U.S. Fish & Wildlife ServiceFOR non-AGOL ACCOUNT HOLDERS, DOWNLOAD THIS GEOSPATIAL DATA HERE: https://gis-fws.opendata.arcgis.com/search?tags=lmvjv Sanctuary data are defined as a managed public land waterfowl impoundment boundaries that also include the area immediately adjacent to that hydrologic unit that was officially designated as closed to all waterfowl hunting or closed to all access during the waterfowl season. Data were acquired from numerous sources (primarily LMVJV partner agencies) and over a number of years. 5000m buffers were applied to all waterfowl sanctuary impoundment units to capture the area immediately adjacent to the aquatic habitat that waterfowl would likely use as they move around the sanctuary area. In the process of developing a wetland complex model for wetlands and winter waterfowl, the LMVJV acquired and processed a collection of waterfowl sanctuary across the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and West Gulf Coastal Plain / Ouachitas geographies of the southern US. We defined a wetland complex as an area of appropriate size for conservation planning with suitable water coverage and persistence, heterogeneity and structure of vegetation, energy density and quality, and sanctuary to provide all of the resources needed by ducks during a portion of the non-breeding period (late fall to early spring). Based on this definition, we developed three primary sub-models for those factors that we could measure geospatially. We developed sub-models for Wetland Type to capture water coverage and heterogeneity of vegetation, Sanctuary, and Energy. The three sub-models were combined into a final Wetland Complex model. The data provided here are NOT the sanctuary model derived in this process, but the on-the-ground waterfowl habitat designations relative to hunting access.ArcGIS FeatureLayerhttps://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/8e224d8e69184f7ea3e40a94e3c0ddd7_0engU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open DataPublicMAV / WGCPO wetland sanctuary [United States]Web servicesUnited StatesLast Modified: 2025-11-21