Ducks Unlimited (DU) recently restored wetlands on state-owned land (MK Ranch) along the Apalachicola River in Florida’s Panhandle, funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The project involves a partnership of state, federal, and non-profit entities for the benefit of fish and wildlife in the region. The 5800-acre site contained 55 miles of ditching installed to create a rice farm. Based upon hydrologic modeling, the process involved the strategic restoration of certain manmade features by land smoothing and ditch plugging and installation of low water crossings to re-establish sheetflow across the landscape within the historic floodplain of river. The largescale, multi-year earth-moving project presented numerous logistical challenges. Monitoring for the project includes in situ water quality and elevation gauges plus drone imagery collected within 20-acre belt transects. The drone-derived aerial images were used to develop georeferenced orthophotographs, 5-band data, digital terrain models, and canopy height models. DU and its contractor collaborated to develop a drone and field ground-truthing data sampling plan based on current vegetative community distribution, post-restoration goals, site access, and FAA regulations. We collected high-resolution multispectral (red, blue, green, infrared, and near infrared) and digital drone imagery to document pre- and post-restoration conditions of the forested and herbaceous wetlands. Performance measures for the project were developed in conjunction with the monitoring components. A strong relationship between water level at the river and at the project site informs restoration performance. Following roughly 50 years of isolation, the floodplain habitats are reconnected to the Apalachicola River, providing water storage and quality improvements as well as benefits to fish, wildlife, and the public who enjoy these natural resources along this important Florida river system.