Water quality condition monitoring — Long-term wetland monitoring

Since 1995, the Biological Monitoring Unit has been revisiting a small set of depressional wetlands. All of these sites are located within relatively stable land use settings—broadly categorized as urban, agricultural, or natural. Information gained from these sites is used to help determine whether any large-scale factors such as changes in climate patterns or atmospheric deposition are affecting the condition of Minnesota’s wetlands. These sites are monitored over time using plant and macroinvertebrate IBIs to look for trends in the indicators. If indicators exhibit a similar pattern (increasing or decreasing) from year to year across the long term monitoring sites — then regional-scale factors in addition to any site specific factors may be influencing the condition of these sites.

For more information on the purpose and rationale for long term monitoring of wetlands in Minnesota see the following fact sheet:

• Long-Term Depressional Wetland Monitoring Sites (wq-bwm7-01)

Monitoring sites

A total of 18 long term depressional wetland monitoring sites have been established throughout the state. Six sites are located within each of Minnesota’s three major ecoregions and these are monitored approximately every three years. Within each ecoregion sites have been located in areas representative of least-disturbed conditions (= natural) as well as agricultural and urban settings. These sites are semi-permanent to permanently inundated depressional wetlands that have a fringe of emergent vegetation as well as floating-leaved and submerged aquatic plant communities (i.e., marshes).

For more information about depressional wetland assessment methods and sampling protocols please visit the wetland monitoring and assessment page.

Site reports

Wetland name or MPCA Site ID	Ecoregion	County	Dominant land use setting	Monitored since
Prairie Lake (wq-bwm7-02)	Mixed Wood Plains	Hennepin	Natural	1995
Wood Lake (wq-bwm7-03)	Mixed Wood Plains	Hennepin	Urban	1995
Legion	Mixed Wood Plains	Hennepin	Urban	1995
Breen WMA (wq-bwm7-05)	Mixed Wood Plains	Le Sueur	Agricultural	1999
Glacial	Mixed Wood Plains	Pope	Natural	1995
New Prairie WMA	Mixed Wood Plains	Pope	Agricultural	1999
Willow Lake WMA	Temperate Prairies	Redwood	Agricultural	2002
Rohliks WMA	Temperate Prairies	Redwood	Agricultural	2002
Tyler WMA	Temperate Prairies	Lincoln	Agricultural	2002
Prairie Marshes WMA	Temperate Prairies	Lyon	Natural	2002
Lake Charlotte WPA	Temperate Prairies	Kandiyohi	Agricultural	2002
03Murr066	Temperate Prairies	Murray	Agricultural	2003
04Aitk001	Mixed Wood Shield	Aitkin	Natural	2004
04Belt005	Mixed Wood Shield	Beltrami	Natural	2004
04Cass006	Mixed Wood Shield	Cass	Natural	2004
04Cass011	Mixed Wood Shield	Cass	Natural	2004
04Crow001	Mixed Wood Shield	Crow Wing	Urban	2004
04Pine001	Mixed Wood Shield	Pine	Agricultural	2004

WMA = Wildlife Management Area (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)
WPA = Waterfowl Production Area (US Fish and Wildlife Service)