Four developed campsites and one undeveloped area in Voyageurs National Park that were off-limits due to bald eagles nesting have been re-opened, the Park announced recently.
Read the Park Service’s media release HERE.
The Sand Bay South and Skipper Rock Island houseboat sites on Rainy Lake and the Happy Landing campsite and Yoder Island houseboat site on Kabetogama Lake are now open to the public. The re-opened undeveloped area is the West Sphunge Island Inlet on Kabetogama Lake.
The closures were necessitated by the park’s obligation to follow the conservation management rules of the federal Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Management Act. Each year since 1992, the park has temporarily closed to visitor use the land and water areas around active bald eagle nests during critical nesting periods.
Voyageurs National Park biologists found 72 nests within the park boundary this breeding season. Six new nests were found inside Voyageurs National Park while seven nests were lost from last year due to nests blowing out of trees or nest trees falling over.
Thirty-three young eagles fledged from 25 park nests: 24 at Kabetogama, three at Namakan, five at Rainy, and one at Sand Point.