Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) was established August 11, 1992, for the preservation and reclamation of Missouri River floodplain habitat critical to species living in riparian corridors. The Refuge is one of over 540 refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System—a network of lands set aside and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) specifically for the preservation of wildlife. The Refuge System is a living heritage, conserving wildlife and habitat for people today and generations to come.
Boyer Chute is the first side-channel restoration project on the Missouri River. The primary purpose of the Boyer Chute Restoration Project was to restore essential wildlife habitat without affecting navigation on the main stem of the Missouri River.
The 2 � mile-long Boyer Chute (channel) paralleling the main flow of the Missouri River lies at the center of Boyer Chute NWR. The Chute eroded through an island of sediment deposited from the Boyer River. In 1937 it was blocked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to enhance the Missouri’s main navigation channel.
The Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District (NRD) initiated restoration in the area that is now Boyer Chute NWR. Partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the NRD took on the huge task of restoring the Boyer Chute where previously engineered features were readjusted to allow enough river flow into the chute to restore the riparian habitat. Since then, other entities such as the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Nebraska Environmental Trust, Ducks Unlimited, and others have played important roles in the development of this refuge, a large-scale, ecological partnership success story.
Over 4,000 acres of floodplain woodland, tallgrass prairie, and wetland are being restored and protected within the Refuge boundary. These habitats benefit a wide variety of Missouri River wildlife, including 241 species of birds, 80 species of fish, and more than 70 species of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
This biologically diverse floodplain also provides suitable habitat for endangered species such as the pallid sturgeon, least terns, and piping plovers.
Visitors to the Refuge might see red-headed woodpeckers, short-eared owls, bald eagles, and Henslow’s sparrows, just to name a few. Along the waterways, whether rivers or wetlands, you may see spotted sandpipers, great blue herons, hooded mergansers, and several species of ducks.
These Missouri River floodplain habitat restorations benefit mammals such as white-tailed deer, beaver, muskrat, coyote, badger, and bats. Aquatic and upland habitats provide homes for reptiles and amphibians including Northern prairie skinks, softshell turtles, ribbon snakes, Woodhouse’s toads, and leopard frogs.
Fish such as walleye, shovelnose sturgeon, white bass, flathead catfish, and forage fish--food for larger fish and fish-eating birds now use the restored Boyer Chute.
The Refuge promotes important wildlife-oriented activities such as fishing, hunting, hiking, interpretation, wildlife viewing, environmental education, and photography.
