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Description:
Lostwood NWR lies in the heart of the Missouri Coteau physiographic region, a dead ice moraine feature. It is located 23 miles south of Canada and 70 east of Montana. The topography is rolling to steep hills in mid-grass prairie, with small clumps of aspen and dotted with over 4100 wetlands. Lostwood NWR is the largest contiguous block of native grassland that the FWS owns in the prairie pothole region. The refuge also contains a 5577 acre Wilderness Area established in 1975.The mixed grass community is being renovated and maintained through the aggressive use of prescribed burning and grazing to fight encroachment of exotic plants and woody vegetation, that was changing the grassland into a parkland habitat. Dominant vegetation is western snowberry, needlegrasses, wheatgrasses, gramas, and plains muhly. Lostwood provides a significant portion of the breeding habitat for the Great Plains population of the threatened piping plover. Baird's sparrows are being benefited by the grassland management programs.Birding is an important public use as Lostwood is an important stop for an increasing number of international and out-of-state birders looking for grassland species, many of which are not easily found except at Lostwoood.
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