The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge celebrated 100 years of operation in 2024.

The refuge covers much of Wisconsin’s portion of the Mississippi River, starting just south of Lake Pepin and extending past Wisconsin’s southern border to Rock Island, Illinois.

The national effort to protect the river in the 1920s came in response to the threat of development, as some residents looked to drain backwater areas to create more farmland. Led by Chicago businessman Will Dilg, it became the largest citizens movement to protect public lands seen at the time, according to refuge historians.

Today, refuge manager Sabrina Chandler said that threat is still a major challenge for the lands adjacent to the refuge.

“We’ve seen compounded threats from development in those surrounding land uses, with the increase in wetland tiling and the increase in hard surfaces within the watershed,” she said. “That increases the runoff into the river and the refuge, and it has some negative impacts associated with that.”

Chandler said her team also faces continued challenges from industrial transportation on the river, with the mooring of barges constantly causing erosion along the shorelines. It’s an issue the refuge has dealt with for decades, but Chandler said it’s become a bigger problem as more frequent floods and droughts leave these areas vulnerable to damage.

The water level extremes, driven by climate change, also have a major impact on the refuge’s floodplain forests. The unique habitat is critical to native wildlife, according to Chandler, and is a priority resource managed by the refuge’s staff.

But she said extreme high water events in recent years, when river levels have reached 6 to 10 feet above normal for months at a time, continue to stress trees and have caused significant die-offs in forest lands.

“When we lose the floodplain forest, not only do we lose that habitat value for the wildlife, but we also lose the habitat literally because it erodes,” she said, adding that her staff is working with state natural resources departments and federal partners like the U.S. Geological Survey on restoration efforts.

Amid funding challenges, refuge hopes to build next generation of support

As restoration and management needs increase, funding for the refuge from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken a hit in recent years. Chandler said she has lost a number of staff members due to attrition, but she’s been unable to hire any replacements.

“It definitely has an impact on our ability to get work done,” she said. “We rely on our other agency partners that we work with, our friends groups are a tremendous asset for us, and then we have a great group of volunteers that help us get work done.”

The refuge has benefited from funding awarded by Congress through the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program and through the Inflation Reduction Act two years ago. Chandler said the climate change-focused funding supported floodplain forest restoration and infrastructure projects to help improve the refuge’s long-term resiliency. 

After a century of conservation and recreation, the refuge now sees an estimated 3 million visitors every year. Chandler said she’s welcomed people from as far away as Germany, Japan and China who are interested in experiencing the river. 

But she said the refuge’s centennial milestone has inspired her to do more outreach to people in Wisconsin and other river states who may take for granted the unique resource in their own backyard.

“We realized that a lot of the folks locally don’t recognize how significant it is and what this area of the refuge would look like if the refuge didn’t exist,” she said.

Chandler said she plans to focus on reaching new audiences in local communities and inspiring the next generation of activists who will help the refuge remain successful in the coming decades.