Ecological Monitoring Insights
from the Wetlands Reserve
Program in Missouri
Summary Findings
• Ecological monitoring data from
wetlands enrolled in WRP in Mis-
souri clearly show land-cover
changes associated with wetland
restoration, with major shifts from
open crop fields to forested wet-
lands through time.
• Habitat quality (represented by
Habitat Suitability Index values) for
select wetland wildlife species has
improved due to restoration.
• For non-forest species (e.g., least
bittern) habitat quality is better in
the early (herbaceous) years follow-
ing restoration than in older ease-
ments, where forest succeeds open
habitat. For forest species, habitat
quality is expected to continue to
improve as trees mature.
• Due to the variety of wetland types
enrolled in WRP in Missouri, eco-
logical monitoring data there illus-
trate regional ecological and wildlife
benefits of WRP.
Recommendation
• Continued ecological monitoring of
WRP easements is needed to track
the value of habitat and other wet-
land functions through time to
maximize benefits derived from the
program.
CEAP Conservation
Insight
February 2008
United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Background
At the beginning of major European
settlement (ca. 1780s), the territory of
present-day Missouri is estimated to
have held slightly more than 4.8 million
acres of wetlands, an area equivalent to
nearly 11 percent of the state today. The
vast majority of these wetlands were
associated with the state’s great rivers,
the Mississippi and Missouri, and their
tributaries.
Large-scale wetland losses began in
Missouri after the Federal Swamp Act
(1850) was enacted. This legislation,
while targeting flood control and recla-
mation for agriculture, resulted in the
transfer of Federal lands to the state and
ultimately into private hands, and led to
massive drainage. Channelization and
damming of rivers also contributed to
the loss and degradation of the state’s
we