Jim Nissen is making his annual plea to fall boaters.

Nissen, longtime La Crosse District manager of Upper Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Refuge, is asking boaters to avoid three key locations where waterfowl congregate, feed and rest for their long journey south.

These three voluntary waterfowl avoidance areas go into effect today on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge within Pools 7 and 8, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The voluntary restraint program reduces disturbance to resting and feeding waterfowl using refuge closed areas during fall migration.

Waterfowl are sensitive to human activity occurring near their resting and feeding areas. Even relatively distant boating activity may be enough to cause the birds to flush and use valuable energy reserves.

Boaters, who voluntarily throttle down and avoid concentrations of waterfowl, will help these birds accumulate fat reserves required for the remainder of their long migration.

"One boat a day is enough to cause disturbance," Nissen said on Tuesday.

Different species respond differently, according to Nissen. For example, Lake Onalaska, with its lush wild celery beds, is a magnet for canvasback ducks. Each fall, thousands of canvasbacks use the lake to rest and feed.

"It doesn't take much to move them off," Nissen said. "They burn a lot of energy flying around while reacting to disturbances. They may fly for varying amounts of time."

The first voluntary avoidance area in the La Crosse area was established on Lake Onalaska in the fall of 1986 and has been a huge benefit to waterfowl.

Buoys have been placed along the boundaries of a 3,360-acre area on Lake Onalaska.

"Again, we're asking folks to honor it. People, by and large, have done a good job in past years," Nissen said. "While boating activity has increased on the lake, the number of disturbances is holding its own."

Surprisingly, the voluntary avoidance area actually benefits waterfowl hunters, according to Nissen. He said if large concentrations of birds are disturbed too many times in the voluntary avoidance areas, they will simply leave and fly farther south.

"With too many disturbances to canvasbacks, they will leave the area altogether," he said. "We want to keep them in the area to produce hunting opportunities."

Waterfowl were already using the three avoidance areas last week. There were 7,000 ducks, geese and swans on Lake Onalaska, 3,200 in the Wisconsin Islands area and 2,200 in the Goose Island area. Those numbers will increase dramatically as the migration continues to peak within the next several weeks.

In late October of 2008, almost 100,000 waterfowl were counted on Lake Onalaska, including about 43,000 canvasbacks.

Nissen said maps showing the location of the voluntary avoidance areas are available at many area sporting goods stores, motels and the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Office in Onalaska. He said people can also track weekly waterfowl updates at http://www.fws.gov/

midwest/Upper MississippiRiver/.

"We really want to thank boaters. We appreciate their past efforts," he said.

Let's hope Nissen will be able to say the same after this fall's migration.

VOLUNTARY WATERFOWL AVOIDANCE AREAS

# The Lake Onalaska voluntary waterfowl avoidance area in Pool 7 is in effect from Oct. 15, through mid-November. The boundaries of the avoidance area are marked with white buoys.

# The Goose Island no hunting zone and voluntary waterfowl avoidance area in Pool 8 is in effect from

Oct. 15, through the end of the Wisconsin duck hunting season on Dec. 6.

To further reduce human-caused disturbance to waterfowl concentrated in this no hunting zone, the use of motors on watercraft is also prohibited. Buoys are placed at popular boat access points to alert boaters.

# The Wisconsin Islands closed area is in Pool 8. With the exception of a travel corridor in Raft Channel that provides access to a business and five boathouses, all boaters are asked to voluntarily avoid this closed area from Oct. 15, through Dec. 6. Again, buoys are placed at commonly used access points to alert boaters.