MADISON, Wis. -- No booze on the beaches. Keep those Jet
Skis off the backwaters. And no more blasting away at ducks all day.
Those are some of the potential changes for the upper
Mississippi River as the federal government firms up a sweeping, $216
million-plus regulatory package. The plan could transform river life for the
next decade and a half by limiting waterfowl hunting, camping and boating.
Federal officials say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service's plan is designed to reduce human stress on the fragile river
environment and improve wild habitats.
"What we're striving for is balance. We want people to
be able to use the refuge and enjoy the critters,'' said Jim Nissen, manager of
Fish and Wildlife's district in La Crosse, Wis., which lies on the
Mississippi.
But outdoors lovers are livid over changes to their
traditional river hobbies. They say the agency is rushing the plan.
"This is big stuff. It really gouges a lot of folks,''
said Ron Nicklaus, 56, of Genoa, Wis., an avid duck hunter who camps every
summer on the Mississippi. "It (the Mississippi) doesn't belong to the Fish and
Wildlife Service. It belongs to the folks.''
The 600-page document would lay out new regulations
through the year 2020 for about 240,000 acres of Mississippi floodplain
designated as a national wildlife refuge.
The refuge stretches about 260 miles from southern
Minnesota to northern Illinois. It's home to hundreds of species of plants,
fish and birds, including bald eagles. More than 3 million people visit the
refuge annually, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The federal Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act of 1997
requires refuges be managed according to their mission to restore fish,
wildlife and plants. The act calls for every national refuge to have a plan by
2012, Nissen said.
Public hearings have been scheduled in Iowa, Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Illinois. Agency staff will tweak the document after the public
comment period ends in August, and Fish and Wildlife regional director Robyn
Thorson then will sign off on it, putting it into effect.
Among the agency's recommendations:
—Limit overnight camping to main channel islands
and shorelines. Anyone with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher
would be banned from camping, and district managers would be allowed to declare
beaches alcohol-free.
—Explore beach user fees, but the plan doesn't set
any.
—Set up 16 areas encompassing nearly 14,500 mostly
backwater acres where boaters could use nothing more powerful than electric
motors and must obey a 5-mph speed limit.
—Increase the number of no-hunting zones from seven
to 13, encompassing 5,322 acres. The number of zones where waterfowl hunting is
banned would go from 15 to 21 — 790 acres larger than the current areas
— in 2006. Hunters would be limited to 25 shells. Currently there are no
limits on how much ammunition they can carry.
—New waterfowl sanctuaries would be added near
McGregor, Iowa, Winona, Minn., and Savanna, Ill.
Nissen said refuge officials have struggled with huge
parties and underage drinking on the river, particularly in the Winona area,
and people have complained they can't get any peace and quiet, even in the
backwaters.
"If you're fishing in a small flat and you've got Jet
Skis buzzing all around you, so much for the solitude,'' Nissen said.
The hunting restrictions were added to minimize conflict
between people using the river for different purposes, improve safety, help
waterfowl find more safe breeding areas and fill gaps between current closed
areas, according to the plan.
The ammunition limit would discourage "skybusting,'' the
practice of shooting excessively at out-of-range birds, the plan said.
Skybusting can result in crippled ducks that can't be retrieved, it said.
Bill Howe, 82, of Prairie du Chien, Wis., grew up on the
Mississippi. He scoffed at the plan.
District managers shouldn't have the power to ban
alcohol from beaches, he said. That's the purview of state and local
governments, he said. He wondered how the agency would enforce such
restrictions.
"Where do you go if you have a can of beer on your boat
and you have problems and go to a beach to fix it?'' Howe asked. "It isn't a
document that considers people.''
U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., a duck hunter with a house
on the Mississippi, said he couldn't support a plan that restricts so much
river access. Enforcement would be nearly impossible, he said.
"That's the problem with the plan. You can't enforce it
unless you hire 100 or 200 agents,'' Kind said.
He said he's still meeting with Fish and Wildlife
personnel, but he might fight to withhold funding if the plan isn't
revised.
The Wisconsin Conservation Congress, a statewide group
of sportsmen, plans to write a letter to Fish and Wildlife asking the agency to
extend the public comment period to six months.
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On the Net:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Upper Mississippi River National
Wildlife and Fish Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan:
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/planning/uppermiss/index.html#DraftEIS