In the 2012 President's Budget Request, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is terminated. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within this web site will be removed on January 15, 2012. For more information, please refer to the NBII Program Termination page.
The USGS Northern Praire Wildlife Research Center (Jamestown, ND) is a key Mountain Prairie partner. Their web site offers an extensive collection of resources including species accounts, identification tools, resource management techniques, publications, distribution maps, and additional resources on the biotic resources of the Great Plains and the Prairie Pothole Region.
The Prairie Pothole Region
Prairie Pothole Wetlands in South Dakota [Photo: Don Poggensee, NRCS]
The Prairie Pothole Region of North America stretches from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in Canada to Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa. Prairie "potholes" are wetlands that fill with snowmelt and rain in the spring. Some of these wetlands are temporary and others are semi-permanent. They support more than 50% of North American migratory waterfowl, and they mediate flooding by absorbing enormous amounts of water. Because this region is highly productive, more than half of all prairie pothole wetlands have been drained or altered for agricultural use.