**Note** The Rock Island Field Office, Illinois serves Iowa's ecological services needs.
Click here to download/view the entire 2003 Iowa State Fact Book in .PDF format (File size: 348 KB)
Links to Offices and Services in Iowa
National Wildlife Refuges Desoto National Wildlife Refuge 712-642-4121 Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge 319-873-3423 McGregor District, Upper Miss National Wildlife and Fish Refuge 319-873-3423 Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge 515-994-3400 Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge 319-523-6982 Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge 515-928-2523
Law Enforcement Des Moines Law Enforcement Office 515-284-4125
Ecological Services
(located in IL but serves IA issues)Rock Island Field Office 309-793-5800 Other Programs
Federal Aid
Iowa River Corridor
Large Rivers Fisheries Coordination Office
Migratory Bird Conservation
North American Waterfowl Management Plan
Partners for Fish and Wildlife
Realty
Other Information
Travel Information
2000 Iowa State Facts
• The Service employs more than 50 people in Iowa
• The Fiscal Year 2002 Resource Management budget for Service activities in Iowa totals $4.9 million
National Wildlife Refuge Facts
• Six National Wildlife Refuges and one Wetland Management District in Iowa total 109,843 acres
• In 2002, over 486,000 people visited refuges in Iowa to hunt, fish, participate in interpretive programs and view wildlife
• 17,840 school children participated in Service educational programs
Federal Aid to State Fish and Wildlife Programs
Wildlife Restoration Act funds were used in the early development of its Turkey Restoration Program. The state of Iowa used these funds to trap wild turkeys from other states and release them on Iowa Wildlife Management Area. The program proved to be very successful and has led to rebounding populations of wild birds.
Located in Missouri Valley, Iowa, DeSoto NWR is home to a premier archeological collection of 200,000 artifacts excavated from the buried hull of the Steamboat Bertrand, which sunk on a portion of 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 over 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, Driftless 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 and their habitats; and to restore floodplain functions in the river corridor.
E-Mail Us! R3 External Affairs
Phone: 612/713-5360
V/TTY: 800-657-3775[To Region 3 Home Page] [To USFWS Home Page]
Great Lakes - Big River Region
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1 Federal Drive
BHW Federal Building
Fort Snelling, MN 55111