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Gold Rush Era water developments changed the water ecology of the northwestern Sierran Foothills, having a profound effect on land use, wildlife, and vegetation. Water conservation efforts, land use change, and drought threaten this anthropogenic ecosystem. As part of a multi-pronged coupled human-natural systems project examining the wetland habitat of a rare bird, we used interviews and a mail survey to determine how landowner attitudes, values, practices and goals affect the future of this overlooked resource. Ranch lands provide much of the bird's habitat, largely as a consequence of irrigation systems that provide the leaks and tailwater that support shallow wetlands. However, while landowners highly value wildlife and construct the region's many ponds in some part to enjoy such wildife, creation and support of rail habitat is almost always accidental. This challenges existing institutions for conservation of habitat through education or regulation. Landowners are, however, suprisingly receptive to the idea of creating rail habitat under the right conditions.