The Illinois River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Complex is headquartered in Havana, Ill., and includes Meredosia National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Emiquon NWR and Chautauqua NWR. In brief, the plan calls for the refuge complex to continue its focus on restoring wildlife habitat and providing high quality wildlife-dependent recreation. As funding allows and as willing sellers emerge, the refuge complex will complete land acquisition within the authorized boundaries of Emiquon NWR and Meredosia NWR. The refuge complex will concentrate its conservation efforts in five focus areas in an effort to develop additional voluntary partnership agreements in these areas.

Public involvement has been a key component of the planning process since work began on the plan in 1999. In addition to working with public groups and individuals, refuge management and staff have worked with the Illinois Division of Water Resources, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and several non-government organizations. The planning process included technical group meetings and open houses.

Project updates have been mailed to individuals, agencies and organizations that requested to be on the mailing list for this project. The update and the entire plan are available on the Internet at: http://midwest.fws.gov/planning/IllinoisRiver/index.html. Electronic copies of the plan on CD-ROM are also available by contacting the refuge complex headquarters at 309/535-2290. Printed copies will be available in November.

While the planned future condition is long-term, the Service anticipates that the plan will be updated every 5 to 10 years based on information gained through monitoring habitat and wildlife, as well as recreational usage.

The Illinois River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge is a complex of three refuges and one management unit totaling more than 12,000 acres along the Illinois River floodplain in west central Illinois. The refuges were established to protect, restore and manage backwater lake, bottomland forest and floodplain wetlands for migratory birds, fish and resident wildlife. The refuge complex headquarters is located at 19037 E. County Road 2110N in Havana, Ill.