Characterizing Unconserved Shallow Wetlands in Lamoure County, North Dakota

Prior to modern agriculture, the plains of North and South Dakota were once a mixed grass prairie with millions of small ponds and wetlands. These wetlands provide summer breeding habitat for countless numbers of migrating bird species. Through the work of conservation organizations and Federal agencies, many of these wetlands have been restored across the Dakotas, Prairie Minnesota, and Iowa. This project focused on locating a county in an area of critical breeding habitat that has had, thus far, limited restoration of these small wetlands and determing their extent and quality using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The study area was determined using data from the National Conservation Easement Database and US Fish and Wildlife Realty Interest databases. These datasets delineate areas that have some form of easement or conservation interest actively placed on them. Through visual interpretation, there were several areas that contained our target landscape of small wetlands that could be restored. One of these areas that had extensive wetland, or “Prairie Pothole” topography, but limited active easements was Lamoure County, North Dakota. These wetlands are considered to be the most productive environments for breeding migratory birds and grassland nesting birds. Small wetlands less than one acre in size provide three times more nesting habitat than a 10 acre wetland. Wetland type is also critical for our study. Only ponds that contained freshwater emergent vegetation were selected for evaluation, given their abundant food resources and cover for young birds. This project created a “heat map” to show the highest concentrations of nesting habitat, which are the most productive areas for potential conservation in this county. In addition, cost efficiency was determined our these areas of study to assist conservation organizations in finding areas that provide the biggest ecologic return per dollar spent.