Portions of area wildlife refuge may be closed for a while due to flooding

PUXICO, Mo. — "The water on Mingo is higher now than during the [mid-March] flood," said Mingo National Wildlife Refuge manager Ben Mense as he drove a pickup through flooded waters on a paved refuge road last week.

The sides of the roads are marked with metal poles to keep drivers from straying into ditches. "Basically, all of the public-use roads are closed. But Mingo is not closed. The parking lot at the boardwalk is open. You can still walk in."

Visitors who take advantage of that invitation may be treated to the unusual sight of adult turkeys tiptoeing through floodwater covered forests, herds of deer lying quietly in open fields and beaver swimming along roadside ditches.

"This has had a profound effect on wildlife," Mense said. "All of the deer and turkey are pushed out onto [high] ground. Pretty much the entire refuge has been under water except the bluffs."

"I fully expect the water to be here until June. It's going down at about 1 inch per day."

The refuge will not be open to hunters this week, the start of the three-week turkey season. The safety of hunters would be a concern, Mense said, because there is so little dry ground. Missouri law also prohibits hunting animals pushed out by floodwaters. While Mingo is closed for turkey until further notice, officials will try to open it later in the season.

Water at Mingo in March and April has been higher than staff members have seen it in 60 years of living in the area, Mense said. It is probably four to five feet higher than normal at this time of year and eight to 10 inches higher than the initial week of flooding.

A two-person team from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came last week to do a preliminary damage assessment, but officials know it is impossible to truly gauge the amount of destruction before the water finally recedes.

All the water on Mingo's 22,000 acres, plus 7,000 acres of Duck Creek, is draining through the refuge's Ditch 11. Ditch 11 then drains into the St. Francis River, which empties into the already full Mississippi River. Until river levels downstream are reduced, water will be slow in leaving the refuge, Mense said.

"The worst of the damage will be road damage. We've lost gravel on numerous roads. There are areas where water has cut into roads," Mense said. Workers cleared debris from roads made accessible by lower water levels during the last month, only to have the water rise again and deposit more debris on the pavement. Because of this, the refuge will not begin cleaning roads again until the water level is significantly lower.

"As the water goes down, we will open more roads," Mense said. "But by May Pond and Ditch 6, the road had a strong current. The whole thing is going to have to be redone and that's half our auto tour route. We will be lucky to have the auto tour open by fall.

Paul Davis ~ Daily American Republic Refuge manager Ben Mense looked out over the road into the Flat Banks area of Mingo National Wildlife Refuge. Most roads on the refuge have been covered with floodwaters, and officials fear the flooding has caused widespread damage to roads, facilities and infrastructure.

"This is going to significantly reduce our visitors. This time of the year and fall are our two busiest times."

On some roads water is still up to a foot deep and has been higher.

"If it weren't for the flood, there would probably be 10 or 12 trucks back here fishing," Mense said, standing on the edge of a flooded roadway at Flat Banks, near Ditch 11.

Mosquitoes are already making their presence known, and Mense predicts standing water throughout the area will produce a record season for the bug.

"This is one of the areas where we really don't know if the roads are going to be there when the water goes down," Mense said.

A fast current can be seen flowing across the roadway, where dips in the water indicate the road has likely sustained serious damage.

"We wouldn't be able to handle all of the [repairs] with our staff," he said. "We'll probably have to pull employees from other refuges in the region, like Illinois and Indiana."

Already this year Mingo workers spent more than a week clearing away the 150 trees brought down on refuge public use roads by ice storms.

It normally takes 30 to 40 days for winter water levels to reach summer water levels, but this year that could take up to 60 days.

Flooding would have been worse, according to Mense, if the refuge had not begun cleaning silt and overgrowth out of Mingo's 34 miles of ditches in 2000.