Intensive monitoring of vegetation, water quality and soils has taken place since the summer of 2014 to gather data on the current state of certain wetland units on the refuge. Monitoring with an identical protocol has taken place during this same time frame on 49 wetland units within 12 National Wildlife Refuges across Regions 1, 6 and 8 in the intermountain west and western prairie pothole region. This monitoring and continued monitoring will help design a tool to determine effects of potential management actions.