This is a little part of an article i just read about the Miss in the star tribune. Some of these dont seem like bad ideas like the shell limit.
-Set up 16 areas encompassing nearly 14,500 mostly backwater acres where boaters could use nothing more powerful than electric motors and must obey a 5-mph speed limit.
-Increase the number of no-hunting zones from seven to 13, encompassing 5,322 acres. The number of zones where waterfowl hunting is banned would go from 15 to 21 - 790 acres larger than the current areas - in 2006. Hunters would be limited to 25 shells. Currently there are no limits on how much ammunition they can carry.
-New waterfowl sanctuaries would be added near McGregor, Iowa, Winona, Minn., and Savanna, Ill.
Nissen said refuge officials have struggled with huge parties and underage drinking on the river, particularly in the Winona area, and people have complained they can't get any peace and quiet, even in the backwaters.
"If you're fishing in a small flat and you've got Jet Skis buzzing all around you, so much for the solitude,'' Nissen said.
The hunting restrictions were added to minimize conflict between people using the river for different purposes, improve safety, help waterfowl find more safe breeding areas and fill gaps between current closed areas, according to the plan.
The ammunition limit would discourage "skybusting,'' the practice of shooting excessively at out-of-range birds, the plan said. Skybusting can result in crippled ducks that can't be retrieved, it said.
Bill Howe, 82, of Prairie du Chien, Wis., grew up on the Mississippi. He scoffed at the plan.
-Set up 16 areas encompassing nearly 14,500 mostly backwater acres where boaters could use nothing more powerful than electric motors and must obey a 5-mph speed limit.
-Increase the number of no-hunting zones from seven to 13, encompassing 5,322 acres. The number of zones where waterfowl hunting is banned would go from 15 to 21 - 790 acres larger than the current areas - in 2006. Hunters would be limited to 25 shells. Currently there are no limits on how much ammunition they can carry.
-New waterfowl sanctuaries would be added near McGregor, Iowa, Winona, Minn., and Savanna, Ill.
Nissen said refuge officials have struggled with huge parties and underage drinking on the river, particularly in the Winona area, and people have complained they can't get any peace and quiet, even in the backwaters.
"If you're fishing in a small flat and you've got Jet Skis buzzing all around you, so much for the solitude,'' Nissen said.
The hunting restrictions were added to minimize conflict between people using the river for different purposes, improve safety, help waterfowl find more safe breeding areas and fill gaps between current closed areas, according to the plan.
The ammunition limit would discourage "skybusting,'' the practice of shooting excessively at out-of-range birds, the plan said. Skybusting can result in crippled ducks that can't be retrieved, it said.
Bill Howe, 82, of Prairie du Chien, Wis., grew up on the Mississippi. He scoffed at the plan.