Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District

Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District was established in 1962 as part of the Fergus Falls Wetland Management District, with the advent of the Accelerated Small Wetlands Acquisition Program. After various iterations, the district was restructured and renamed in 1975 as the name we know today. The district manages hundreds of federally owned waterfowl productions areas in Becker, Clay, Mahnomen, Norman and Polk Counties in northwest Minnesota. The district is divided into three general landscape areas: the Red River Valley floodplain, the glacial moraine/prairie pothole region and the hardwood/coniferous forest. Land acquisition and management efforts are focused in the prairie pothole region of the district, with a goal of providing habitat for nesting waterfowl. About 3,200 acres of remnant tallgrass prairie have been saved, while thousands of acres of prairie pothole wetlands and tallgrass prairie vegetation have been restored. These habitats are not only critical for waterfowl but are beneficial to other wildlife species as well.