The Northern Wet Prairie of the United States: Nature, Sources of Information, and Extent

Hewes, Leslie

doi:10.1080/00045605109352076

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Extensive artificial drainage of wetlands in the region began in the early 1900s (Hewes, 1951); most restored wetlands have been drained for well over 20 years.…”

Section: Project Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Site selection, design criteria and performance assessment for wetland restorations in the prairie pothole region

Galatowitsch

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Between 1987 and 1991,1892 wetlands (2714 ha) were restored by state and federal agencies, most as part of the Conservation Reserve Program in northern Iowa, southern Minnesota, and southeastern South Dakota. These restored wetlands are assumed to provide wildlife habitat and improve water quality. These assumptions were evaluated by comparing features of restored wetlands to those of natural wetlands (historic or extant). A preliminary evaluation was made on all restorations; more detailed information was collected on 62 wetlands restored in 1988. The water quality evaluation is based on watershed land use, basin morphometry, and emergent vegetation development. The evaluation of restored wetlands as wildlife habitat is based on wetland type, water regime, and vegetation composition and zonation. Thirty-six of the 62 restorations do not have any part of their watershed in row-crop production and only ten had more than 50% in row crops. Earthen dams are installed on most (73%) of all restorations in the region, increasing the full pool volume and consequently the potential water residence time. However, nearly all wetlands restored by removing drainage tile (17% of all sites) have inlets positioned next to outlets, greatly diminishing water residence time at full pool. Most restorations are less than 4 ha and 41 % have soils indicating an ephemeral to seasonal pre-drainage water regime. Wetlands restored to be ephemeral/temporary are under-represented compared to their pre-agricultural extent. After three years, wet prairie and sedge meadow zones have not re established in most restorations (0% and 9%, respectively). The number of wet prairie, sedge meadow, and shallow emergent species is less than for natural wetlands. Natural wetlands have 1-22 wet prairie species, whereas restored wetlands have 0-2 species. Sedge meadow species number 7-49 in natural wetlands and 0-9 in restored wetlands. Seven to 19 shallow emergent species are present in natural wetlands, compared with 1-8 species for restored wetlands. Deep emergent and submersed aquatic zones develop in restored wetlands and the species richness of these communities is comparable to that of natural wetlands.

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“…Extensive artificial drainage of wetlands in the region began in the early 1900s (Hewes, 1951); most restored wetlands have been drained for well over 20 years.…”

Section: Project Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Site selection, design criteria and performance assessment for wetland restorations in the prairie pothole region

Galatowitsch

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“…1). Wetlands were a significant impediment to European settlement on the Lobe and historical accounts emphasize the large number of wetlands and the problems that they caused European settlers (Hewes 1951). However, the development of organized drainage districts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulted in most of the region's wetlands being drained and converted to farmland (Prince 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Wetland hydrologic class change from prior to European settlement to present on the Des Moines Lobe, Iowa

Miller

Crumpton

Valk

2011

Wetlands Ecol Manage

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It has been hypothesized that wetland restoration policies have favored the restoration of the wettest classes of wetlands on the Des Moines Lobe of the prairie pothole region. To test this hypothesis we compared pre-drainage wetland distributions based on soils data and National Wetland Inventory (NWI) estimates of contemporary wetland distributions on the Des Moines Lobe. Based on the NWI data, the Des Moines Lobe today has only 3-4% of the wetland area that it had prior to the onset of drainage. On the basis of their soils, pre-drainage wetlands were predominantly temporarily flooded to saturated wetlands (84%), with only about 6% of the wetlands with water regimes classified as semi-permanently to permanently flooded. Depending on the interpretation of wetland modifiers on NWI maps, wetlands classified by the NWI as semi-permanent to permanently flooded make up more than 41% of the wetland area while wetlands with temporarily flooded to saturated water regimes account for 45-58% of the Lobe's wetland area. The water regimes of contemporary wetlands when compared to their historic regimes suggest that many of today's wetlands have different water regimes than they did prior to the onset of drainage. Because of the regional lowering of the groundwater table, many of today's wetlands have drier water regimes, but some have wetter water regimes because they receive drainage tile inputs. Our results indicate that restoration has favored the wettest classes of wetlands and that temporarily to saturated wetland classes have not been restored in proportion to their relative abundance in the pre-drainage landscape.

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“…As ecological perspectives became more prominent in the twentieth century, the character of these periodically inundated areas shifted from inaccessible land to unique ecological regions. 20 The Grand Prairie became the heart of the Corn Belt where agricultural drainage virtually eliminated wetlands, 21 and cultivation has all but eliminated the prairie ecosystem. 22 Streams that have been straightened, deepened, and widened over the past century are now often identified on topographic maps as ditches in central Illinois.…”

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confidence: 99%

An uninhabited waste: transforming the Grand Prairie in nineteenth century Illinois, USA

Urban

2005

Journal of Historical Geography

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The Northern Wet Prairie of the United States: Nature, Sources of Information, and Extent

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Site selection, design criteria and performance assessment for wetland restorations in the prairie pothole region

Site selection, design criteria and performance assessment for wetland restorations in the prairie pothole region

Wetland hydrologic class change from prior to European settlement to present on the Des Moines Lobe, Iowa

An uninhabited waste: transforming the Grand Prairie in nineteenth century Illinois, USA

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