Pothole wetlands in Dickey County, North Dakota. These wetlands function as sites for groundwater (and river baseflow) recharge and water filtration, and provide habitat for migrating birds. Many of them will naturally dry up as the spring progresses and will be farmed through during the summer.

Wetland densities such as these were created during times of glaciation, approximately 10,000 years ago.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pays landowners to enroll wetlands such as these into the wetland easement program. This easement program perpetually protects wetlands from being drained, filled, or leveled. It would keep those values of water filtration and groundwater recharge, plus the habitat benefits for wildlife, as part of a functioning system long into the future.