovics, Pednault and Britton said local volunteer groups play an increasingly important role supporting refuges. Often, they lead tours and organize educational events for the public. They may help with wildlife surveys and removing invasive weeds.

But Kovarovics emphasizes that volunteers can't fill the law enforcement gap or the role of a wildlife biologist.

Reiter-Marolf recognizes the challenges ahead but hopes visitors at the 200 year anniversary of the refuge will still be able to enjoy the diversity of habitats and wildlife available now.

“You can get lost in the maze of islands, and there's so many places to explore. I just really hope that it just doesn't get simplified and become all water with a few reed canary grass islands,” said Reiter-Marolf, “because it's just such a treasure, and there's so much to learn out there.”

This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media , a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.