The Dewey's Pasture Wildlife Complex, also called Dewey's Pasture and Smith's Slough is the collective name of an 8,000-acre land parcel that contains a set of glacial features. It is located in Palo Alto County, with a small portion in Clay County in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is a National Natural Landmark, designated in 1975.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the custodian of the Wildlife Complex, describes it as a "combination of prairies, shallow lakes, wetlands and oak savanna."[1]
Formerly managed as the shallow "Trumbull Lake",[1] the Dewey's Pasture complex is today managed as a complex of wetlands, oriented towards a diverse population of wading birds and shore birds.[2] The re-management, including the cutting of non-native trees, is locally controversial.[3] Dewey's Pasture was named as an Iowa Bird Conservation Area in 2006. The wetland bird complex supports locally rare species such as the American bittern.[3] The complex also supports deer, pheasants, reptiles, amphibians, wetland fish, butterflies, and dragonflies.[1]