The Valley City Wetland Management District is located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

and consists of 76,000 acres (307 km²). The wetland district is a substation of the

Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge Complex The Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge Complex consists of numerous National Wildlife Refuges and Wetland Management Districts in the U.S. state of North Dakota. Altogether, twelve separate areas are in the complex, with the Chase Lake Prairie Proj ...

, overseen by the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

. 82 waterfowl production areas and four separate national wildlife refuges which are privately owned are in turn managed by the wetland district as

easement An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...

refuges. The wetland district is in portions of 5 counties in the

Prairie Pothole Region The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR; french: Région des cuvettes/fondrières des prairies) is an expansive area of the northern Great Plains that contains thousands of shallow wetlands known as potholes. These potholes are the result of glacier act ...

that was created by the retreat of glaciers 12,000 years ago, during the

last glacial maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...

. One third of the protected lands are

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s with the balance consisting of

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

Farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

is widespread in the wetland district and the majority of the land managed is under private ownership. Both the

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and

Sheyenne River The Sheyenne River is one of the major tributaries of the Red River of the North, meandering U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 8, 2011 across eastern North Dakota, Uni ...

s are located in the district. Hundreds of small lakes and ponds as well as numerous streams provide abundant water sources for migratory bird species,

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

pronghorn The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...

and other smaller mammals. Working cooperatively with private landowners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assists in the management of the region ensuring a balance between agricultural and wildlife needs.

References

External links

* National Wildlife Refuges in North Dakota Protected areas of Barnes County, North Dakota Protected areas of Cass County, North Dakota Protected areas of Griggs County, North Dakota Protected areas of Steele County, North Dakota Protected areas of Traill County, North Dakota {{NorthDakota-protected-area-stub