Meet and greet gives public look at new USFWS facility now under construction
Community members learned more about the new headquarters and maintenance facility now under construction for the McGregor District of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge at a meet and greet on Sept. 17. Here, McGregor District Manager Kendra Pednault (second from right) shares plans for the long-anticipated project. (Photos by Audrey Posten)
Construction on the project, located at the Luster Heights Unit between Marquette and Harpers Ferry, began in early August by A&J’s Construction from Cresco. Work is expected to be complete by 2026.
By Audrey Posten | Times-Register
Community members learned more about the new headquarters and maintenance facility now under construction for the McGregor District of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge at a meet and greet event on Sept. 17.
“I’m so excited,” said McGregor District Manager Kendra Pednault. “We had no idea if people were going to show, and I am beyond thrilled the neighbors, in particular, and our partners came out. They’re all curious.”
Construction on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project, located at the Luster Heights Unit between Marquette and Harpers Ferry, began in early August by A&J’s Construction from Cresco. But it’s been a need for much longer, according to Pednault.
“This has been identified as a need for the refuge since 2006,” she said. “It’s taken a couple tries and fits and starts to actually get a right fit. The sentiment has been, ‘I can’t believe it’s actually happening.’”
The facility addresses both deferred maintenance needs for the refuge and visitor access to public lands and waters. A 6,000-square-foot multi-purpose building will serve as staff offices, as well as a visitor contact station and have space available for educational activities, meetings, trainings and volunteer events. A maintenance facility and storage buildings will also be constructed to provide space to secure and maintain equipment that is necessary for refuge staff to meet habitat and public use goals.
The existing single-lane gravel road from the current Luster Heights parking lot to the new facilities will be widened and paved to accommodate two-way traffic. Work also includes a 4,000-square-foot hard-surfaced parking area and grass overflow area, on-site gravity septic system, construction of trails to connect to off-site state forest trails and associated infrastructure (security fence, above-ground fuel tanks, etc.)
Funding for the $10,620,000 project has been provided by the Great American Outdoors Act.
Pednault said the location—at the former Luster Heights minimum security prison camp that operated from 1962 to 2017—is a good fit for several reasons.
One, it’s not in a floodplain.
“We don’t want to build in a floodplain. That wouldn’t be very responsible to do,” she explained. “We also don’t like to remove habitat to build buildings. That’s contrary to our mission. Having this already disturbed site with a larger footprint is excellent. It’s also a bonus that it’s connected to existing trails, and we’re surrounded by the state forest, so we know our neighbors. And it’s got a great view of the river, so it’s a nice connection to where we work.”
The new location will also bring together all the McGregor District facilities. The current office is in Prairie du Chien, after relocating from between Marquette and McGregor in 2015, but a shop is maintained at the former site. Warehouses are also sprawled across the area, at Lansing, Genoa and Farmersburg.
Staff, said Pednault, look forward to being “able to consolidate everything and not be running around to grab our equipment, which can sometimes take an hour or longer. We’re really glad to have anything that helps us save time and money.”
Pednault said the contractor is working now to get some of the structure erected by winter, so they have interior spaces to work on. Work is expected to be complete by 2026.
Once complete, the visitor contact station will be open as staffing is available. Pednault stressed that, while the facilities will be multi-purpose and have a visitor contact station, it will not be a staffed visitor center.
With just four full-time employees who cover the McGregor’s District’s 92,000 acres across pools 9, 10 and 11 of the Mississippi River, as well as 1,238 acres of the Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge in units throughout northeast Iowa, staff are often out and about.
“A lot of people see us build facilities like this and assume it’s going to be a visitor contact station and we’re going to be there to meet and greet customers. We’re going to try to do that to the best of our ability, but the reality is most of the time we work outside on the landscape and in the habitat. That’s going to be our priority,” Pednault said. “We’ve done what we can to offer amenities when we’re not here, so people can still enjoy the trails and parking area, still use the trails to access outdoor bathrooms. That’s a huge thing because they don’t have facilities here. They can also access the pretty deck and patio to look at the river.”
