U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
National Wetlands Inventory
Wetlands provide a multitude of ecological, economic and social benefits. They provide habitat for fish, wildlife and plants - many of which have a commercial or recreational value - recharge groundwater, reduce flooding, provide clean drinking water, offer food and fiber, and support cultural and recreational activities. Unfortunately, over half of America’s wetlands have been lost since 1780, and wetland losses continue today. This highlights the urgent need for geospatial information on wetland extent, type, and change.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is the principal US Federal agency tasked with providing information to the public on the status and trends of our Nation's wetlands. The US FWS National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is a publicly available resource that provides detailed information on the abundance, characteristics, and distribution of US wetlands. NWI data are used by natural resource managers, within the US FWS and throughout the Nation, to promote the understanding, conservation and restoration of wetlands.
The Wetlands Mapper delivers an easy-to-use map-like view of America’s wetland resources. It spatially integrates NWI data with additional natural resource information and political boundaries to produce a robust decision support tool.
Status and Trends reports provide estimates of US wetland extent, type, and change specific to different time periods, ranging from the 1700’s to 2009. Reports are currently being produced on a decadal basis. The reports educate policy-makers and the public on the status of the Nation's wetlands and potential causes of wetland change.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services' National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) geospatial dataset is a publicly available resource that provides detailed information on the abundance, characteristics and distribution of America's wetlands. These data support a multitude of applications for users throughout the Nation. Our new NWI Uses page contains Mapper Use Statistics, Use Map Galleries, Analysis Examples, and more.
New data have been added to the Wetlands Mapper for almost 15 million acres of the U.S. These updates include various areas within the lower 48 states. To view these updates, please visit our Wetlands Mapper webpage.
The Data Collection Requirements and Procedures document has been updated to include digital mapping conventions related to Cowardin 2.0 (adopted by the FGDC in 2013), instructions on the NWI QA/QC Tool for Arc 10.x, the NWI Map Code Diagram and the NWI Water Regime Restriction Table sorted by sub-class. Click here to download the updated document (1.8MB PDF).
'Download by Watershed' capability is now implemented in the Wetlands Mapper. By using the Tools menu, users can interactively select HUC8 Watersheds to download wetlands and wetlands related layers for that area. For more information visit our Data Download webpage.