Once covering a much larger area, 4,455 acres of the wetlands and surrounding prairie was protected by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism as of 2011.

[1] The wetlands were first important for waterfowl hunters who, in the last quarter of the 19th century, killed tens of thousands of ducks and other birds and shipped them by railroad to Kansas City and St. Louis.

In 1989, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks began purchasing the former marshland and restoring it to its original condition using levees, canals, and water pumps.

[2] Before being drained, the McPherson Valley Wetlands were comparable in importance to Cheyenne Bottoms, 60 miles west, for migrating waterfowl.

The McPherson wetlands property is regularly patrolled by State Game Wardens employed by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism.