Mille Lacs National Wildlife Refuge is a 0.57 acre (2,300 m²) National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the world's premiere system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants...

 in central Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. The refuge consists solely of two small islands in Mille Lacs Lake

Mille Lacs Lake

Mille Lacs Lake is a lake in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is located in the counties of Mille Lacs, Aitkin and Crow Wing, roughly 100 miles north of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area....

, and is the smallest National Wildlife Refuge in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was created on May 14, 1915 to preserve breeding habitat for several bird species. The islands are one of only four breeding colonies of common terns

Common Tern

The Common Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, breeding in temperate and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia and east and central North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. It is sometimes...

, a threatened species

Threatened species

Threatened species are any speciesg animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future.The World Conservation Union is the foremost authority on threatened species, and treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories,...

 in Minnesota. Other native species breeding within the refuge include ring-billed

Ring-billed Gull

The Ring-billed Gull is a medium-sized gull.Adults are length and with a wingspan. The head, neck and underparts are white; the relatively short bill is yellow with a dark ring; the back and wings are silver gray; and the legs are yellow. The eyes are yellow with red rims...

 and herring gulls

American Herring Gull

The American Herring Gull or Smithsonian Gull is a large gull which breeds in North America. It is often treated as a subspecies of the European Herring Gull but is now regarded as a separate species by some authorities.Adults are white with gray back and wings, black wingtips with white spots,...

 and double-crested cormorants

Double-crested Cormorant

The Double-crested Cormorant is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It occurs along inland waterways as well as in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska down to Florida and Mexico...

.

The islands can only be reached by boat. Landing on them is officially discouraged (though not actually forbidden), and instead visitors are asked to conduct their birdwatching

Birdwatching

Birdwatching or birding is the observation of birds as a recreational activity. It can be done with the naked eye, through a visual enhancement device like binoculars and telescopes, or by listening for bird sounds. Birding often involves a significant auditory component, as many bird species are...

 from watercraft.

Mille Lacs National Wildlife Refuge is administered from Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge

The Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1935 and is located in the scenic forest and bog area of northern Minnesota. Visitors can enjoy a range of habitats, including lake, river, bog and hardwood forest....

.

External links

• Mille Lacs National Wildlife Refuge