Managed Wetlands

Supporting the Resilience of Managed Wetlands

Local, state, federal, tribal, and privately managed wetlands have long provided some of the most important habitats for migratory birds in the Intermountain West.

These lands serve as “anchors” of wetland habitat, forming systems that meet the seasonal needs of waterfowl, shorebirds, and waterbirds. The opportunity created by management makes these wetlands unique in that they can be effectively conserved and enhanced through management actions. However, funding and capacity challenges, as well as changes like decreasing water availability, may limit a manager’s ability to manage these habitats to their fullest potential.

Wetland managers assess food production in a dry unit.

Our Practices

We provide support to the managers of both public and private wetlands so they can:

Identify the niche in the flyway through conservation planning.

We help managers apply remote sensing tools like WET, as well as other science, that can bolster their deep knowledge of the habitat they steward. This information can better tailor management decisions, like ensuring water deliveries align with seasonal bird migration. Collaborative communications can help emphasize the importance of these areas to flyway resiliency across large regions and timescales.

Modernize water management infrastructure.

We provide managers with resources that can help them attain funding for and implement infrastructure improvement projects needed to continue effectively managing wetlands. We also communicate the need for infrastructure updates that can help sustain wetlands despite increasing water scarcity.

Implement strategic water and vegetation management.

Our science, capacity, and partnership work help wetland managers maximize the quality of wetland habitat they provide through actions like removing invasive or late-succession vegetation or increasing open-water habitat. We support increases to public wildlife area budgets and staff capacity, as well as incentives for managing private wetlands, to provide resilient wetland habitat for migratory birds.

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