Mingo National Wildlife Refuge seeks public feedback on commercial trapping

With it being 10 years since commercial trapping particulars have been analyzed within Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, near Puxico, Missouri, the public-use initiative is once again seeking feedback.

According to officials, the 15-day comment period for Mingo’s Draft Compatibility Determination on proposed commercial trapping begins Thursday.

Mingo National Wildlife Refuge manager Ben Mense said any use a national wildlife refuge is proposing to allow must go through the process.

“It’s a way to ensure that particular use is not going to affect or negatively affect the purposes of the refuge and why it was established,” he said.

Typically, he said, similar compatibility determinations are good for 10 years. Mense also said this particular use is expiring at the end of the year.

And it’s nothing the refuge isn’t already doing, he said, “We’re just going through the administrative process to continue that use.”

According to Mense, the compatibility determination evaluates commercial trapping of beaver, muskrat, nutria and, most recently added, raccoon.

The raccoon population — and diseases — at the refuge has gotten very high, he said, adding the initiative is a way to control the population and keep it at a more desired level.

The entire refuge is about 22,000 acres, including a wilderness area at approximately 7,700 acres, he said.

And according to its website, following the establishment of Florida’s Pelican Island as the first national wildlife refuge in 1903, the system has grown to encompass more than 566 national wildlife refuges spanning approximately 100 million acres of land and 750 million acres of oceans in the United States.

Copies of the draft compatibility determinations are available online at www.fws.gov/refuge/mingo and comments may be emailed to mingo@fws.gov.

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