Published: August 25, 2006 09:35 am      

Refuge plan finalized

ONALASKA, Wis. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s top Midwestern official gave the final go-ahead Thursday to a sweeping package of long-range conservation changes for the upper Mississippi River that could trigger a jurisdictional struggle between the federal government and Wisconsin.

Fish and Wildlife Midwestern Regional Director Robyn Thorson’s seal of approval caps four years of work to design new regulations the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, the largest national refuge in the Midwest.

Many river lovers fear the plan will curtail their favorite hobbies. The agency took comments from thousands of people at public meetings up and down the refuge, drafting and revising the plan along the way.

The final version of the 15-year, $227.8 million plan restricts hunting in nearly 5,000 additional acres and restricts boaters’ speed in about 1,600 additional acres.

“This has been a healthy debate over what’s the right thing to do,” Thorson said during a press conference. “I wish people could all be happier. In democracies that just doesn’t happen.”

But Sandy Heidel, a 49-year-old duck hunter and angler who lives in Brice Prairie, Wis., says the plan places too many limits on people like her and Fish and Wildlife officials didn’t listen to anyone.

“It’s trying to manage the people and restrict public access,” said Heidel, a member of a group of La Crosse-area river users who oppose the plan. “This plan is going to take away something they’ve had their whole lives.”

Heidel’s group earlier this month took several state Republican leaders on a tour of the refuge, including Assembly Majority Leader Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, and U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, who is running for governor.

Huebsch blasted Fish and Wildlife officials Thursday for ignoring the will of the people. He accused them of failing to identify any problems in the refuge and trying to ban hunters from the refuge.

Huebsch contends the new regulations infringe on the state constitution, which says the state has a right to govern its waters. He said he would go so far as to consider a law requiring state Department of Natural Resources wardens to arrest federal officers who try to enforce the regulations.

“They’re not listening. Unfortunately it’s going to become confrontational. And I guess that’s what they’re looking for,” Huebsch said.

Green issued a statement asking Fish and Wildlife to repeal the plan and encouraging the state to sue if the agency doesn’t comply.

Refuge manager Don Hultman declined comment on Huebsch and Green’s remarks. Before Green and Huebsch responded to the plan, Hultman said he expected “an interesting interplay” with Wisconsin leaders.

U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, is a duck hunter with a home on Lake Onalaska in the refuge. He said he asked attorneys to review the conflict between federal jurisdiction and the state constitution. They said it would a “close call” in court.

He said Fish and Wildlife did a good job making concessions as it gathered input. But the agency has to keep talking with the state and river users, he said.

The refuge runs 260 miles from southern Minnesota to northern Illinois. It’s home to hundreds of species of fish, animals and plants and hosts 3.7 million visitors every year, Fish and Wildlife officials say.

The federal Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act of 1997 requires national refuges be managed according to their mission to protect fish, wildlife and plants. The act calls for every national refuge to have a plan by 2012.

Fish and Wildlife officials have been drafting and re-drafting the Mississippi plan since August 2002, incorporating input from 4,500 people who attended more than 40 public meetings.

Under the final version of the plan, Fish and Wildlife will:

n Place the first new restrictions on duck hunting in the refuge since the late 1950s, closing off hunting in an additional 4,900 acres. Not all of those areas will be closed to all types of hunting all year round, Hultman said.

n Create four more areas where boaters can use only electric motors. Currently boaters are restricted to using electric motors in only one 222-acre area. The changes would mean electric motors only in a total of 1,852 acres.

n Establish eight new no-wake areas covering 9,720 acres.

Hultman said the restrictions are needed to protect waterfowl and preserve the serenity of the refuge’s backwaters for canoeists and kayakers as well as young wildlife.

The plan will be implemented as Congress allocates funding, Hultman said. But he stressed people will still be able to use the refuge however they wish.

“We’re going to have a healthier refuge over the next 15 years,” he said.

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New regulations

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted a final 15-year conversation plan for the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Thursday. Here’s a look at some of the more substantial changes:

• Acquire from willing sellers 15,000 acres of land within the boundary the federal government doesn’t own.

• Seek protection for 13 bluffland areas within the refuge.

• Inventory and reduce invasive plants by 10 percent by 2010.

• Complete $150 million in habitat restoration.

• Restrict duck hunting in nearly 5,000 acres.

• Establish four new electric-motor only areas. One already exists.

• Establish eight new no-wake areas encompassing 9,720 acres.

• Replace or construct four new offices and five new maintenance facilities.

• The plan does not include a daily shotshell limit or hunter spacing regulations.

• By 2008, begin monitoring all federally listed and state-listed threatened or endangered species and prepare management plans to help recovery.

• Establish 10 new observation areas, eight new hiking trails, 15 new canoe trails, three new biking trails, two new auto tour routes, three new observation towers and four photography blinds.

• Managers may close beaches because of wildlife and human health and safety concerns.