Audubon Applauds Upper Mississippi River's International Designation. Audubon Minnesota applauds Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s move recently to designate the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge a “Wetland of International Importance” under provisions provided by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Audubon has identified much of this refuge as an Important Bird Area and has bird monitoring projects in some of this area going back almost 30 years.
Birders from around the world are attracted to Sax-Zim Bog, west of Duluth, to see rare northern owls and other boreal forest species. The Duluth Audubon Society has just produced a birding checklist for this Important Bird Area.
