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Demographics Of Western South Dakota Wetlands And Basins, Bryan A. Rieger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands, whether natural or man-made in origin, are an important feature of the semiarid landscape of western South Dakota. These wetlands have numerous social and economic values and functions for both landowners and non-owners, as well as for fish and wildlife species. For this reason, accurate information about wetland abundance, characteristics and distribution is important. These demographic summaries of wetland resources of western South Dakota were based on digital wetland data, as delineated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) office. Surface water covers approximately 257,006 ha or about 2.4% of the 10,810,700 ha of western …