Currently the US Fish and Wildlife allows ice fishing on only 9 of the 23 or so lakes on the refuge. In recent years those 9 open lakes have become very unproductive fisheries relative to their historic performance. The local Valentine economy has seen a noticeable decrease because of it. The use of these public land resources should be available to citizens in a limited recreational use way. Signing this petition voices your support to get USFW to open the rest of the lakes on the refuge to ice fishing.

Opponents of this cause will say those closed lakes are unable to support fish life, but this is simply not true as Valentine residents have heard countless first hand accounts of people illegally fishing and catching fish out of the lakes that are closed. Opponents will also say refuge resources are for waterfowl exclusively, and building access to the closed lakes will be too costly and disturb habitat. Existing roads near many of the closed lakes means simply allowing access to most of them would be a relatively inexpensive endeavor, and for other more remote lakes allowing walk in access is a no cost option as well.  Potentional disturbances to migrating and breeding waterfowl on the refuge can be avoided by allowing access for just the ice fishing season from December through early March and remaining closed during the rest of the year. Sign this today to urge USFW to re-open all lakes on Valentine Wildlife Refuge to ice fishing!