General Description:
An important part of the development of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for the 240,000 acre Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge (Refuge) was to evaluate and change where necessary, the areas closed to waterfowl hunting. The goal of the Refuge is to have a system of Closed Areas that will both protect migrating waterfowl and offer a better distribution of waterfowl hunting opportunities.
Closed Area additions or changes were chosen to fill gaps between existing Closed Areas, to meet the needs of both dabbler and diver ducks which have different spatial and foraging requirements, and to provide areas with the best food potential. An analysis of the potential carrying capacity of existing and proposed Closed Areas was completed in 2004 by Christiane Slivinski (Slivinski’s study).
The Closed Area locations and configurations also took into account the need for public access and travel routes, commercial navigation, adjacent business and community needs and practicalities, likelihood of near-term habitat improvements in existing Closed Areas, and the desire to continue to provide viable waterfowl hunting opportunities.
History of Closed Areas in Pool 4
From the 1930s to 1957 approximately 5,538 acres of Closed Areas were in place in Pool 4. These included Nelson-Trevino, WI (3,721 acres), Rieck’s Lake, WI (498 acres) and Big Lake, WI (1,319 acres).
An evaluation of Closed Areas in 1957 changed the configuration within the pool to what is present today including Nelson-Trevino, WI (3,760 acres), Rieck’s Lake, WI (728 acres), and Peterson Lake, MN/WI (2,358 acres) for a pool-wide total of 6,846 acres.
During the CCP process, the preferred alternative (Alternative E) proposed changes which would decrease the Closed Areas within Pool 4 to 3,849 acres.
These changes would include closing Big Lake while opening Nelson-Trevino and Buffalo Slough.
Under Alternative E, no changes would occur on Pool 4 before 2009 to allow for monitoring of current use by waterfowl and people. In 2006 and 2007, the Nelson-Trevino and Big Lake areas were monitored for waterfowl use, hunter success, hunter location, boater disturbance and vegetation (see links to monitoring summaries below).
A field evaluation of the proposed boundaries for the Big Lake Closed Area was conducted in 2007. This included attempting to prevent firing-lines, the availability of adequate buffers to minimize disturbance to waterfowl using the Closed Area, availability of islands to facilitate maintenance of the boundary and travel corridors and the publics desire to hunt Catfish Slough.
Subsequently, the Closed Area proposal for 2009 includes 3,582 acres; Big Lake, WI (2,210 acres), Rieck’s Lake, WI (499 acres), Peterson Lake, MN (654 acres) and an additional No Hunting Zone at Buffalo River, WI (219 acres). (Historic Closed Areas)
The Big Lake Closed Area proposal includes a 39 acre travel corridor from the Cedar Ridge Resort and a seven acre travel corridor through a portion of Catfish Slough. The proposed boundary also excludes a portion of Catfish Slough as well as a large wetland located behind the Teepeeota Point disposal site which will remain open to hunting. (Big Lake proposed Closed Area-2009)
The proposal for 2009 reduces the Closed Areas from Alternative E by 267 acres, thus increasing the areas open to hunting in Pool 4 by 3,264 acres, the majority of which are located in Wisconsin.
The Big Lake Closed Area will be considered “large,” meaning it will become a Voluntary Avoidance Area from October 15 through the end of the Wisconsin waterfowl season. As such, the area will be subject to monitoring for disturbance. The refuge policy for human disturbance is an average of one major disturbance per day based on a season-long average. A major disturbance is defined as a human intrusion which displaces 1,000 waterfowl or 50 percent of the waterfowl present, whichever is less. If monitoring determines that the threshold has been surpassed, the Refuge will, in coordination with other agencies, move to implement more restrictive regulations such as no motors, no fishing or no entry on an individual closed area basis.
In Summary:
Big Lake is being proposed as a Closed Area for several reasons: 1) it represents one of the last, and the best, diving duck areas on the Winona District; 2) Slivinski’s findings (aquatic vegetation) indicated an expected 300% increase in gross energy available to waterfowl if the Closed Areas aligned to include Big Lake-Buffalo Slough (Alternative D), subsequent sampling indicates that vegetation has improved since this study showing increased availability for puddle ducks; 3) forest inventory sampling within Nelson-Trevino has verified that access by motorboat is possible; 4) an overall decrease of 3,264 acres (48%) of Closed Area within Pool 4, and 5) monitoring data collected during 2006 and 2007 did not provide evidence to alter the proposal.
Additionally, the desire by hunters for Catfish Slough to be open to hunting will provide a basis for agency discussions to create habitat projects to improve the buffer between Catfish Slough and Big Lake in the future. |
