Historically used for commercial fisheries, energy potential, recreational/aesthetic value, agricultural reclamation, industrial waste deposition, and as waterways, freshwater systems within reach of population centers have a long and varied history of alteration. Given the diversity of natural communities associated with wetlands and aquatic resources and the intensity with which they have been altered, fish and wildlife dependent on these systems represent the most imperiled groups of species in some regions.

Biological Conservation provides a variety of expertise suited to conservation of aquatic and wetland systems, including: management plan development; natural community characterizations; fish and wildlife inventories, monitoring, and research; habitat enhancement; habitat-use research; water quality monitoring; human-wildlife conflict resolution; regulatory determinations; and wetland delineations.