DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge

Desoto National Wildlife Refuge
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)

Location	Harrison and Pottawattamie counties, Iowa and Washington County, Nebraska, United States
Nearest city	Blair, NE
Coordinates	41°31′25.2″N 96°1′4.6″W / 41.523667°N 96.017944°W / 41.523667; -96.017944Coordinates: 41°31′25.2″N 96°1′4.6″W / 41.523667°N 96.017944°W / 41.523667; -96.017944
Area	8,362 acres (33.83 km²)
Established	March 12, 1958
Governing body	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The refuge on June 20, 2011, during the 2011 Missouri River flood. The oxbow lake is in the upper left. A levee breach on June 25, 2011 resulted in the refuge closing after being nearly be totally inundated. The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station is in the foreground.

DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1958, is located along the banks of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Iowa and Nebraska. The 8,362-acre (33.83 km²) refuge (46% in Iowa, 54% in Nebraska) preserves an area that would have been otherwise lost to cultivation. In 1960, an Army Corps of Engineers channelization project on the Missouri River moved the main river channel in the area to the west. The former river channel became DeSoto Lake, a seven-mile long oxbow lake. As a result, part of the Nebraska portion of the refuge lies on the east side of the Missouri River.

For over 20 years after construction, the lake was used for recreational boating, with half of the lake designated for watersports and the other half a no-wake zone for wildlife habitat and fishing. The lake was so popular that access was limited by the park's rangers to keep the boat traffic down on the lake on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The lake's marina, snack bar, swimming area and boat ramps were all removed; the entire lake is now off limits to all recreational boating and remains a wildlife refuge.

Today, the refuge is home to around 30 mammal species, including white-tailed deer, beavers, opossums, raccoons, fox squirrels, muskrats and coyotes. Many bird species also inhabit the refuge, such as bald eagles, great blue herons, egrets, pelicans, turkeys and cardinals. The refuge is also a major stopover on the Central Flyway bird migration route; the population of migratory birds increases substantially in the spring and fall months. The numbers of snow geese used to frequently be in the hundreds of thousands, but for unknown reasons has substantially dropped for only a few thousand a year (not at once). The population of Canada geese that stopped at the lake before it was channelized is once again rising.

Several miles of nature trails provide access to the varied landscapes of the refuge. Hunting is allowed in season (for deer, turkey, and pheasant) with a permit and there are several fishing piers along the lake, which are open outside of the bird migration seasons. No pets are allowed in the refuge.

The refuge also documents the area's human history. In 1865, the sternwheel steamboat Bertrand, bound for the Montana Territory, sank in the Missouri River. The boat and its cargo rested on the river bottom until 1968, when the wreck was rediscovered. Over 500,000 items were excavated from the wreck; many of them were in excellent condition. Catalogue numbers are now in the upper 5000's, each number sometimes only having one related object, or, in the case of nails, tens of thousands. A visitor center in the refuge displays many of these items. The Bertrand site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge is located 5 miles (8 km) east of Blair, Nebraska. Access to the refuge is on U.S. Route 30 between Blair and Interstate 29.

DeSoto Lake was once part of the Missouri River, but rechannelization projects cut a large bend out of the river, forming the lake at Desoto NWR

Red-headed woodpecker at DeSoto NWR.

DeSoto NWR center, housing the Bertrand exhibit.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge.

Protected areas of Iowa

Federal

National Monument	Effigy Mounds

National Historic Site	Herbert Hoover

National Wildlife Refuges	DeSoto Driftless Area Neal Smith Northern Tallgrass Prairie Port Louisa Union Slough Upper Mississippi River

State

State Parks	Ambrose A. Call Backbone Badger Creek Banner Lakes at Summerset Beed's Lake Bellevue Big Creek Black Hawk Brushy Creek Cedar Rock Clear Lake Dolliver Memorial Elk Rock Elinor Bedell Emerson Bay Fairport Fort Defiance Geode George Wyth Memorial Green Valley Gull Point Honey Creek Lacey-Keosauqua Lake Ahquabi Lake Anita Lake Darling Lake Keomah Lake MacBride Lake Manawa Lake of Three Fires Lake Wapello Ledges Lewis and Clark Maquoketa Caves Marble Beach McIntosh Woods Mines of Spain & E.B. Lyons Mini-Wakan Nine Eagles Okamanpedan Palisades-Kepler Pikes Peak Pikes Point Pilot Knob Pine Lake Pleasant Creek Prairie Rose Preparation Canyon Red Haw Rice Lake Rock Creek Springbrook Stone Templar Trapper's Bay Twin Lakes Union Grove Viking Lake Volga River Walnut Woods Wapsipinicon Waubonsie Wildcat Den Wilson Island

State Forests	Backbone Barkley Gifford Holst Loess Hills Pilot Mound Shimek Stephens White Pine Hollow Yellow River

State Preserves	A.F. Miller Ames High Prairie Anderson Prairie Behrens Pond and Woodlands Berry Woods Bird Hill Bixby Bluffton Fir Stand Brush Creek Canyon Brushy Creek Cameron Woods Casey's Paha Catfish Creek Cayler Prairie Cedar Bluffs Cedar Hills Sand Prairie Cheever Lake Clay Prairie Claybanks Forest Cold Water Spring Crossman Prairie Decorah Ice Cave Dinesen Prairie Doolittle Prairie Fallen Rock Fish Farm Mounds Five Ridge Prairie Fleming Woods Fort Atkinson Freda Haffner Kettlehole Gitchie Manitou Hanging Bog Hardin City Woodland Hartley Fort Hayden Prairie Hoffman Prairie Indian Bluffs Primitive Area Indian Fish Trap Iowa's State Preserves System Kalsow Kish-Ke-Kosh Prairie Lamson Woods Liska-Stanek Prairie Little Maquoketa Malanaphy Springs Malchow Mounds Manikowski Prairie Mann Wilderness Area Marietta Sand Prairie Mericle Woods Merrill A. Stainbrook Merritt Forest Montauk Mossy Glen Mount Pisgah Cemetery Mount Talbot Nestor Stiles Prairie Ocheyedan Mound Old State Quarry Palisades-Downs Pecan Grove Pellett Woods Pilot Grove Pilot Knob Retz Woods Roberts Creek Rock Creek Island Rock Island Roggman Boreal Slopes Rolling Thunder Prairie Saint James Lutheran Church Savage Woods Searryl's Cave Sheeder Prairie Silver Lake Fen Silvers-Smith Woods Slinde Mounds Starr's Cave Steele Prairie Stinson Prairie Strasser Woods Sylvan Runkel Toolesboro Mounds Turin Loess Hills Turkey River Mounds White Pine Hollow Williams Prairie Wittrock Indian Village Woodland Mounds Woodman Hollow Woodthrush

County

State Parks (Leased)	Bobwhite Cold Springs Crystal Lake Eagle Lake Echo Valley Frank A. Gotch Heery Woods Lake Cornelia Lake Icaria Kearny Margo Frankel Mill Creek Oak Grove Oakland Mills Pammel Sharon Bluffs Spring Lake Swan Lake Three Mile Lake

Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Protected areas of Nebraska

Federal

National Monuments	Agate Fossil Beds Homestead Scotts Bluff

National Historic Trails	California Trail Lewis & Clark Trail Mormon Trail Oregon Trail Pony Express Trail

National Wildlife Refuges	Boyer Chute Crescent Lake DeSoto Fort Niobrara John and Louise Seier Karl E. Mundt North Platte Rainwater Basin Valentine

National Forests	Nebraska Samuel R. McKelvie

National Grasslands	Oglala

USFS National Recreation Areas	Pine Ridge

National Wilderness	Fort Niobrara Soldier Creek

Wild and Scenic Rivers	Missouri Niobrara

State

State Parks	Chadron Eugene T. Mahoney Fort Robinson Indian Cave Niobrara Platte River Ponca Smith Falls

State Historical Parks	Ashfall Fossil Beds Ash Hollow Arbor Lodge Bowring Ranch Buffalo Bill Ranch Fort Atkinson Fort Hartsuff Fort Kearny Rock Creek Station

State Recreation Areas	Alexandria Arnold Atkinson Lake Blue River Bluestem Bowman Lake Box Butte Reservoir Branched Oak Bridgeport Brownville Calamus Champion Lake Cheyenne Conestoga Cottonmill Crystal Lake Dead Timber DLD Enders Reservoir Fort Kearny Fremont Lakes Gallagher Canyon Johnson Lake Keller Park Lake Maloney Lake McConaughy Lake Minatare Lake Ogallala Lewis and Clark Long Lake Long Pine Louisville Medicine Creek Memphis Merritt Reservoir Mormon Island North Loup Olive Creek Oliver Reservoir Pawnee Lake Pelican Point Pibel Lake Pioneer Red Willow Reservoir Riverview Marina Rock Creek Lake Rock Creek Station Rockford Sandy Channel Schramm Park Sherman Reservoir Stagecoach Summit Lake Sutherland Reservoir Swanson Reservoir Two Rivers Union Pacific Verdon Victoria Springs Wagon Train Walgren Lake War Axe Wildcat Hills Willow Creek Windmill

State Recreation Trails	Cowboy Trail

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (web)

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DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge

See also

External links