Six of the park’s 276 developed visitor use camping and houseboat sites that were affected by temporary closures in May to protect bald eagle nesting pairs are now reopened for public use. The areas affected by the temporary closures that are now reopened for public use are:
Kabetogama Lake – Happy Landing Campsite (K-11), Camelback Island Campsite (K-3), Ek Bay Houseboat Site (K-47)
Namakan Lake – Hamilton Bay (N-11), Junction Bay North (N-50)
Rainy Lake – Skipper Rock Houseboat Site (R-45)
Thirty-seven young fledged from 42 park nests this summer: 6 at Rainy Lake, 20 at Kabetogama Lake, 7 at Namakan Lake, 2 at Sand Point Lake, and 2 at Crane Lake.
The number of young produced per occupied breeding area for the 2014 breeding population in VNP was 0.88. Sixty-nine percent of breeding pairs occupying a breeding area successfully raised at least one fledgling. Productivity of 1.0 and breeding success of 70% are considered characteristics of a healthy bald eagle breeding populations; long-term averages for Voyageurs National Park approach these thresholds.
VNP natural resource managers follow the conservation management actions of the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Management Act (16 U.S.C. 668-668c, 1940 as amended). Each year since 1992, the park has temporarily closed the land and water areas around active bald eagle nests to visitor use during their critical nesting periods.
