National Wildlife Refuges in Iowa

Iowa has 6 national wildlife refuges, all run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Desoto National Wildlife Refuge, Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge, Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge, Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge, and Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge. 2 allow hunting and 1 allows fishing.

Each refuge sets its own closures and fire rules. Each refuge's page lists the fire restriction orders and closures on record for it, from the refuge's own fws.gov alerts, re-checked every six hours. Hunting and fishing seasons and limits are the refuge regulation's and Nevada's: each page links them, and none are restated here.

Iowa national wildlife refuges map

  • National wildlife refuges (FWS)
Land managed by (switch layers on or off)
Land managed by

Land ownership: USGS PAD-US 4.1, dissolved by manager and simplified (parcels under about 2 square km not shown). Unit boundaries simplified. Not for navigation or legal boundaries.

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Desoto National Wildlife Refuge Harrison County Yes Not on record Not on record Not on record Not on record
Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge Clayton County Yes Not on record Yes Yes No
Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge Jasper County Not on record Not on record Not on record Not on record Not on record
Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge Kossuth County Yes Not on record Yes Not on record No
Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge Benton County Not on record Not on record Not on record Not on record Not on record
Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge Kossuth County Not on record Not on record Not on record Not on record Not on record