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2008 Federal Duck Stamp Contest
Phone: 612-713-5360 |
Iowa
**Note** The Rock Island Field Office, Illinois serves Iowa's ecological services needs.
Click here to download/view the entire 2007 Iowa State Fact Book in .PDF format (File size: 3.4 MB)
Click here to download/view the Midwest Region Summary of Offices and Activities in PDF format (File size: 4 MB)
Links to Offices and Services in Iowa
National Wildlife Refuges
Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge
402-468-4313Desoto National Wildlife Refuge
712-642-4121Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge
563-873-3423Iowa Wetland Management District
515-928-2523McGregor District, Upper Miss National Wildlife and Fish Refuge
563-873-3423Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge
515-994-3400Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge
320-273-2191Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge
319-523-6982Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge
515-928-2523Law Enforcement
Des Moines Law Enforcement Office
515-284-4125Ecological Services
Rock Island Field Office
(located in IL but serves IA issues)
309-793-5800Other Programs
Federal Aid
Iowa River Corridor
Large Rivers Fisheries Coordination Office
Migratory Bird Conservation
North American Waterfowl Management Plan
Private Lands Office
RealtyOther Information
Travel Information
Midwest Natural Resources Group (MNRG)
Iowa State Facts
The Service employs more than 67 people in Iowa
The Fiscal Year 2006 Resource Management budget for Service activities in Iowa totaled $4.4 million
Seven National Wildlife Refuges and one Wetland Management District in Iowa total 108,000 acres
In 2004, more than 612,000 people visited national wildlife refuges in Iowa to hunt, fish, participate in interpretive programs and view wildlife
Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge, one of the first Missouri River restoration refuges after the 1993 historic floods, focuses on tallgrass prairie restoration and Missouri River floodplain wetlands restoration.
Federal Assistance to State Fish and Wildlife Programs
In 2006 Iowa received:
$7 million for sport fish restoration
$4 million for wildlife restoration and hunter education
DeSoto’s Sunken Treasure
Located in Missouri Valley, Iowa, DeSoto NWR is home to a premier archaeological collection of 200,000 artifacts excavated from the buried hull of the steamboat Bertrand, which sank on the Missouri River in 1865. The wreck was discovered on the refuge in 1968. Visitors can view hundreds of artifacts recovered from the wreck at the refuge visitor center.
Great Rivers, Restored Prairie Mark Iowa Refuges
Two hundred years ago a vast prairie ecosystem stretched unbroken throughout the Midwestern United States and into Canada. The tallgrass prairie ecosystem encompassed parts of 14 states including nearly all of Iowa.
Deep organic soils formed by the cyclic degradation of prairie roots left a rich legacy to modern agriculture: the most fertile soil in the world. As a result, 99 percent of the original prairie landscape in Iowa succumbed to the plow and other forms of development in a matter of a few decades.
Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, located just west of Des Moines, is working to re-create more than 8,000 acres of Iowa’s native tallgrass prairie and oak savanna. Similar prairie restoration efforts are being mounted at the 3, 300-acre Union Slough NWR near Algona, in northern Iowa.
The Service also manages McGregor District of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, Driftless NWR and Port Louisa NWR on the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa, and DeSoto NWR along the Missouri River in northwest Iowa.
Located along the Mississippi River Flyway, the Port Louisa and the McGregor District refuges were established to protect migratory birds. Key goals of these refuges are to conserve and enhance the quality and diversity of fish and wildlife an their habitats; and to restore floodplain functions in the river corridor.
