Shallow Lake and Large Marsh Restorations
Living Lakes Initiative
Ducks Unlimited has experienced engineers, drafting professionals, surveyors and construction managers that design and deliver wetlands and shallow lake restoration projects. Contact the DU Living Lakes professionals if you are interested in a restoration project.
By the year 2011, DU expects to restore 400 shallow lakes and large marshes with degraded waterfowl habitat. The restored basins will improve the stepping stones for migrating waterfowl. The improved shallow lakes will expand the aquatic food base for ducks and increase the capacity of the migration corridor to support scaup, mallards, canvasbacks and other waterfowl. The improved shallow lakes and marshes will ensure that individual ducks maintain their body condition as they migrate through the flyway.
Living Lakes Initiative Shallow Lake and Large Marsh Restoration Accomplishments in Minnesota and Iowa
| 07-08 Accomplishments¹ |
07-08 basins |
Cumulative Accomplishments² |
| 8,361 acres |
18 |
184 shallow lakes |
¹ restorations completed between July 1st, 2007 and June 30th, 2008
² restorations completed since July 1st, 2004
The potential for restoring previously drained wetlands and shallow lakes in Iowa and Minnesota is extensive. Drainage and tile systems designed to make the land more suitable for row crop agriculture has taken a heavy toll on the wetlands and shallow lake basins. In Iowa, an estimated 89 percent of wetlands base has been destroyed. In Minnesota, the numbers are equally grim with an estimated 42 percent of the wetlands now gone (Dahl, 2006). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with other state and local groups, have joined forces with DU to complete a GIS project to map and quantify the wetlands that have been lost. Below are two maps of the identical 4-mi² area in southwest Minnesota depicting the distribution of wetlands before and after agricultural development of the area.
Contact the DU Living Lakes professionals if you are interested in shallow lake restoration
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