Surveying Prairie Potholes

Scientists survey prairie potholes in Wells County, North Dakota. 

The Prairie Pothole Region extends across the central United States and Canada, providing wetland and grassland habitat to thousands of species, including critical breeding habitat for migratory waterbirds. 

These wetlands are pretty important, so the country invests tens of millions of dollars annually into the management of habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region, including over 1.7M acres under permanent wetland easements managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Unfortunately, scientists believe wetland losses in the Prairie Pothole Region have reduced populations of wetland-dependent species by half and caused many species to no longer exist in the area. 

USGS scientists have been working with our partners at the USFWS to address their specific management needs to help conserve and protect this critical ecosystem. We do this through impartial scientific research and tool development.

One particularly important question is how the Prairie Pothole Region respond to climate and land-use change, including how land management affects adjacent wetlands and the species that depend on them. 

Our scientists bring together, work directly with, and solicit feedback from land and resource managers, tribal communities, and non-governmental organizations to ensure our research is the most effective it can be at providing useful tools to assess the effects of climate and land use change. Tools that will ultimately be used by managers in planning conservation actions in the Prairie Pothole Region.