Izaak Walton League of America

During 2024, conservation groups in the U.S. will celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the creation of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. In events, exhibits and publications during the year, the refuge will be recognized for its value as wildlife habitat and a resource for outdoor recreation while also acknowledging that the river faces a host of environmental challenges today.

Establishing the refuge in 1924 was a monumental achievement due almost wholly to the efforts of the Izaak Walton League of America. In response to plans to drain and fill wetland habitat from Lake Pepin, Minn. south to Rock Island, Ill., the League leveraged its 100,000 members to urge Congress, the White House and four states to protect these vital resources within a new national wildlife and fish refuge.

The campaign to protect the upper Mississippi didn’t just establish the largest wildlife refuge of its time, it created the template for the modern conservation movement that helped produce a wave of grassroots actions that would ultimately drive dozens of major conservation achievements in the decades that followed.

The Izaak Walton League was created in Chicago, January 1922, and many of its early chapters and members came from the Midwest. Describing the League’s work to save the Upper Mississippi wetlands, historian Stephen Fox wrote, “It was a phenomenon—the first conservation group with a mass membership…It brought new pressures on Congress through its sheer size and because it spoke for a different area of the country.”

In his book, The Great River, historian Phillip Scarpino called the League’s grassroots effort to save the Upper Mississippi in the 1920s, “the first modern environmental campaign.”

100 Years Later

Today, this refuge protects 240,000 acres of the Mississippi floodplain and wetlands along 261 miles of the river, from Wabasha, Minnesota, to Rock Island, Illinois.

The refuge continues to provide essential habitat for fish and wildlife species in the region including 57 mammals, 260 fish, 37 freshwater mussels and 45 amphibians and reptiles. The Upper Mississippi is a globally important flyway for more than 300 bird species and 40 percent of all North American waterfowl.

The bluffs, vistas and trails found in the refuge host about 3.7 million visits each year for hiking, boating, wildlife observations, fishing, hunting and other recreation, which support $125 million in outdoor recreation and tourism.

The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge is an enduring example of how we can and must take action to save the nation’s waterways and ensure a future with clean water. We will need bold steps and new generations of stewardship to address a range of problems—pollution, sedimentation and invasive species to name a few. 

Events, Exhibits

National Mississippi River Museum, Dubuque, Iowa. April 20, 2024 through April 21, 2025

“In Common Interest: A Story of the Upper Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge.” The display will explore the origin story of the Refuge through the unique partnerships of individuals, grassroots activism and federal policies that came together in a common interest of conserving the wetlands along the river. A passion project of conservation, together they created a refuge for both wildlife and people, which continues today. The exhibit is co-hosted by both the USFWS and the Izaak Walton League of America.

Refuge Centennial Film Festival and Celebration, June 7-8, 2024, Winona, Minnesota

Hosted by Izaak Walton League of America, Winona Chapter

Partners

The Izaak Walton League is celebrating the centennial of the refuge with a number of partners:

• Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge staff

• Friends of Refuge Headwaters

• Friends of Trempealeau Refuge

• Friends of the Refuge Mississippi River Pools 7 & 8

• Friends of Pool 9

• Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge

• Big River Magazine

• Lake Onalaska Protection and Rehabilitation District

• Izaak Walton League of America Minnesota Division

• Izaak Walton League Wapasha Chapter, Wapasha, Minn.
  

Founded in 1922, the Izaak Walton League fights for clean air and water, healthy fish and wildlife habitat and conservation of our natural resources for future generations. The League plays a unique role in supporting community-based science and local conservation and has a long legacy of shaping sound national policy. See www.iwla.org. 

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