My husband Lou and I headed out West on vacation this past
summer. Driving across North Dakota, we noticed two things we
don't usually see: everyone following the speed limit (75 mph)
and wetlands popping up every few miles among rolling
grasslands. North Dakota has thousands of natural basins, or
prairie potholes, created by receding and melting glaciers.
Since European settlement, North Dakota has held onto about 51
percent of its wetlands. By contrast, Minnesota's prairie
pothole counties have retained less than 10 percent. And the
prairie itself has all but disappeared. This has happened
despite the fact that Minnesota has among the most stringent
state wetland regulations in the country. For the past decade,
our wetland-rich neighbor has been attracting more ducks than
our state has. As this issue's "Retooling Minnesota's Duck
Factory" tells, the wetland-grassland complexes of North and
South Dakota produce about half of the prairie pothole region's
ducks. However, as the climate shifts and landscapes ch