The Bayou Meto Basin is a highly productive area for both agriculture and waterfowl. The Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area is world renowned for waterfowl hunting and is a very important wintering habitat for mallards. However, the inability to manage water has resulted in prolonged flooding of the bottomland hardwood forests and is threatening productivity. Wetland Management Plan   Groundwater is the lifeblood of eastern Arkansas. The alluvial aquifier, which provides essentially all the water used for agricultural irrigation and fish farming, will be completely lost by 2015 if measures to protect and conserve this resource are not taken. Depletion of the alluvial aquifier will change agriculture as it is presently practiced and will result in catastrophic economic losses for the entire region.   Other water resource problems include poor drainage in the lower portion of the Bayou Meto Basin and along the upper Bayou Meto, agricultural flooding and loss of environmental resources in the Bayou Meto area.