Long Lake Wetland Management District encompasses three counties in south-central North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

, an area famed for its wealth of waterfowl

Waterfowl

Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans....

-producing potholes and native prairie

Prairie

Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

 grassland

Grassland

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...

s. Headquarters for the Wetland Management District is located in the Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge, located in south-central North Dakota, was established in 1932 as a migratory bird refuge by President Herbert Hoover. The refuge consists of a saline basin that is long and is appropriately named "Long Lake." Long Lake is relatively shallow; it is normally 3...

 office near Moffit, North Dakota

Moffit, North Dakota

Moffit is an unincorporated community in Burleigh County, North Dakota, United States. It lies along US 83 10 miles south of Sterling. Moffit's ZIP code is 58560....

, which is about 35 miles southeast of Bismarck

Bismarck, North Dakota

Bismarck is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the second most populous city in North Dakota after Fargo. The city's population was 61,272 at the 2010 census, while its metropolitan population was 108,779...

. Topographical landforms of the area include Missouri Coteau and Missouri River Slope. Precipitation averages just under 16 inches per year. Approximately 68 percent of the land in the three county area remains virgin sod

Sod

Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of thin material.The term sod may be used to mean turf grown and cut specifically for the establishment of lawns...

 - native mixed-grass prairie. The dominant land use is cattle grazing. The Coteau wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s found in the northeastern portion of the Wetland Management District are classic prairie pothole

Prairie pothole

The Prairie Pothole Region is an area of the northern Great Plains and midgrass and tallgrass prairies that contains thousands of shallow wetlands known as potholes. These potholes are the result of glacier activity in the Wisconsin glaciation, which ended approximately 10,000 years ago...

s of various sizes and types that are prime duck

Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...

 production habitat. These areas, when wet, are very productive. Soils in this area are generally deep and quite productive. Due to the rolling nature of the landscape on the Coteau, a lot of the land is also characterized as highly erodible. Conversely, many of the wetlands on Missouri River Slope portion of the Wetland Management District are large semi-permanent and permanent alkali

Alkali

In chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal element. Some authors also define an alkali as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7. The adjective alkaline is commonly used in English as a synonym for base,...

 wetlands. There are 21 wetland sites on the Missouri River Slope that have a history of periodic avian botulism outbreaks. These areas occasionally present localized problems for significant numbers of migratory birds. Soils on the Missouri River Slope are characteristically shallow with high proportions of sand and gravel. Much of the land is highly erodible

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

. Since 1985, substantial land acreage in the three county area that was once farmed has been retired to Conservation Reserve Program grasslands. The program has assisted in restoring waterfowl populations for many species in the Wetland Management District which exceed the highest level ever recorded since surveys began.