Unlike other reconstruction projects in Iraq such as restoring the electrical grid that were commonly recognized as failures, the restoration of Iraq’s marshes has been commonly celebrated by international media, the UN, global environmental institutions, and the US government as “the success story of the war.” Yet the marshes project too was marred by the corruption, unprecedented violence, and operational failures that characterized the cohort of reconstruction initiatives of which it was part. By examining the fieldwork of Iraqi scientists and the directives of international contractors who organized their work in the marshes from 2006-2011, this paper examines how biodiversity conservation became distinctively effective infrastructure for corporate prospecting in Iraq. The paper analyzes how conservation science in wetlands fields facilitated the international reconstruction of Iraq’s economy by creating opportunities for foreign contractors to gain control over and access to Iraq’s waterways and oil fields within the same geological field.