MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” – Rachel Carson
Rambunctious Gardening A recent book by Emma Marris entitled Rambunctious Gardening: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World goes a long way in explaining much of what Audubon of Kansas does. Her philosophy is based on what has been lost and what is now being regained or reclaimed. She explains, “We have lost a lot of nature in the past three hundred years – in both senses of the word lost.”
But we have lost nature in another sense. We have misplaced it; we have hidden nature from ourselves. Our mistake has been thinking that nature is something “out there” far away. We imagine a place somewhere distant, wild and free, a place with no people, no roads, no fences and no power lines, untouched by humanity’s careless hands, unchanging except for the seasons’ turn. This dream of pristine wilderness haunts us. For Emma Marris, wilderness is slipping away like slivers of soap in the hand that shrink and disappear. But nature is also the adaptive birds in your backyard, the blackberry and butterfly bushes that grow along the urban river, the brushy draws between farm fields, the carefully designed landscape garden, the avocado tree that sprouts in your compost pile. Nature is almost everywhere. But where it is, there is one thing that nature is not: it is not pristine in most places. Audubon of Kansas agrees with her views: “We are already running the whole Earth, whether we admit or not. To run it consciously and effectively, we must admit our role and even embrace it.” In most (but not all) landscapes, we have to temper our romantic notion of untrammeled wilderness and find room next to it for the more nuanced notion of a “global, half-wild rambunctious garden, tended by us.”
■ Promoting an ecological and economical approach to naturalistic stewardship of the tens of thousands of miles of vegetated rights-of-way and their ecological values along highways and country roads ■ Working with ranch landowners who have hosted the successful reintroduction of the onceconsidered-extinct Black-footed Ferret on private land in western Kansas
Ron Klataske photos
We have lost nature in the sense that much of nature has been destroyed: where there was a forest or prairie, there is a subdivision; where there was a creek, there is now a pipe and a parking lot; where there were enormous flocks of Passenger Pigeons and abundant Stellar Sea Cows in the north Pacific, they were hunted to extinction and there are now only remnant skins and bones in dimly lit museum galleries.
For Audubon of Kansas’ diverse role in collective policy and stewardship, a few examples of our Rambunctious Garden include:
Upland Sandpiper on a fence post at the Niobrara Sanctuary.
■ Restoring an incredibly beautiful property as a sanctuary for “wildlife and people” in the Nebraska Sandhills to demonstrate the merit of optimizing wildlife habitat, especially for declining grassland birds, as a complementary part of a working cattle ranch ■ Encouraging the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Commission to reinstate hunting regulations that do not needlessly threaten endangered Whooping Cranes when they migrate through our state ■ Advocating to the EPA that prairie-dog poisons that threaten the existence of raptors (Ferruginous Hawks and Golden Eagles) and other at-risk predators (Swift Foxes) should not be approved when other toxicants without the risk of secondary poisoning are already available; and ■ Working with many others to retain conservation titles (programs & practices) in the Farm Bill, retain grasslands and wetlands within the landscape--and species such as Lesser Prairie-chickens and Swift Foxes. But this “Gardening,” which we often refer to as conservation advocacy and education, promotion of nature appreciation and stewardship is not possible without the involvement, partnership and support of a substantial number of people who share these values. If you haven’t already, please join us and become a part of Audubon of Kansas.
Robert McElroy, MD Chairman of the Board of Trustees Bob McElroy riding with Eli, his grand nephew, on the Hutton Niobrara Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary.
CONTENTS President’s Message ............................................IFC New Trustees Join AOK Leadership ..........................2 Profile of a Great Wildlife Research Scientist, Conservationist and Sportsman, Robert J. Robel ..................................4 Potential Benefits of Patch Burning for Prairie Chickens..............................................7 Kansas Supreme Court Rules Favorably for the Flint Hills ..................................8 Wonderful Things Happen in the Flint Hills..................9 Reflections on a Culture Renowned for Horsemanship and a New Opportunity to Preserve Prairie ............................................10 The Good, the Bad (Wasteful and Ugly) & Extraordinarily Beautiful ................................12 The Stealth War on Quail and Songbird Habitat ................................................19
The mission of Audubon of Kansas includes promoting the enjoyment, understanding, protection, and restoration of natural ecosystems. We seek to establish a culture of conservation and an environmental ethic.
Prairie Wings is a publication of Audubon of Kansas, Inc. Additional newsletters and AOK E-News are published periodically. See our websites at www.audubonofkansas.org and www.niobrarasanctuary.org Please consider becoming a member, giving a gift membership, and/or contributing to the vital work of Audubon of Kansas. AOK is an independent grassroots organization that is not administered or funded by the National Audubon Society. All funding is dedicated to our work in the central Great Plains and Prairie states.
Birds of Kansas ..............................................................................................21
Send comments or materials for consideration to any of the following:
Owls: Marvels of Life, Countless Legends,and here Expressions of Love ..................22
Ron Klataske, Executive Director/Managing Editor
Red Foxes in the Backyard, Blue Darters in the Trees ............................................24 Wildlife Viewing from the Kitchen Window ........................................................26 AOK Philanthropy ..........................................................................................29 The Destruction of Native Sandhills Grasslands: A Rancher’s Viewpoint ................................................................................31
Audubon of Kansas 210 Southwind Place Manhattan, KS 66503 e-mail: AOK@audubonofkansas.org Phone: 785-537-4385 Neal Rasmussen, Admin. Assisant Lana Micheel, Local Sanctuary Coordinator Ryan Klataske, Consulting Webmaster
Jan Garton and the Campaign to Save Cheyenne Bottoms....................................32 An Audubon of Kansas Position: Safeguards for Whooping Cranes Need to be Restored ..........................................................36 Rediscovering the Prairies and Great Plains, Sharing the Nature of Kansas and Nebraska..................................................................36 AOK Applauds Appeals Court Decision ..........................................42
Board Editorial Committee: William R. Browning, Chairman/Special Editor Joyce Wolf, Special/Copy Editor Robert T. McElroy, Contributing Editor Dick Seaton, Contributing Editor Printed by:
“Silent Spring” Revisited ................................44 Prairie Dog Colony Reestablished at Niobrara Sanctuary....................................49 Are Ethanol Subsidies and Mandates a Fool’s Errand?............................................52
1531 Yuma Street, Manhattan, KS 66502 785.539.7558 www.agpress.com
A Kansas Native Led the Politically-Challenging Campaign to Create the Arctic Wildlife Refuge ..................56 Cover photos by Ron Klataske: Black-footed Ferret and Sharp-tailed Grouse WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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New Trustees Join AOK Leadership Board of Trustees
Robert T. McElroy, MD, Chairman, Topeka Dick Seaton, Vice Chair, Manhattan Patty Marlett, Vice Chair, Wichita Joyce Wolf, Secretary, Lawrence William R. Browning, MD, Past-chairman, Madison Harold W. Anderson, Omaha, NE Barbara Atkinson, Gardner Phillip L. Baker, MD, Topeka Bernita Berntsen, MD, Berryton Mike Bily, Joliet, IL Carol Cumberland, Wichita Evelyn Davis, Wakarusa Kristine B. Davis, Hutchinson Joyce Davis, Dodge City Matt Gearheart, Shawnee David Gnirk, Herrick, SD Don Heikes, Lenora Irwin “Hoogy” Hoogheem, Ogden/ Manhattan Kelley Hurst, Lawrence Hon. James C. Johnson, Abilene Cathy Lucas, Liberal Jan Meyers, Overland Park Tim Peterson, Monument Mary Powell, Topeka Randy Rathbun, Wichita A. Scott Ritchie, Wichita Robert J. Robel, Manhattan Wesley Sandall, Bassett, NE John Schukman, Leavenworth Lisa Stickler, Bucyrus Marjorie E. Streckfus/ Neva Heikes, Salina Richard G. Tucker, Parsons Elsie Vail, Altamont Donald Wissman, Manhattan
Honorary Trustees
Larry and Bette Haverfield, Winona Karl and Carmen Jungbluth, Boone, IA Kay McFarland, Topeka Paul Willis, Salina Glenn Chambers, Columbia, MO Charles Wright, Lincoln, NE
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The AOK Board of Trustees approved the nomination of and elected three new Trustees this year. The existing and additional combination of talents highlights the statement that Tim Peterson made in an e-mail regarding the organization and its leadership: “Voices such as (those of Audubon of Kansas leaders and partners) are important, and unfortunately, too rare.”
LISA STICKLER
obtained her Bachelor and Master Degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of MissouriKansas City and started her engineering career at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory in 1991. In 1996 she entered the energy services industry and has worked for the past 10 years for Chevron Energy Solutions implementing Lisa Stickler on Teton Pass with a view of Wyoming energy-conservation projects scenery. for public sector customers. She is a licensed professional engineer, changes proposed by the department will currently a member of several place Whooping Cranes in increased professional engineering societies and peril. held offices in local chapters of two Lisa lives in northern Miami County, engineering organizations while living in sharing a home with two mules and a Idaho. pride of cats. She enjoys reading, In addition to her involvement with gardening, and creating--including and support for Audubon of Kansas for a housing for Eastern Bluebirds and native number of years, Lisa is also a member bees. She manages four apartment or supporter of a number of state and complexes with 36 units for Purple national wildlife conservation Martins! organizations, humane societies, animal shelters, public radio and public TIM AND REBEKAH PETERSON television. 2012 marked her third year as Tim and his wife Rebekah became a part a volunteer with the Symphony in the of the extended “AOK family” and Flint Hills. Lisa is a life member of the leadership network last year in response Kansas Native Plant Society, Kansas to the challenge to find a place to hold a Ornithological Society, and National special educational event. The Petersons Rifle Association. operate a family farm in western Kansas Lisa represented Audubon of Kansas near Winona. They share an interest and at the June meeting of the KDWP&T a legacy of leadership in conservation Commission meeting, speaking on the and youth education. Tim has served as desirability of not changing the shooting chairman of the Kansas state committee hours for Sandhill Cranes because the for the USDA Farm Service Agency, an
agency that among other responsibilities administers the critically important Conservation Reserve Program.
A year ago the Logan County Commission blocked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff in Kansas from sponsoring an educational event. The event was for Oakley schools, youth and the public in recognition of the 30th Anniversary of the rediscovery of the Black-footed Ferret in Wyoming in September 1981. Up to then was feared the species was extinct. Tim Peterson called the AOK office and offered to host a similar event at their home and family farmstead. Representatives from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo were there to display a Black-footed Ferret (BFF), two captive prairie dogs, a domesticated skunk and a
Corn Snake. Dean Biggins, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (regarded by many of us as the “dean” of BFF studies), detailed the rescue and efforts to recover this unique species. We lead field trips to the Haverfield/ Barnardt ranch complex and observed Golden Eagles and other wildlife, even though there were gale-force winds. The hospitality arranged by the Petersons for the 87 participants of this “Ferret Fest” included music by Anne Zimmerman of Salina and pizza provided by an appreciative friend from Wichita.
KELLEY HURST is a nature enthusiast, with particular interest in bird behavior and birds during migration. She incorporates birding into her travels all over the United States and Europe. She has been involved in the surveys of the reintroduced Blackfooted Ferrets in Kansas, has volunteered for the Symphony in the Flint Hills as well as Kansas City-based arts, cultural and neighborhood organizations.
Tim and Rebekah Peterson in the barn where some of the presentations were made.
Kelley Hurst has her own qualitative market research business. She has clients of all sizes, from Fortune 100 to family-owned businesses, in the US and in Italy. She uncovers deeply felt values, behaviors and attitudes that impact
Kelley Hurst
how consumers act and react to products, services and brands. Born in Kansas, and now residing in Lawrence, Kelley has also lived in New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire as well as in Kenya, East Africa. Her published works include:
• Author, Luxury Houses Toscana, published by teNeues, March, 2007. • Editor, Sassicaia: The Original Supertuscan (English Edition), published by Centro Di Publishing, Florence, Italy, October, 2000.
• Author, Italian Country Hideaways: Vacationing in Tuscany’s and Umbria’s Private Villas, Castles and Estates, published by Universe Publishing, August, 1999.
AOK Needs Leaders to Reach Out and Make a Difference! As an organization that relies on volunteer leadership, Audubon of Kansas needs Trustees and others in leadership capacities who are willing to contribute a combination of the qualities needed within a board as a whole, and within our program partnerships. Charles H. Callison, former Executive Vice President of the National Audubon Society, once outlined the collective needs for a board as a whole as the three “w’s”: “wisdom” in the form of expertise and experience, “work” in the form of skills and a willingness to be involved, and “wealth” including a willingness to provide outreach to help build membership and financial support to sustain organizational effectiveness. Please let us know if you want to be involved or supportive in any capacity. One does not have to be on the board to make a world of difference.
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Profile of a Great Wildlife Research Scientist, Conservationist and Sportsman:
ROBERT J. ROBEL
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lthough Robert “Bob” Robel, professor emeritus of biology, has been officially retired for several years, he still maintains an office in the KSU Division of Biology and he continues to help other faculty members with their research. Most recently, he provided leadership in research that has benefited both Greater and Lesser Prairie-chicken populations by identifying man-made
structures that repel females from nesting, such as wind turbines, center pivot irrigation systems and even fences. In the past few years he also advised one of the big wind energy companies to move the proposed location for a major industrial windpower development proposed in the Kansas Flint Hills from their first three choices to
an area with less of an impact on Prairie-chickens. “They wanted to avoid adverse impacts on Prairiechicken populations,” Robel said. “They had three sites down in south central Kansas, great sites – probably better wind sites – but that’s a company that has an environmental conscience.” Robel has a longtime passion for wildlife, and anatomy. When he was in sixth grade he began working with a taxidermist and later bought the business from his retiring mentor when he was a sophomore in high school. He owned and operated it throughout his undergraduate years, putting himself through college at Michigan State University. Although Robel was accepted in medical school when he was a senior in high school, he switched from premed to wildlife ecology in his junior year of college because he felt he would be confined to an office if he became a doctor.
Bob Robel and Anice, 2010 at Glendye Estate in Scotland, returning from driven pheasant shooting.
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During his undergraduate years, he mounted 80-100 deer shoulder-mounts per year in addition to preserving other aspects of the animals. His interest in taxidermy remains today. He still has a pair of 60-year-old leather moccasins and
a pair of velvety deer-hide leather gloves, made by his company. Step into his Division of Biology office and it’s like stepping into a natural history museum, with its array of animals displayed on its walls. After working for the Michigan State University museum, where he collected and harvested specimens for scientific research and educational display, Robel knew he wanted to continue his education. While he was still an undergraduate, he sought out advisers and had funding lined up at the University of Idaho and Utah State University, for his master’s and doctoral degrees, respectively. In 1961, he was hired as an assistant professor in Kansas State University’s department of zoology — before the merger that created the Division of Biology. On a Fulbright Scholarship, Robel traveled to the United Kingdom to study Black Grouse in 1967. While there, he was asked to help with a long-term study on Red Deer, a close cousin to North America Elk. The celebrated “Monarch of the Glen,” the Red Deer stag is a Scottish icon. It is the largest land mammal in Britain and is widespread throughout Scotland. Dr. Robel developed a management plan for increasing Red Deer numbers by culling female deer that were not capable of producing healthy offspring. “We decided to maximize production by taking the nonproductive individuals out of the population,” Robel said. “We developed a technique where we could determine whether or not a female deer was going to have a calf that survived to adulthood, when she was only one and a half years old — before she was ever bred.” It was through his deer management plan that he gained worldwide recognition in that field, and he was invited to speak in various countries from Russia and Australia to Singapore and Thailand. In exchange, Bob Robel asked his hosts to arrange opportunities to hunt various legal game animals and/or to see
and stag stalking in the Highlands. An extensive amount of Robel’s research in Kansas has been devoted to upland gamebird species, including Prairie-chickens and Northern Bobwhites. This research has lead to enhanced understanding of their behavior, habitat needs and provide management frameworks designed to maintain sustainable populations. In an effort to strengthen such research in Kansas, he helped establish the Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit on KSU’s campus to serve as an important collaborator for the university’s ecological and wildlife scientists.
and experience wildlife in their natural habitats throughout the world. Like several of the most prominent sportsmen-conservationists that provided vital leadership in the first half of the twentieth century, Dr. Robel’s duel passions for conservation and hunting have fueled his lifelong dedication to both. His grounding in this tradition has advanced the conservation movement, environmental protection and wildlife management in the second half of that century and now the first decades of the twenty-first century. Dr. Robel’s lecture travels allowed him to pursue Mid-Asian Ibex in the Kyrgyz Republic, Roebucks in Siberia, and Chamois in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia, as well as wild boar, Mouflon Sheep, and huge forest (Red Deer) stags and Fallow Deer in Austria. He has hunted Elk in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming; and pursued Mule Deer and White-tailed Deer across the U.S. Farther north on the continent Bob has stalked Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Stone’s Sheep and Dall’s Sheep in British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon Territory, as well as Mountain Goats, Grizzly Bears and Black Bears. Bob and Anice, his wife of 47 years, have made an annual tradition of traveling to Scotland for driven pheasant and grouse shooting,
Robel has served as consultant and science adviser for several Kansas governors, energy companies and numerous committees and task forces. In the 1970s, Dr. Robel was a Project Leader in the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress. He was in charge of evaluating techniques to enhance the recovery of oil and natural gas. He was looking at the environmental impacts of “fracking” to recover crude oil and natural gas long before the technique became widely used. He has also served as the U.S. Olympic shooting team chairman, which is the third most popular sport for participants in the Olympics. He retains a keen interest in the shooting sports, beginning his competitive shooting activities while a high school student in Michigan. He holds numerous regional and state championship titles in skeet and rifle shooting from Michigan, Idaho and the Midwest. He currently serves as Chairman of the Kansas State Rifle Association Foundation, a tax-exempt entity that raises funds to promote legal shooting activities among youth and women in Kansas. Robel is a member of several professional societies and wildlife conservation organizations, including being a Life Member of The Wildlife Society, an Honorary Life Member of the Kansas Wildlife Federation, an Elective
“Greatness is the dream of youth realized” for the remainder of one’s life. – adaption of an Alfred Victor Vigny quote (French poet, dramatist, and novelist, 1797-1863) WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Member of the American Ornithologists Union, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1989, he received the Centennial Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Idaho and was inducted into the school’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2001 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the College of Natural Resources Alumni Association at Utah State University. He has also been the recipient of the Governor’s Conservationist of the Year Award, Proud Kansan Award from the Kansas Outdoor Writers Association and the Outstanding Professional Award from the Kansas Chapter of The Wildlife Society.
The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do. – Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, 1996
As just one among awards, Audubon of Kansas presented Dr. Robel with a “Greater & Lesser Prairie-chicken Lifetime Conservation Award” in 2010. He also received the Meritorious Service Award from the Grouse Research Unit in Banchory, Scotland for his work with Red Grouse, unique to the heather moors of the British Isles.
Fifty Years of Wildlife Biology Leadership in Kansas It is without a doubt that Dr. Robel has more of a lasting influence on the profession of wildlife biology, conservation and management in Kansas than any other person in the history of the state. During the past fifty-one years since he became professor of wildlife biology at Kansas State University, he has taught, advised, guided and inspired
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hundreds of students who have gone on to work in this profession in Kansas--and from the eastern seaboard to Alaska. In addition to all of those who received Bachelor of Science degrees, many others have achieved masters or doctorate degrees under his leadership, and thousands more students in other majors have gained an understanding of wildlife biology and management from classes he has taught. Robel is regarded by wildlife scientists as this continent’s – and thus the world’s – foremost authority on prairie grouse. In addition to devoting more than thirty years to prairie grouse research, Dr. Robel has conducted extensive research on bioenergetics of Northern Bobwhites and numerous songbirds, parasites of gamebirds and furbearers, and food habitats of Whitetailed Deer in Kansas. He was involved
in a multi-year National Institute of Health evaluation of the relationship between herbicide exposure and the incidence of certain cancers in the agricultural sector of Kansas. Results of his research efforts, and those of his students, have resulted in over 250 peerreviewed publications in professional journals. Dr. Robel is a member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of Audubon of Kansas. As a member of his first class of wildlife biology students, it is an honor to be one of many whose career path was so richly benefitted by his guidance and leadership. – Ron Klataske Portions of this article were adapted from a feature entitled “Robel’s Research Realizations” in The BULLETIN, Spring 2012, printed by the KSU Division of Biology.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS
Y
OF
PATCH BURNING
FOR
PRAIRIE-CHICKENS
Update on the article in the Fall/Winter 2011 edition of PRAIRIE WINGS. To view the article online, including spectacular photographs, go to http://www.prairiewingsmagazine.org/
ear one of the study to define the differential impacts of annual burning/double stocking (one yearling per 2 acres for 90 days) versus patch burning a different third of a pasture each year with full-season cattle (one yearling on 4 acres for 180 days) is over and year two has proceeded. First-year results appear to confirm the hypothesis that Prairiechicken nesting and brood-rearing are vastly more successful on patch-burned prairies. The key for Prairie-chickens, especially nesting, is the third that has not been burned in the current or previous spring – leaving sufficient residual cover for hens to hide nests.
The last two seasons in the central Flint Hills have been devastatingly hot and dry. But Prairie-chickens apparently are adapted to this situation if there is nesting and brood habitat available. Recruitment last year (2011) was major, and according to reports from the cowboys monitoring the pastures this past summer it may have been equally successful this season.
On our place, Prairie-chicken numbers from lek counts of males have gone from a low of 33 in 2006, the year we began patch burning, to 110 this past spring. This count includes cocks on three leks that are adjacent to our pastures. Two newly-occupied leks on our ranch and another new lek, 100 yards east of our fence appeared this spring
I am definitely an ardent fan of this grazing/burning regime and not just for wildlife. The other benefits include: improved range health, a greater abundance of forage, marked reduction in trailing (the tendency of cattle to walk the fences creating trails that lead to erosion) and more efficient grazing (every digestible plant is harvested on a three year rotation, but that intensity only occurs once in three years with our approach in the Flint Hills).
Prior to this project in Kansas, much of the fundamental research and field studies on patch burning have been conducted by Samuel D. Fuhlendorf at Oklahoma State University. That work has demonstrated that patch burning and varying grazing regimes can be used to recreate grassland heterogeneity and increase biodiversity. Audubon of Kansas is also using patch burning with light-to-moderate grazing to benefit Sharp-tailed Grouse and other grassland birds on the 5,000-acre Hutton Niobrara Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary in Nebraska.
– Bill Browning
The photo above shows patch burning on the Niobrara Sanctuary showing unburned nesting cover retained on the left and prescribed burning on the right.
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Kansas Supreme Court Rules Favorably for the Flint Hills
A view of Alma in the fall.
Article by Dick Seaton
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udubon of Kansas and its conservation partners have won a major legal victory for the Kansas Flint Hills. In Zimmerman v. Board of Wabaunsee County Commissioners, the Kansas Supreme Court considered and rejected a series of attacks on the county’s prohibition against commercial wind farms. In two lengthy and unanimous opinions, written by Chief Justice Nuss, the Court held that the prohibition is a reasonable one, that it does not deprive those land owners with wind leases of any property rights, and that it does not discriminate against interstate commerce. The decision is one of the first in the country, and establishes a precedent in Kansas. It should also be an important guide for other states considering such prohibitions. Of course its importance here is limited to those counties which have zoning regulations, and not every Flint Hills county has them. Wabaunsee County has both zoning and a comprehensive land use plan. It established a temporary moratorium on such wind farms in November of 2002; and then in June of 2004, its commission voted, 2-1, to prohibit them. Suit was then filed against the County by landowners who had leases with wind developers. They were joined in their claims by owners of wind rights who are not themselves land owners. After some back and forth between the District Judge in Alma and the county officials, the Judge dismissed all the claims of the Plaintiffs and their associates.
The Plaintiffs appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court in 2007. Audubon of Kansas filed a friend-of-the-court brief, together with the Kansas Wildlife Federation, urging the Court to uphold the county’s prohibition. Protect the Flint Hills also filed a supporting brief. The Wind Industry and the Kansas Farm Bureau filed briefs urging reversal of the District Court’s decision. Also filing a brief were the Kansas League of Municipalities and The Kansas Association of Counties. The Supreme Court dealt with the case at length and in two separate opinions. First, in October 2009, it found that the county’s action was reasonable, that it followed statutory procedures, that it didn’t violate the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and that it was not preempted by federal law. The Court reserved ruling on two other issues and ordered new briefs and re-argument as to those issues. Then in October of 2011 the Court determined, in a second opinion, that the prohibition does not constitute a “taking” of private property without due process of the law and does not discriminate against interstate commerce. The Court said there was one remaining issue, which needed factual clarification, namely whether or not the regulations impose an excessive burden on interstate commerce in violation of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. It sent that question back to the District Court for trial on that single question.
“The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 8
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But in early 2012, the Plaintiffs and their associates who own wind rights dismissed their case rather than take it to trial. Thus after almost 10 years the case was completely resolved. It represents a major victory for conservation, and for preservation of the Flint Hills, which are the last major remnant of what was once a vast sea of Tallgrass Prairie in the central United States. What are the lessons to be learned? First, to take advantage of the decision a county must have zoning regulations. Next, those regulations must include a comprehensive plan which emphasizes the need to protect and preserve the rural character of the county, and the aesthetic values of the landscape. These were critical factors relied on by the Court in upholding the Wabaunsee County regulations. Finally, a county commission adopting such a prohibition needs to make factual findings, with the assistance of its attorney, which support the plan and the prohibition. At this point, the outlook for the Flint Hills is favorable. Governor Brownback, like his predecessor Governor Sebelius, has lent the weight of his office to protect the Flint Hills from industrial windpower development. He has actually expanded the informally-protected area established by her.
Meanwhile, wind developers have begun to look farther west in Kansas, where extensively cultivated landscapes are candidates for siting of commercial windpower projects without destroying ecological values associated with native prairies and wetlands (assuming they are avoided). Finally, Congress has balked at extending the production tax credit (PTC), which is an enormous cost to taxpayers. At some point this major subsidy may be pared back in recognition of budget limitations. Developers consider the tax credits essential to the viability of commercial wind developments. All in all, even in those counties which lack zoning, the outlook at this point is positive for those of us who seek to limit industrial wind farms in the Flint Hills. Dick Seaton is an attorney in Manhattan. He served as assistant attorney general in the 1960's and then as university attorney at Kansas State for 38 years, while also maintaining a private practice. He represented the plaintiff in a successful free speech case in the U.S.Supreme Court in 1995. He served on the 2002-2004 Kansas Wind and Prairie Task Force designed to help deal with the issue of siting wind power facilities. He serves as Vice President for Policy and Legal Affairs for AOK. He lives adjacent to the Konza Prairie and advocates for the Flint Hills.
Wonderful Things Happen in the Flint Hills he Flint Hills of Kansas have long been a priority conserva on focus for Audubon in Kansas. In 1989 Audubon ini ated the proposal that led to the Congressional passage of the Act that established the Tallgrass Prairie Na onal Preserve in 1996. Two key elements were a purchase agreement on the 10,984-acre Z-Bar Ranch held by Audubon and a shared vision with local community leaders. Building apprecia on for the natural and pastoral values of this landscape, and the remaining Tallgrass Prairie, was our foremost objec ve of this new unit of the Na onal Park Service system. That was also AOK’s objec ve when preparing the Tallgrass “Prairie Parkway” Wildlife and Natural Heritage Trail brochure, which is s ll available in quan es from our office.
This year two facili es opened that will drama cally enhance educa on, apprecia on and enjoyment of this unique area. The impressive Flint Hills Discovery Center opened in Manha an in April, and the Na onal Park Service opened the preserve’s Visitor Center near the historic ranchstead north of Strong City in July. Earlier in June, Emily Hunter and all the other incredible folks involved pulled off the eighth annual Symphony in the Flint Hills – an event that a racts more than 6,000 a endees and volunteers to experience these prairie hills for an a ernoon of educa onal events and an evening of music. AOK has been honored to be suppor ve with flora and fauna field trips, and to simply join in the day’s hospitality.
Photos by Ron Klataske
T
Last year, as detailed in the Fall/Winter edi on of PRAIRIE WINGS, Governor Sam Brownback designated the Tallgrass Heartland, as a substan al part of the Flint Hills that should not become marred by industrial windpower developments. He also ini ated a Flint Hills Visioning Summit held in the Ritchie Lodge at Camp Wood YMCA on a picture-perfect day in May 2011, followed by a second summit this past January in Topeka. These events gave a big boost to the work of the Flint Hills Tourism Coali on, and helped to bring many addi onal stakeholders together for one celebratory and networking event. It is heartening that so many individuals and organiza ons are enthusias c about the Flint Hills. They share the hope that most of the scenic, ecological and cultural quali es will be retained for future enjoyment of residents (ranch and farm landowners and their neighbors in area communi es) and visitors alike. AOK con nues to advocate for an addi onal complementary recogni on: that at least a por on of the Flint Hills – an area approximately the size of Vermont – be designated as a Na onal Heritage Area. This would simply underscore the cultural importance of the area, as well as encourage greater apprecia on for the area’s history and heritage. It is a history of splendid stewardship by genera ons that have largely kept their heritage intact. There are currently 49 na onal heritage areas in the country.
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An aerial view of an intact prairie landscape in the Flint Hills.
Reflections on a Culture Renowned for Horsemanship and a New Opportunity to Preserve Prairie Article by Bill Browning ugust 31, 2012 – Last night we returned from a hectic journey to San Antonio to visit a sick friend. This morning I needed to renew my connection with the prairie. As I sat on a high ridge some twelve miles west of Madison, I watched a much diminished, but still grand streamer of hurricane Isaac slide in from the east. As it spun a galactic arm across the Flint Hills, clouds dimmed the sun’s light on abandoned Teterville, miles to my south, and stuttered west up the turnpike far to my north.
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The nearly unfathomable majesty of nature that this storm remnant represents is staggering. A weather system that has sustained itself for more than two weeks over thousands of miles suggests the old song lyrics: “Off the coast of Africa,
bound for North America” and finally it comes here to our Flint Hills Prairie!
It has been the second in a row of terrible summers for this part of Kansas, but this scene this morning still holds evidence of our beautiful grasslands.
In contrast was our trip down I-35 through central Texas, formerly the purview of great buffalo herds and the Comanche Nation. Everywhere the systems of nature now lay in ruins, replaced by the systems of unfettered development. From Ft. Worth south the journey was truly harrowing. Commonly there were 25 or more semis per mile and 50 or a hundred cars, darting like beetles among the behemoths. At one point we were nearly swept off the road by two halves of a swerving pair of double trailers. The whole of 300 miles
down from Ft. Worth to San Antonio was like a continuous strip mall punctuated by sprawling cities, industrial sites and mega car-dealerships, one of the ugliest vistas imaginable. Terrified of tempting the fates, we returned on a less-travelled highway fifty miles west of I-35 where the topography was much more inspiring but where whatever had been the ecosystem was largely replaced by junipers, (aka “ Texas Cedars”, Juniperus ashei, a cousin to our area’s Eastern Red Cedars, Juniperus virginiana).
We saw one pastured “buffalo” and no evidence of the “pre-settlement” Comanche culture. Suffice it to say that the Comanches of the 18th and 19th centuries and other Native Americans would never have recognized their homeland anywhere but here on our Flint
I was born upon a prairie where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures and where everything drew a free breath. – Ten Bears, Yamparika Comanche
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Hills prairie and on other remnants of our state’s remaining grasslands. To borrow, and change, a line from an Alaskan belt buckle for my purposes here: “Parts of Kansas still are what that part of Texas was.” And that in a nutshell is the inspiration and conservation policy basis for the new Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area conservation easement program that was officially activated in the spring of this year and is being sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior. A long process of degradation and disappearance of ecologically sustainable, open-prairie landscapes has prompted this program to save a significant piece – hopefully and eventually up to a million acres – of the remaining tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills with voluntary, perpetual conservation easements. Permanent, irrevocable loss of our continent’s remaining tallgrass prairie is occurring in several forms. The obvious combination includes conversion to cropland and cities, suburban sprawl and fragmentation with small acreage developments, and establishment of industrial windpower complexes. Other true prairie areas are being overtaken with woody plants in route to becoming early succession woodlands. From a prairie or savannah enthusiast’s perspective, these are not ecologically distinct and attractive savannahs like those on the oak forest edge. These areas become dominated with cedar, locust, hedge and elms. They are utilized by White-tailed Deer and a suite of species – but not Greater Prairiechickens, Upland Sandpipers and Eastern Meadowlarks. Factors leading to this devolution include: land owner/operator neglect of invasive woody plants; conversion of large ranches to ranchettes, often with horses pounding the life out of native prairie; fire suppression in areas with
In addi on to federally sponsored conserva on easements, several nonprofit conserva on organiza ons accept donated conserva on easements. The list includes the Kansas Ranchland Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the Kansas Land Trust. Audubon of Kansas is also qualified and recep ve to consider dona on of conserva on easements consistent with our mission. Audubon has a special interest in preserving small remnant prairies that are ecological arks, and other cri cally important wildlife habitats. Immediately to the north, Wachiska Audubon Society of Lincoln, Nebraska has conserva on easements on prairies within fourteen coun es in southeast Nebraska. increasing numbers of residential and other structures; individuals intent on creating large fescue lawns or letting everything grow wild to attract a trophy buck. Then, to add insult to injury, excessive and repeated broadcast applications of herbicides which destroy the plant diversity of native grasslands. An intact remnant area of grassland has been identified and boundaries have been established. The scale of the program is truly grand, encompassing more than a million acres in the Flint Hills. Landowners within the designated region are offered generous compensation in exchange for foregoing certain development rights in perpetuity and agreeing to maintain the open prairie. Funding for easement acquisition is very limited for this first year but will
hopefully grow through time. This is not the first foray by the U.S. Department of the Interior into voluntary easement programs with private landowners. Prior to more recent work in other critical habitats, the USFWS has a long history of protecting wetlands with conservation easements. The agency now has more than 100,000 acres protected with conservation easements along the Rocky Mountain Front and in the Blackfoot and Centennial valleys of Montana. Audubon of Kansas heartily supports this conservation easement initiative of the USFWS. It will be a perfect complement to other easement programs, including the Grassland Reserve Program and the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program administered by U.S.D.A’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.
– Photos by Ron Klataske.
An early morning view of gathering steers from a pasture on the Browning Ranch. Conservation easements are compatible with traditional ranching. The stogy-smoking cowboy on the right was Bill in an earlier era. WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Roadside Management in Kansas
Photos and Article by Ron Klataske
Audubon of Kansas has advocated three key elements as part of its conservation priority: urging KDOT staff to improve 20,000 miles of rights-of-way with policies and management practices designed to reduce mowing and herbicide applications; establishing more beneficially-timed “mow-out” regimes; and seeding with only native grasses and wildflowers on newly disturbed reconstruction sites.
Starting with a Bad Situation and Roadblocks.
hese public lands are in plain sight but often overlooked, and in the past, seldom considered important for their extraordinary ecological or aesthetic values. If anything they have been managed as a burden on taxpayers, requiring expenditures of multiple millions of dollars each year just to keep them mowed. Yet, they are the grasslands of Kansas that are within easy view of more residents and visitors every day than any combination of other lands managed for public purposes. They encompass 150,000 acres along stateadministered highways alone. With 20,000 miles of linear vegetated buffers, they total a distance greater than the circumference of the Earth at this latitude! This 20,000-mile figure represents vegetated rights-of-way (ROW) strips on both sides of the 10,000 miles of highways administered by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT). However, it does not include the broad roadsides on both sides of the 236-mile reach of highway managed by the Kansas Turnpike Authority. The turnpike involves an additional 8,000 acres of land.
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This campaign is a continuation of advocacy initiated forty years ago. At that time the state highway department practice was to mow everything from fencerow to fencerow FOUR TIMES every year! The cost was astronomical. The head of the maintenance division bluntly told me in his Topeka office in the early ‘70s that he
wasn’t having “any do-gooder upsetting his apple cart!” I was surprised by the absolute rejection of any consideration of any changes by this public servant. Previously, in 1971 I was involved in presenting a National Audubon Society award to the Nebraska Department of Roads for that agency’s trail blazing leadership in naturalistic roadside management. The presentation was made at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ meeting in Miami, Florida. The citation presented to the Nebraska DOR read: “For combining the principles of ecology and economy through a policy of seeding mixtures of native grasses along roadways and by limited mowing to 15 feet from the edge of surfacing thereby harmonizing roadsides with the Nebraska landscape, improving natural beauty, conserving wildlife and enhancing the environmental values of rights-of-way areas.” Following the earlier rejection in Topeka, we (a coalition of conservationists) had a much more encouraging meeting with Jerry Brindle, general manager of the Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA) in early 1972. That was followed by dramatically improved mowing reductions that very year, and the practices remanded in place during his leadership tenure. There was no bureaucracy in play within the KTA at that time! An array of previously mowed wildflowers reached maturity and literally covered some roadside vistas with gayfeathers and goldenrods late that first summer. It was like an epiphany of nature. We still have the photographs. With the stonewall resistance unlikely to give way at the Kansas Highway Department (now KDOT), we shared our concerns with Governor Robert F. Bennett in the spring of 1976. Governor Bennett was fiscally conservative and he took an active interest. A meeting was arranged with the receptive twelve-member Highways Advisory Committee in March, and that was followed in May by an
Beneficiaries of ROW Habitat Range from Bobwhites to Butterflies.
announcement that a policy change would allow the agency to reduce mowing on tens of thousands of acres. A permit system was also implemented to discourage the common practice of “hay rustling” from these public lands. Agency paradigms die hard, however, and we’ve had seven changes in the governorship since Governor Bennett encouraged a new approach. A lot of budgets were padded for decades with the previous approach, and it isn’t easy -- even for governors -- to change bureaucracies within agencies when millions of dollars are involved and “policies” can be interpreted differently at many levels. The larger the budgets, the more employees under each command, and the higher the wages for some administrators!
It is Especially Difficult to make LASTING CHANGES. Some progress was made resulting in: significantly reducing the number of times the rights-of-way were mowed annually, and decreasing the amount of herbicide applied by private companies and county weed departments. But the changes were not enough to substantially enhance the ecological or aesthetic values. With a degree in wildlife biology, Governor Mike Hayden expressed a strong interest in promoting reduced-mowing policies and a much more naturalistic approach. However, as was relayed later, the
philosophy in some (but not all) KDOT districts was that “this will all pass, and we’ll have another change in administration.” Governors have many other things demanding and diverting their attention and cannot ride herd everywhere or in every season to determine if their policies are implemented at every level. KDWP Secretary Steve Williams, who served under Governor Graves, added his endorsement and joined me for a presentation to the KDOT secretary. Lower-level KDOT staff were sent in the KDOT secretary’s place and it therefore failed to become much of a priority for the agency. Over time, however, KDOT staff within the landscape-architecture division, who shared our vision, worked with us to make incremental progress. Troy Schroeder of KDWP was also very helpful, and representatives of other organizations (Pheasants Forever and Quail Unlimited) added their philosophical support. Fast forward to the administrations of Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Governor Sam Brownback for the two most encouraging developments: first, the leadership of KDOT Secretary Deb Miller who served with both administrations (until the end of 2011), and second, the expression of support and leadership by Governor Brownback in early 2012. Following an Audubon of Kansas request in 2007, KDOT Secretary Deb Miller expressed her willingness to consider changes in roadside maintenance practices, and she established the Aesthetics Task Force (ATF) in early 2008. It consisted of biologists with WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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wildlife organizations, native plant botanists, a KDWP biologist, and several KDOT staff members including Clay Adams, who served as chairperson. Following months of meetings and opportunities to share and discuss information, the task force’s report was finalized and presented to Secretary Miller in December. She endorsed the findings. It called for more universal implementation of the “limited mowing policy” already in place, and additional reductions in mowing to pare down some of the $6.6 million spent on mowing each year. That figure probably did not include the capital costs of equipment, employee benefits and all the other state costs. Millions spent on unnecessary mowing "is a lot of money."
K-18 near Manhattan before and after untimely mowing in 2010. The cost was both ecological and much of the state's investment in seeding wildflowers.
“Two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. We're gonna have to earn it.” –“Blondie,” in the 1966 movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly During the summer of 2008 prices for diesel and gasoline were extraordinarily high and that was an added motivation for reduction of mowing. Secretary Miller sent a directive to hold down consumption and costs, and KDOT maintenance units limited mowing to approximately 15 feet out from the shoulder in most areas. As a result, native grasses and wildflowers were incredibly showy along state highways that fall. In addition to reducing costs, limited mowing can become part of the state’s energy conservation plan by limiting fossil-fuel consumption through reduced miles driven/hours of operation for tractors and support trucks. The final report acknowledged that: “It is the general consensus of the Task Force that the policy as written is not followed uniformly throughout the State. There seems to be entirely too much mowing in most areas and both sides of the highway are rarely left unmowed at the same time. Mowing native grasses and forbs is generally unnecessary….” One of the
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circumstances that allows policies to be ignored is the fact that there are reportedly 212 KDOT subdivisions involved in maintenance throughout the state. They may not be independent fiefdoms, but it sometimes seems like there is little accountability beyond their “jurisdiction.” Thus, policies established by administrative personnel headquartered in Topeka aren’t always implemented. Within a year there was a return to far more extensive mowing. Mowing out to the fencerows in many places, even while native grasses and wildflowers were in full bloom, was commonplace in the fall of 2009. It appeared that the mowing recommendations of the ATF were already being ignored, and by the fall of 2011 – after Secretary Miller announced that she was leaving the position – it appeared that
mowing doubled and accelerated much more in many areas. The previous observance of fifteen feet from the shoulder became thirty feet overnight, and this year we’ve observed complete mowout on both sides of some highways, extending a half to a mile or more from small towns or intersections, and in areas near streams. We were concerned following the departure of Secretary Miller. Based on a discussion on this subject with thenSenator Brownback on the 2010 campaign trail, our observance of his leadership promoting preservation of the Flint Hills, and his interest in reducing wasteful spending, we believed that it was compelling that we provide him with the results of the ATF report and an opportunity to hear from a broad spectrum
of conservation leaders. Governor Brownback hosted a meeting in his office on February 23, 2012. The conservation delegation included Chip Taylor with Monarch Watch, Fred Coombs with the Kansas Native Plant Society, Steve Sorensen representing the Kansas Wildlife Federation, John Schukman with the Northeast KS Upland Bird Partnership, Doug Rubick with the Smoky Hills Audubon Society, Jordan Martincich and Marc Glades representing Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, and me on behalf of Audubon of Kansas. Robin Jennison, Secretary of KDWP&T, also participated, pointing out at the onset that this is one issue where he fully agrees with me! The 18-page illustrated briefing document presented to the governor is available on the AOK website. The photography helped to illustrate all of the key points we made to the governor. A highlight of the meeting was the governor’s statement that he would be inclined to reduce mowing – for economic, ecological and aesthetic purposes – even more than we had suggested. Iowa, Illinois and several other Midwestern states do very little ROW mowing along their major highways. Governor Brownback asked us to schedule a meeting with the next KDOT secretary to share our collective perspective, and we did that soon after Mike King was confirmed. Secretary King was receptive and open-minded, his background operating a construction company likely brings a somewhat different set of priorities, and he arrived in his new job with a lot of other things on his plate. The conservation community needs to build additional stakeholder support for our objectives and share that with him.
employees, it is potentially far more beneficial and effective to send letters to the governor. He in turn can share them with Secretary King and then they can go beyond to the district level. It is as important to point out examples of places where KDOT is doing an excellent job of “stewardship” of this resource as it is to highlight the places where their maintenance approach is destructive. Please see the sidebar box for contact information. Prior to the advent of email, Congressman Larry Winn (R-KS) once told me that he figured that one wellwritten letter represented the views of 10,000 people, because the other 9,999 never get around to articulating their thoughts in writing. A written letter is still the best. E-mails can also be forwarded. Phone calls are good if they are timely and not disruptive, but a phone message cannot always be forwarded effectively.
A State Budget Cut (or Redirection) that will Benefit Ecological Resources in Kansas Many people overlook the fact that fiscal conservatism and conservation are sometimes perfect complements to each other. At a time when funding for many state government programs, including education, has been or is being reduced, it
seems inexcusable for KDOT to be spending multiple millions of dollars to needlessly cut grass – especially considering that this action often does more harm than good. Sometimes it simply seems to be “make work.” This is one of those occasions when it is possible to advocate a state budget cut that will benefit ecological resources in Kansas. If KDOT’S budget cannot be reduced, better alternatives for those funds within KDOT are possible. Governor Brownback asked if we had any suggestions for redirection of the funds if some of the mowing expenditures that could be saved. Our consensus was that there is a need for KDOT to effectively address and control a class of invasive plants that are spreading from highway roadsides. Known as “old-world bluestems” generically and specifically Caucasian Bluestem, these non-native invasive grasses may be the most severe long-term threat to native grasslands. This grass gets started in disturbed areas and spreads – essentially choking out all other native grasses and vegetation. State highways and some county roads appear to be the primary places where it has established strongholds, possibly from contaminated seed or mulch used initially on the roadsides, and then spreading with mowing operations and wind. Harvesting hay from infested roadsides has the potential of spreading it far and wide.
The Merit of Sharing Your Views with Governor Brownback With the governor on the same wavelength as the conservation community, and Secretary King receptive, it is now everyone-who-cares’ obligation to provide citizen support so that the governor’s endorsement doesn’t end there without any impact or implementation of the ATF’s policies. Although it is useful to share one’s views with local KDOT
The Caucasian Bluestem along this road is taking over native range in the Flint Hills. WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Once they become established, these grasses are aggressive and competitive – and very difficult to eradicate. They should be designated as state "noxious plants.” As with Sericea lespedeza and many other invasive plants, old-world bluestems were inauspiciously developed and promoted by misguided agronomists with USDA connections, and then commercialized by seed producers. They were planted on hundreds of thousands of acres in CRP fields in Texas and Oklahoma. In addition to dealing with the growing threat of Caucasian Bluestem, it would be nice if the funds could be used for enhancement of the vegetation. Overseeding with wildflowers and native grasses, strategically planting native shrubs, and controlling bromegrass would all improve ecological and aesthetic roadside resources.
Roadsides can be a Showplace for a State’s Natural Beauty and Native Prairie Flora. Ladybird Johnson was one of our country’s most successful advocates for practices to encourage roadside wildflowers and her legacy still exists in Texas. However, the June and September display of prairie wildflowers in parts of Kansas is equally as impressive as the early spring Bluebonnets of Texas. With a succession of different wildflowers from
April thru October, a hundred or more species add beauty and interest to roadside vegetation in areas where it has not been drenched with herbicides in the recent past, set back with excessive and recent mowing, or overwhelmed with bromegrass (historically planted) or other invasive non-native grasses. Native grasses, including Indian grass, switchgrass, big and little bluestem are also showy during the fall and winter. Obviously vegetation of this nature is excellent habitat for a diversity of beneficial pollinating insects. Butterflies, native bees and honeybees depend on a succession of blooms for nectar, and the foliage is necessary for various life stages and overwintering habitat for some species. In many cultivated landscapes there are very few, if any, suitable habitats available. The same is true for a number of grassland and shrub-nesting birds. The relatively undisturbed linear habitats of roadsides can provide habitat that is not otherwise available – habitat for nesting, foraging for insect foods for broods, loafing and roosting cover. Depending on the setting, the list of birds utilizing roadsides for nesting can include Northern Bobwhites, Pheasants, Eastern and Western Meadowlarks (our State Bird), Brown Thrashers, Bell’s Vireos, Dickcissels, Indigo Buntings, Mockingbirds, Eastern Kingbirds, Sedge Wrens, Mourning Doves, Song Sparrows, Lark Sparrows, Grasshopper Sparrows, Eastern Towhees and Blue Grosbeaks.
Stiff-stemmed ROW vegetation is an effective "living snow fence."
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I’ve often thought that if KDOT hired only quail and pheasant hunters, and birders for district and local maintenance staff, there would be far less mowing/brush-hogging of grasses, wildflowers and native shrubs – as recommended by the ATF report – and only spot spraying with herbicides. After the leaves had fallen, I once counted 18 nests, mostly of Red-winged Blackbirds, in a narrow 200-yard long strip of shrubby roadside on the once-wetland southwestern edge of Lawrence. While taking photos of rights-of-way, it was extremely disappointing to observe hen pheasants and Red-winged Blackbirds being flushed from their nests by a private, hay-harvester along I-70 just west of Quinter. The potential value of this kind of habitat is nothing new; research in south-central Nebraska four decade ago found that about 25 percent of wild Pheasant chicks hatched in roadside cover. During other months of the year, the number of species that utilize unmowedroadside habitat increases as birds that nest in northern biomes migrate through or winter in the central Great Plains. This list includes Spotted Towhees, Dark-eyed Juncos, Harris’s Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow and many others. It is best from several perspectives if the outer ROW areas are not mowed until late winter or early spring. For all of the birds, tall vegetation (especially stiff-stemmed native grasses) can be vital for thermal protection and shelter from cold rain and blowing snow, and the seeds from sunflowers and other forbs provide high protein food. Of particular note and importance in Kansas, there are usually thousands of visiting and resident Red-tailed Hawks that use perches on or along roadsides to hunt for small rodents in these grassy habitats. After crop fields have been cultivated, and pastures grazed down, these are often the best habitats that provide sufficient opportunity for these wintering raptors to obtain prey. We have conducted surveys and counted nearly 100 hawks in a distance of 100 miles, with most of them on hunting perches within fifty yards of roadside habitat. Limited mowing practices and the planting of native grasses and forbs on roadsides serve as filter strips and buffer areas, which help to remove pollutants from roadside runoff and help to keep
many kinds of litter from washing into nearby streams, rivers and lakes. Allowing deep-rooted native plants to mature also helps to capture sediment and pollutants, prevent ditch erosion and bank slides. Whereas soil conservation and water quality agencies recommend retention of the vegetative structure that best serves these purposes, KDOT regards these areas as “drainage ditches” to be mowed with two passes. It is not uncommon to see steep slopes and wet areas that have been torn up by an overly-ambitious crew with tractors and mowers, getting stuck, destroying vegetation and sometimes damaging equipment. While some KDOT crews are determined to mow down thousands of miles of vegetation of what are, in effect, “waterways” paralleling highways, taxpayers are providing funding for establishment of filter strips and riparian buffers on farms. In Kansas, federal funds totaling approximately $1,440,650 are paid annually to landowners who have established 28,817 acres of filter strips, and another $146,600 for riparian buffers. Likewise, 29,301 acres of upland gamebird habitat (mostly field buffers) and 1,365 aces of pollinator habitat are enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to help these declining wildlife species—which can also benefit from improved roadside-management practices, even if the roadside habitat is not as good for all species acre-for-acre and mile-for-mile. Unmowed vegetation, especially stiffstemmed native grasses and forbs serve as “living snow fences” and help to keep snow from blowing across road surfaces in many areas. This enhances safety and reduces the cost of snow removal and salt applications. Everyone who has
experienced “ground blizzards” knows the importance of structural or “living snow” fences. Reductions in road closings are important for everyone who has a need to travel, whether
they are truck drivers or student passengers on a school bus. The most critical ROW areas that should NOT be mowed prior to late winter/early spring (ideally March) are those on the north side of state highways and Interstate 70 as it crosses Kansas, and in many places the west side of north-south highways. Unmowed ROW vegetation also reduces sunshine glare from snow-covered landscapes. Ideally, KDOT should be working in partnership with USDA to encourage and help finance establishment of “living snow fences” (practice 17 in CRP) in fields adjacent to the north side of I-70. With some roadside areas mowed by KDOT and/or hay harvesters, in some areas it doesn’t seem like there is much more than a barbed wire fence between the roadway and the North Pole. As a result, when there is blowing, snow closure gates are sometimes required to block traffic from entering the interstate at various points from Hays to the Colorado state line.
Conservation Community Goals/Requests for KDOT and KTA Please join us in urging KDOT and KTA administrators to adopt and implement recommendations of the Aesthetic Task Force. There are several additional guidelines (policies) that would serve the public interest and be of ecological or aesthetic value. They are outlined below. 1) One additional policy that should be better articulated and implemented is that mow-out of the rights-of-way (beyond the 15-foot corridor next to the shoulder) should not occur before November. In most recent years, many areas have been mowed to the fence line in October. This is usually before the first killing frost and when many of the native fall prairie WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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flowers are still blooming (including many of the asters, goldenrods and perennial sunflowers), before most have produced mature seed to effectively reseed roadsides, and before the plants have gone dormant. (2) Ideally, for snow-holding capacity, water quality and wildlife benefits, scheduled mow-out should be delayed to late winter or early spring. All of the tractors have climate-controlled interiors, so there are few occasions when mowing cannot be scheduled. The policy calls for mow-out once every four years, on a rotational basis for different sides of the highway (north, east, south, west), so it shouldn’t be too overwhelming to schedule appropriate timing and conditions. (3) We believe that KDOT and other state agencies and stakeholders should cooperatively evaluate the threat of invasive grasses (starting with Caucasian Bluestem), develop a plan for dealing with ROW infestations and begin to implement control measures to prevent spreading. (4) Most in the conservation community believe that KDOT needs to develop regulations to restrict “open range” private, hay harvesting along state-administered highways, which destroy all of the public benefits of limited mowing policies. Hay harvesting during the nesting season destroys bird nests and eliminates resources for native pollinators. Private haying practices also threaten to spread Caucasian Bluestem.
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Some individuals harvest hay from long stretches of highways, turning public resources into personal gain (hay worth tens of thousands of dollars) without any consideration of public benefit. This practice is done without any payment. The conservation community generally recommends that KDOT adopt a “No Hay-Harvesting” policy, with no exceptions along the interstate system. Requests for improvements can go through the governor’s office to keep Governor Brownback informed of your interest.
Governor Sam Brownback Office of the Governor Capitol, 300 SW 10th Ave., Ste. 241S Topeka, KS 66612-1590 785-296-3232, governor@ks.gov Cons tuent Services 785-368-8500, csr@ks.gov –––––––––––––––––––––––
Copies or separate correspondence can also be sent to: KDOT Secretary Mike King 700 S.W. Harrison Topeka, KS 66603-3754 785-296-3461, mking@ksdot.org –––––––––––––––––––––––
And/or regarding management of KTA roadsides to: KTA CEO Michael Johnston Kansas Turnpike Authority 9401 East Kellogg Wichita, KS 672071804 316-682-4537, MJohnston@ksturnpike.com
As this ROW was mowed for hay, nesting pheasants and songbirds were flushed from their nesting habitat.
The Stealth War on Quail & Songbird Habitat – and on Wildflowers, Native Shrubs and Beneficial Pollinating Insects t is the most insidious, governmentsponsored assault on the natural environment in Kansas, Nebraska and many other states. Although those waging this war would never acknowledge it – because they have never thought about the unintended consequences – it is occurring in hundreds of counties and has become “business as usual.” There is little if any oversight and no effective way of evaluating the results of millions of dollars of excess spending, no environmental assessment, and few effective ways for landowners to collectively protect their interests in the thousands of miles of land that involves their properties.
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Foremost, it is a stealth chemical war that counties wage on country roadsides, in many cases on every roadside in a county. This “chemical warfare” is generally conducted by the county noxious weed departments with new versions of “agent orange.” In Riley County, Kansas for example, most of the county roadsides are broadcast spayed every fall with a combination of 2,4-D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and Tordon (the trade name for a chlorinated derivative of picolinic acid, a systemic herbicide used for general woody plant control). That is in addition to the herbicide applications applied earlier in the growing season. I have had more than one occasion to coincidentally be behind a spray truck that was going down the road with the spigots turned on with herbicides shooting out over the entire roadside area extending to the fenceline. Sometimes the sprays go beyond the fencelines, as occurred several
years ago at our farm in Washington County. On at least one occasion in Riley County I was following a truck spraying when the wind was blowing at least 20 mph. Most recently, in early November as I drove from just east of Green to Randolph, I followed a county sprayer that sprayed all the way. If there American plum thickets and wild rose sprayed along a were noxious weeds, they didn’t country road in Rock County, Nebraska, but the same can be seen along any of thousands of miles of rural roads extend the entire ten miles. I throughout the heartland of America. A Riley County asked the driver why he was Noxious Weed Department truck on a fall quest to spray broadcast spraying everything 75 percent of the roadsides in the county. and his response was, “To control musk thistle and bindweed.” I suggested that there wasn’t benefits, equipment and upkeep, fuel and any evidence of either. He said, “But other operations, etc.) on this type of there would be if we didn’t spray.” I went roadside herbicide spraying, but the back later in the day and made several county’s noxious weed department spent stops, but couldn’t find any of either $99,235 on herbicide chemicals last year, plant. Imagine if the entire landscape was and had a total department budget of sprayed with this philosophy – there $495,043. wouldn’t be a natural prairie left and On a statewide basis, expenditures by biodiversity would be decimated. county weed departments on herbicides Although Riley County is a relatively small county with far fewer country roads than most counties in Kansas, it does have 233 miles of county-maintained roads and a much higher than average budget. We are not aware of how much is precisely spent (including chemicals, salaries and
are just over $10 million, and total budgets add up to $23,477,307. The average budget is $230,169. There are approximately 80,500 miles of countymaintained roads in the state. In addition there are likely tens of thousands of township-maintained roads. In some WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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For those of us who grew up on a farm or ranch (or in a city) and remember country roadsides where one could see native grasses, wildflowers, native shrubs and vines, coveys of quail and an array of nesting songbirds, the transformation to relatively sterile roadsides with few of these amenities is disappointing. As recently expressed by the chairman of our Board of Trustees, the “first rule of operation,” borrowing from medical ethics, should be “to do no harm.” Maintaining a healthy prairie plant community of native grasses and wildflowers, with limited chemical applications and requiring less fossil fuel use, is actually less expensive than the present methods employed. In addition, a
Bu erfly milkweeds and scores of other na ve prairie wildflowers are increasingly rare along rural roadsides due to rou ne scheduled spraying – whether it is "needed" or not. Folks at the Farmers Market and rural families frequently comment that it is increasing difficult to find wild plums, elderberries and other natural fruits and berries. This Bell's Vireo was photographed singing in a roadside thicket on our Washington County farm, but the next year the thicket was sprayed.
counties, as in Wabaunsee County, they are routinely sprayed with a cocktail of herbicides as well. Adding insult to injury, counties are also, unknowingly, waging “biological warfare” on quail, songbird and Cottontail Rabbit habitat, and on wildflowers, native shrubs and vines and beneficial insects. It is standard practice for county road departments to plant roadsides to bromegrass following reconstruction or disturbance. Bromegrass is not native and worst of all it is invasive. It “takes over” many areas where it has been planted, and it crowds out many of the native plants. It is about as useless for most wildlife species as Astroturf and it even undermines the value of such cover as
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plum thickets for quail. Northern Bobwhites need thickets and associated cover from which they can run through, hide in and fly out of. Bromegrass impedes all of those habitat qualities. Bromegrass, fescue, reed canary grass and other invasive grasses further diminish the value of habitat by reducing the abundance of forbs (native legumes and other broad-leaf plants, often referred to as wildflowers or weeds depending on a person’s understanding or lack of understanding of their values). These plants provide much of the food required by upland game bird chicks, and songbirds. The invertebrates, seeds, fruits and buds associated with or produced by forbs are critically important.
stable native plant community without a lot of disturbance is less susceptible to becoming portals for undesirable invasive plants. It appears that the only way for taxpayers, landowners and other residents to correct this assault on the land, wildlife, and the public interest in ecological stewardship is to begin to organize and work with organizations that share our collective views. Landowners may also want to provide county officials with legal notification that the rights-of-way land associated with their property should not be sprayed – except spot treated when there is a presence of noxious weeds. – Ron Klataske
Birds of Kansas A “Texas bird” joins the ranks. Photo ©Warren Buss, Washington County, Kansas
ne of the many exciting things about birding is the fact that birds sometimes travel far and wide from where they are expected. The ink was barely dry on the fabulous new book, “Birds of Kansas,” detailing the 473 species of birds that had been documented in the state when another notable avian traveler arrived. An impressive Crested Caracara in adult plumage was discovered by a farmer on the evening of August 1. The next morning, Warren Buss, who farms nearby and doubles with Dan Thalmann, publisher of the Washington County News, as one of the county’s two most active birders made an outstanding photo. The bird was perched in a tree above a hay meadow, then swirled down to the ground and proceeded to walk hunt—as they often do when searching for snakes, lizards, insects and other small prey.
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The Crested Caracara, AKA Mexican Eagle, is a member of the falcon family and has been described as a “tropical falcon version of a vulture,” that “reaches the United States only in Arizona, Texas, and Florida.” Three weeks after the Kansas sighting, Greg Neuman of Seward, Nebraska observed and identified a Caracara feeding on a roadkill in Nebraska about 15 miles west of Lincoln--80 miles north of its Kansas discovery. There had been one previous credible report of a Crested Caracara in Kansas. A KDWP employee observed it several times in July 2008, once feeding on a road-killed rabbit near the Woodson State Fishing Lake west of Yates Center.
Warren Buss, like the bird he photographed, is a world traveler and visited Europe for the fifth time this past summer.
Unknown to most birders, a Green Violet-ear Hummingbird spent some time visiting a feeder in a yard in Keats, Kansas in June 2011. This tropical hummingbird is normally found in south-central Mexico south into Panama and the Andes of South America. Occasional wanderers have been recorded in other states and north to Canada. This summer an additional rare vagrant arrived. A Rednecked Stint was observed at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge on July 1. This small wader breeds in northeastern Siberia and western Alaska. It normally migrates to southeast Asia or Australia in late summer and fall, and is common there during the northern hemisphere’s winter--and Austrian summer. However, this bird apparently took a south-bound flight with American “peeps” (small sandpipers) with central Kansas wetlands programed on their DNA guidance systems.
“Birds of Kansas” was published last year by University Press of Kansas. Authors include Max C. Thompson, Charles A. Ely, Bob Gress, Chuck Otte, Sebastian T. Patti, David Seibel, and Eugene A. Young. The 473 species accounts detailed includes 47 more than the last similar book, “Birds in Kansas,” co-written by Max Thompson and Charles Ely in two volumes published in 1989 and 1992.
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BARRED OWLS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Photos and Article by Charles Hammer
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hey showed up in early spring, actually, and I took my first owl portrait on May 5, 2010. After that they lived closely with the people of Black Swan estates, a lake community in Shawnee, Kansas, with about 130 homes. We were loading up our car with neighbors for an outing, all the while discussing our recent sightings when someone said, “There she is!� Not twenty-feet distant, she perched in a white pine tree, eavesdropping on what was being said about her (we assumed the bigger of the pair was the female). On another occasion, five or six walkers had paused under a tree to trade news, when the owl flew onto a branch not ten feet over our heads to study us, or perhaps the lakeshore bullfrogs. From our porch my wife and I saw two owls in a tree across the lake. One flew down to touch the water and up again to land on a post on our side. Why had she dipped to the water? Back again she flew, down to the water and splashed her claws in, yanking out a two-foot, wildly-wiggling, water snake. She flew with it to the far shore, sharing the grim meal with her pal. We ate breakfast once with the male owl sitting six feet away from our screened porch. One day we watched as the pair teamed up on a squirrel that kept circling around a tall stump, trying to stay away from them. The squirrel was just too spry for them. They never did get him. These owls may also have been nocturnal, but they were certainly diurnal. We saw them at all hours of the day. Standing not more than 15-feet away, I shot several photos of our Canoodling Cousins on July 21 on the street near our mailbox. Owl sightings were a daily occurrence through March, 2011. Having likely thinned out the edibles near our home, the Barred Owl pair later moved a half-mile west to the other side of the neighborhood. We hope the folks over there enjoyed the seasons that followed with the owls.
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Charles Hammer is a former reporter for the Kansas City Star, author of two youth novels published by Farrar Straus and Giroux including a Civil War novel, "Of Love and War: 1864," and co author of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct," a history of college sports published by University of Michigan Press.
BARRED OWLS Habitats, Distribution and Prey The primary habitats for Barred Owls (Strix varia) are woodlands across the eastern North America. The species is particularly numerous in a variety of wooded habitats in the southeastern United States. They often nest in tree cavities. With protection they have ventured into suburban areas with large trees. Small rodents and mammals up to the size of squirrels and rabbits, amphibians and some birds provide prey.
Vocalization The usual call is a series of eight accented hoots ending in oo-aw, with a downward pitch at the end. The most common mnemonic device for remembering the call is "Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all". They often call during the afternoon. Without the “you all”, Barred Owl calls are sometimes confused with Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus). Their call is a low-pitched but loud ho-ho-hoo hoo hoo; sometimes it is only four syllables instead of five. The female's call is higher and rises in pitch at the end of the call. The Great Horned Owl is larger and recognizable because of the prominent feather tufts on the head of adults. – RDK
Owls have been Widely Featured in Myths and Folklore In Greek mythology, the Little Owl (Athene noctua) was the messenger of Athene, the goddess of wisdom and foresight. Similar to the Burrowing Owl, which is possibly related, when threatened, Little Owls (a species of Europe and Russia) have the habit of bobbing up & down.
GIVE A FRIEND A GIFT MEMBERSHIP, OR JOIN AOK TO SUPPORT CONSERVATION AND NATURE APPRECIATION Audubon of Kansas is proud of its logo, picturing a Greater Prairie-chicken in full display at sunrise in a prairie setting. It helps to project that AOK members and leaders take pride in prairie landscapes, wildlife, other resources – and everyone who plays a role in stewardship of the land. Audubon of Kansas does not normally sell merchandise, but we have great ball caps and make them available at cost, or at no additional costs with $20 gift memberships or greater donations. A cap can be mailed if requested. Wild ducks have different colored beaks! So it is only natural that AOK caps come with a choice of bill colors: green, black or khaki!
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WHAT’S IN YOUR BACKYARD?
Red Foxes in the Backyard, Blue Darters in the Trees
Photos and Article by Neil Weatherhogg
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rofessional photographers often encourage beginners to start taking photos of potential subjects most familiar to them, such as family and friends; flowers, autumn leaves, birds and butterflies in their yard; neighborhood parks and nearby natural areas. For example, Red Foxes would occasionally wander through our backyard on Burlingame Road about half a mile from Shunga Creek in Topeka, Kansas. My wife Janet and I kept our cameras close at hand for serendipitous occasions such as those. One winter morning I looked out the window in my study to see two foxes, probably siblings, wander into our backyard. For about fifteen minutes or so, they played, they rested, they “danced”. All the while, as an awe-struck spectator standing indoors behind a plate glass window I observed and photographed them. What a gift to be able to witness this animal behavior up close within the city limits. Since that memorable day, we have seen other fox on occasion, some staying only briefly, others for several hours. We have photographed various hawks and other bird life, an American Robin feeding her babies, a mother duck guarding her eggs next to
Neil and Janet Weatherhogg enjoy taking photos of neighborhood wildlife since they retired; Neil as pastor of Topeka's First Presbyterian Church, and Janet from teaching at Tecumseh North Elementary School. Neil has also photographed wildlife in South and Central America and Yellowstone Park.
Photo by Janet Weatherhogg
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Cooper’s Hawk
a next-door neighbor’s house, and a swallowtail resting on one of our butterfly bushes. The backyards for many of us provide a potpourri of possibilities for viewing and, if we choose, photographing various wildlife. In addition to providing habitat, food and/or water, there are often photographic rewards if one keeps a camera nearby and watches for interesting fauna and flora displays in one’s own backyard.
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Many dramas of nature are revealed in our backyards
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ith foxes on the prowl throughout the neighborhood, it doesn’t seem like a safe place for a Mallard Duck to hide a nest. With Burlingame Road to cross to get ducklings to the nearest water, success is nearly “mission impossible”. With a Cooper’s Hawk and/or a Sharp-shinned Hawk observing every movement from the trees it seems like an equally challenging place for American Robins to nest. Red Foxes are notorious waterfowl nest predators in the northern prairie pothole region. However, in areas where Coyotes are relatively abundant and a danger to smaller canines in the countryside, Red Foxes often resort to living in suburban neighborhoods and small towns. A ranch friend north of Emporia recently commented that a family of Red Foxes lives in his ranchstead and eats with their domestic cats. In some ways life here is more “enchanted,” and they dramatically add to the enchantment that comes from the presence of wildlife near our homes. Life for Red Foxes has gotten better in suburban settings since domestic dogs are seldom allowed to run free. With application to Coyotes as well as their domesticated cousins, a Danish Proverb seems to be fitting: “Relatives are the worst friends, said the fox as the dogs took after him.” Cooper’s Hawks and the smaller Sharp-shinned Hawks are the two most common Accipiters in the United States. This group of raptors is characterized by slender body shapes, long tails, and short rounded wings that enable them to maneuver quickly and with agility in and out through trees in pursuit of other birds. They have long legs
and long talons which enable them to reach out while in flight to grasp and kill birds they have ambushed. That is how these birds gained the colloquial name “blue darters”. Back when many farms had free-roaming chickens, Cooper’s Hawks were a threat. The 1945 edition of BIRDS IN KANSAS, published by the Kansas State Board of Agriculture maligned this native raptor, printing that, “It may flash into the poultry yard, strike and carry off a half-grown fowl too rapidly for one to apprehend the marauder, unless one is lying in wait… Unfortunately, so swift and strong are the movements…that they frequently escape their just fate.” That misguided "nuisance proclamation" helped give other hawks, especially the slower and more common Red-tailed Hawk, the undeserved designation as "chicken hawks" and misconception that they contribute substantially to the decline of gamebirds. However, relative to redtails the publication did go on to state that, “All farmers owe a great debt to this fine specimen for its aid in the control of rodents…” Fortunately, all hawks, owls and eagles are now protected. In respect for the dynamics of nature, we try not to unnecessarily determine winners and losers to accommodate a diversity of wildlife. The best way to provide for songbirds and gamebirds is to provide exceptional habitat, including escape habitat. When feeding birds in one’s backyard, a substantial shrub thicket or large relatively open brush pile near the feeders will provide a degree of security for many of the small birds that are attracted. – RDK
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Wildlife Viewing from the Kitchen Window – AT THE HUTTON NIOBRARA RANCH WILDLIFE SANCTUARY "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." – John Muir
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he Hutton Niobrara Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary guesthouses are managed to be like homes away from home for guests. The Hutton Guesthouse was the home for Harold and Lucille Hutton, and making it available to guests who appreciate wildlife, the prairies of the Sandhills, and the wetlands and forest of this area is consistent with the vision they shared of it becoming a wildlife sanctuary. The guesthouse is surrounded by upland prairie with a view of the sunrise and sunset. It is also situated on the edge of a tributary of Rock Creek and has an oasis of trees surrounding the house – including a cottonwood worthy of monument status for its shade and habitat. These pleasant surroundings provide a place where an array of wildlife can be seen and/or experienced from the front porch, back patio or through the kitchen window.
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The photographs included in these pages illustrate just a few of the sights of wildlife enjoyed by guests this past spring, summer and fall. The images of Goldfinches and other birds at the feeder, the Wild Turkeys, Wood Ducks and a Whitetail doe and fawn are scenes viewed and/or photographed from the kitchen window. The hen turkey and her eight poults were photographed from the edge of the house as they settled in for the night on a major branch of the cottonwood just outside the kitchen window. The young birds scooted under her wings until they were all securely tucked away and tightly packed under their mother’s outstretched wings. This strategy may at least protect them somewhat from Great Horned Owls, but perhaps not always enough from Bobcats or Raccoons.
Photos by Ron Klataske WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Birds that came to the feeder included scores of Goldfinches, a pair of Cardinals, a pair of Spotted Towhees and a variety of others including Red Crossbills in late summer. The Towhees had a nest on the ground behind the metal shop building, and the whole family frequented the feeder after the young birds fledged. The Lazy Easy Ranch Guesthouse is located two miles away from the Hutton House on a quarter section of grassland and woodlands that extends within a half mile from the larger part of the 5,000-acre
sanctuary. This guesthouse is an equally delightful place to stay and relax. It is more wooded, and the 160-acre property is subdivided into several pastures and hay meadows by shelterbelts of longstanding cottonwood plantings and undergrowth of red cedars. Essentially, the same suite of birds can be seen on the Lazy Easy Ranch. The Niobrara Sanctuary website <www.niobrarasanctuary.org> has details on the sanctuary, including the conservation mission and guest opportunities. Reservations for either of the guesthouses are made by contacting the Audubon of Kansas office, or via the email address listed on the website. Contributions from guests and revenue from lodging helps pay some of the expenses associated with providing these unique accommodations (including upgrading the guesthouses, utilities, property taxes, supplies, etc.) and for stewardship of the sanctuary. Continued on page 30
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“Treat the Earth well. We do not inherit the Earth form our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children” – Ancient Indian Proverb
Your Support: is vital to AOK’s effectiveness Your annual membership and other gifts to Audubon of Kansas are vital to our ongoing conservation, education, sanctuary stewardship, and advocacy work. AOK cannot function without the support of members and annual contributions. We thank you for your continuing dedication and generosity. Donating online allows monthly giving. We use Verisign SSL security to ensure our donors a safe and secure transaction. Other ways to contribute include memorials/ tributes, and gift memberships. Please consider making a contribution at this time.
Legacy Gifts Planned Giving Options By establishing a planned gift to Audubon of Kansas, you can also ensure that AOK continues to be equally effective in the future. We have outlined several ways to establish a planned gift below:
Make a Gift of Stock or Bonds. Appreciated stock or bonds held for more than one year is most advantageous. Your gift will provide a financial contribution to Audubon of Kansas, and you will avoid capital gains taxes.
Create a Charitable Gift Annuity. By establishing a charitable gift annuity with Audubon of Kansas, you will continue to receive fixed payments for the rest of your life and have a charitable deduction. Charitable gift annuities offer payment rates that are more attractive than many other investments, with the rate amount determined by your age. In addition, you have the satisfaction of knowing that the remainder of your gift will benefit Audubon of Kansas conservation and education initiatives well into the future.
Include a Bequest in Your Will or Trust (specific property, cash donation, or a share of the residual estate). You can make a gift for the future of Audubon of Kansas programs in a way that does not affect your options during your lifetime. You may change your mind on beneficiaries at any time if these assets are needed for other purposes. Such a bequest may, however, provide an eventual estate tax deduction. Persons wishing to make a bequest to Audubon of Kansas, Inc. may tailor it to their individual interests or use wording similar to the following: I bequeath ___% of my residuary estate (or $_____) to Audubon of Kansas, Inc., a notfor-profit 501(C)3 conservation organization incorporated in the State of Kansas with its address at P.O. Box 256, Manhattan Kansas, 66505. Make a Gift of Land, or other Real Property. Gifts of real estate or other property are excellent ways to establish a major donation. Gifts of land that can be sold with the proceeds to be used to support general or other specific programs (in this case Audubon of Kansas programs), are often referred to as “Trade Lands.” Some parcels may be protected with conservation easements prior to sale. Proceeds can be designated for specific conservation, education or even stewardship of an established AOK sanctuary. Other donated property could include items like paintings, sculpture, books, etc. that could be used or sold to support similar purposes. Gifts of Land to be Maintained as a Wildlife Sanctuary (such as the Hutton Niobrara Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary) generally require establishment of an adequate endowment to fund future operations, pay annual property taxes and ongoing stewardship of the property. Gifts of land for this purpose must be consistent with the Audubon of Kansas mission, and require Board of Trustees approval. Thus, lands destined to become a protected sanctuary or preserve are best achieved with advanced planning and notification of AOK. Cars for Conservation! Although AOK has not promoted this avenue of philanthropy, vehicles and similar property can be donated and then sold to generate funds for AOK operations. In addition, AOK is interested in receiving an energy-efficient vehicle to retain for business travel. We are also looking to obtain a tractor with 3-pt. hitch, and rotary mower for use at the Niobrara Sanctuary. Audubon of Kansas, Inc. is administered by a Board of Trustees with interests in conservation and education in Kansas, Nebraska and generally the central Great Plains and prairie states. AOK is an independent, grassroots organization that is not administered or funded by the National Audubon Society. All funds received are devoted to conservation advocacy, nature appreciation initiatives, education and stewardship (including management of wildlife sanctuaries) in this region.
Please contact any of our Trustees or AOK Executive Director, Ron Klataske at 785-537-4385 or AOK@AudubonofKansas.org for additional information. WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Ju
ne 2, 2012 We are particularly pleased when extended families – including children and multiple Thank yo u for th generations – schedule a stay at the sanctuary and e privileg visiting t e of sta he Hutt ying at th o enjoy their time together in nature with few other n Niobrara e Hutton weekend Ranch W w Guestho as a lot ildlife Sa distractions. We are reminded of an organization use and of work morning nctuary , b e g li in last wee stening t ning with called Healthy Families Play Outside that was k o e nd. The ly t h in e g in bed front po quiet ligh for a wh rch and t rain. M organized in Lincoln, Nebraska some years ago. li il s e t y the first e n next job to the W Grassho was to s pper Spa estern M Activities may include hiking the network of trails, it rr e o o a dowlarks n the ws. Lis chips—it tening to alternatin exploring creeks and canyons, wading in small is hard t meadowla g with o stop— s rk e c s is like but I eve ond cup streams, or lounging in the warm, shallow eating po ntually t of coffe tato ore myse e from t Bobwhit currents of the Niobrara River. In winter after a lf away h e kitchen e and a m to get a , where ale not f just out ar behind fresh snow it is a delight to search for animal The who side was . le visit w a female tracks. We encourage guests to go for a drive or a s another li k e t h at, just with Nat one ench ure. My bicycle along the “country roads” within only inte anting en six hour rruption counter w a lk sanctuary, watching for wildlife and listening to in after around w looking a look at t a s t re o n s o e t o, or an o b ra ir d t the sounds within the surrounding landscape. iv w e as that , and the interestin very muc there wa g plant, o h for th s anothe Whether you prefer to keep active or just relax r a dung e w r one to ri t beetle, a on the t ten sugg nd so on rails help estions at the guesthouse, we hope you visit soon! . Th abou ed m ank you t where e especia northeas to go. T lly when t part of he flaggin I got to the sanc the beave g t tuary. B he wood rs (the b s in the y the wa ases of y , cutting o I like the tree trun ther tree “monume ks they s and tri nts” to had cut) m m in you left g limbs f In sum behind w I enjoye or the tra hen d the tri ils. professio p immens nal. I so ely. Lana a p preciated Micheel a person was so her com al tour. helpful ing out o I am gra space fo and n a Satu t eful to A r wildlife rd a y u d a u n b d giving m on of Ka near and continue e nsas for along the d conserv providing Niobrara ation eff some and grate orts. Best, ful for your
Rachel S impson
Volunteer Opportunities. A series of trails are being developed on the sanctuary. Some sections are complete, but several extensions have not been. Volunteers (individuals or organized groups) interested in helping clear a pathway through timber along the river, along and overlooking the wet meadows, and across creeks and canyons are welcome. With sufficient assistance and planning, this activity may be scheduled for winter, “spring break,” summer or fall. We are open to various possibilities. Send an email to aok@audubonofkansas or call 785-537-4387 if interested. 30
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The Destruction of Native Sandhills Grasslands: A Rancher’s Viewpoint n north central Nebraska the drought of 2012 has been devastating. It has been amplified by severe high temperatures in the 100 to 112 degree range, with 45 to 60 mile per hour winds at times. The pastures were used up on many ranches by August. Following a good rain on April 15 we didn’t have another for three and a half months. The extreme heat and high winds burned up the grasses and dry land cornfields. On August 4 we received 2 inches of rain, but that didn’t break the drought cycle.
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Beef production suffered a lot with poor weight gains, because the grass was dry without moisture to carry the nutrients up from the roots. Beginning in late June and early July a lot of yearling cattle began going to market far ahead of time. In three sales at the Bassett Livestock market more than 20,000 yearlings were sold at much lighter weights than normal. Then ranchers began culling cows. Beef cow numbers are the lowest in 50 years, according to the USDA cattle report. Feedlots placed more cattle on feed than normal. Later into the next year the supplies of feeder cattle will be short and the demand will climb. This puts the cattle cycle out of its normal pattern. A lot more cows will be going to market the rest of this year. Nation wide the drought has shortened the grass supplies. During the last two years approximately 100 quarters (each 160 acres) of precious native range has been destroyed by putting it under the plow, and under irrigation. This had taken place in north central Nebraska due to the high price of corn, supported in large part by ethanol production. Twenty-five years ago I said that “a nation that burns it’s food” has the possibly of perishing. This area had a similar loss of native ranchland in the sixties and early seventies. Outside investors thought they were going to make a killing on corn. The area has had an abundance of underground water from the Ogallala Aquifer. The Sandhills obviously consist of sand – which is very fragile. When the topsoil is made bare of cover, it is subject to blowing and it is difficult to get it to stay
Wes Sandall with a view of the Niobrara River in the background. Wes was state chairman of the Save the Niobrara River Association during the struggle to keep it from being dammed and diverted in the 1970s and 80s.
put. When cultivated for corn this is a problem until the corn is high enough to make a cover. Forty-six percent of Rock County was owned and operated by absentee landowners at one time during the earlier years of irrigation development. Sometimes the crop grew well the first year or two, but high inputs of fertilizer and water were increasingly required. Sand does not hold much water in the top foot of soil. Many of those farmers went bankrupt and abandoned their investment. Some of the ground was sold to another sucker. Corn production nationwide was more than the market could handle and the price was depressed. Then, more native grass was plowed up in hopes of more corn to help pay the expenses. The eighties came along and investment money disappeared. Then irrigated land became a drag on the market. Banks held title to a lot of land and many people didn’t have money enough to farm it. The government was then asked to ride to the rescue. Hefty payments were made to plant some of the cropland back to grass cover under the Conservation Reserve Program.
An unfortunate aspect of high corn prices is that it causes more sandy land to be farmed. That makes for a shortage of grass for cattle producers. Cattle are made for grazing. The cattle industry cannot rely on dry lots. The cattle “beef” business needs grass to survive. The cow herd has now declined to the lowest level it has been since in the fifties. Drought has taken a toll in recent years and there is not enough grass to support this country’s cow herd in many areas, and it isn’t logical for most ranchers to increase their herds in these conditions. Once destroyed, native prairie can never be put back to its original environment. It can be planted back to grasses, but it will never become like the original native range. In sandy country it takes a perfect season to start a “decent” stand of native grass and several years to get it reasonably well established, even if irrigated. The trend in this rapid loss of native grasslands raises a number of questions. Where is the grass of tomorrow? Where’s the beef? What is the future of ranching? – Wes Sandall WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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POOL 2 – CHEYENNE BOTTOMS, 1984
“Now don’t you ladies worry your pretty little heads. There’s $2,000 in our budget to take care of the Bottoms this summer.” With those words we were ushered from the office of an indifferent agent of the Kansas Fish and Game Commission (now Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks, and Tourism). Little did he know those were fighting words!
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s new officers of the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Chapter in Manhattan, Jan Garton and I had travelled to Pratt seeking a copy of a Cheyenne Bottoms restoration plan prepared years before by a former Bottoms manager. We were dismissively told, “It’s around here somewhere.” Managing to keep her cool, Jan informed the agent he needed to find it because we would be back! On the drive home from that first infuriating meeting we had time to fume a bit – and time to begin formulating an attention-getting plan.
Ripples in the Water: Getting Started
In June of 1983, the Northern Flint Hills Chapter of National Audubon in Manhattan, KS was at a low ebb of activity. Only twelve members attended the meeting to elect new officers and there was only a slate of three: Sil Pembleton, president; Monty Hinton, vice-president, and Di Ann Roberts, treasurer. John Zimmerman was the KSU campus sponsor for the chapter.
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Jan Garton came forward to volunteer as conservation committee chair, and with some urging, also agreed to be chapter secretary. We set about finding other community leaders to fill the slate of officers and pull the organization out of its lethargy. We recognized the need for a compelling cause to rally around and Jan immediately identified Cheyenne Bottoms as the issue that inspired her to volunteer. By the end of the first year, chapter membership had almost doubled in part due to “ownership” in this positive environmental cause.
The Dry Facts: An Endangered Wetland
Cheyenne Bottoms, a natural depression of some 64 square miles just north of the Arkansas River near Great Bend, Kansas, is the most important interior wetland in the United States, providing critical habitat for diverse species including the endangered Whooping Crane and threatened Least Tern. In 1983, the wetland was
Article by Seliesa Pembleton Photos by Ed Pembleton
endangered, too. Water rights for the Bottoms were being ignored; stretches of the Arkansas River were dry; and flows from Walnut Creek, the immediate water source, were diminished.
Like a Watershed: Gathering Information & Seeking Advice
Our first actions were to seek advice from long-time Audubon members and others who shared concern about the Bottoms. Many expressed sentiments that “Nothing can be done to save the Bottoms, we’ve tried and gotten nowhere.” Not what we wanted to hear. Despite all of the negative responses, as fledgling activists perhaps we were too naive to know we couldn’t save the Bottoms. We had a vision that working together we could all make a difference. We were taking a stand! A group of five Auduboners travelled to the Bottoms to learn about the problems. Stan Wood, a former manager at the wetlands, had previously drafted a restoration plan on file at Pratt. So the next step was an appointment with the
Cheyenne Bottoms, September 15, 2009. Water birds include Franklin's Gulls, American Egrets, and White Pelicans.
Fish and Game Department to obtain a copy. The agency employee we met with was dismissive. Barely rising from the paperwork on his desk, his response was, “The plan is around here somewhere. Don’t worry your pretty little heads about Cheyenne Bottoms. We have $2,000 budgeted to take care of it.” Maintaining her cool, Jan told him we would return to get the plan.
come down for a meeting. When we arrived, we barely concealed our surprise as we were ushered into a conference room to be greeted by the Director and a roomful of his top administrators. They were astounded by the number of letters they had received and were very concerned, wanting to know, “What have you been telling people? We have been getting letters from all over the state!” We had their attention.
The next step was to build a coalition of stakeholders with an interest in the health of the wetlands and a concern about the lack of water in the region. Hunters, birders, anglers, local businesses, scientists, garden clubs, school groups were all potential allies. Many of these groups had never communicated – and some were downright suspicious of each other – but all agreed that the Bottoms was worth saving!
Stirring the Waters: Raising Awareness
Twelve letters – that’s all it took to rile the department. We had the attention of the agency, but not its support. Despite our assurances that we intended to raise additional funds for the agency, their employees’ feared that a public outcry on behalf of the Bottoms would force a shift in the department’s budget priorities with no new money for an additional project.
One of Jan’s goals was to establish a Cheyenne Bottoms Task Force with representatives from the following organizations: Kansas Audubon Council, Kansas Wildlife Federation, Kansas Chapter of the Sierra Club, Ducks Unlimited Council, the American Fisheries Society, the Kansas Ornithological Society, Kansas Rural Center, Kansas Natural Resource Council, and the Kansas chapter of The Wildlife Society.
Through the Kansas Audubon Council and the network of chapter newsletters, Jan requested that members across the state write letters to the Kansas Fish and Game Commission expressing concern and the need for action because of the lack of adequate water in the wetlands. Next, Jan was off to Topeka to meet with Representative Ron Fox, Vice-Chairman of the Kansas House of Representatives Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who immediately voiced his support for our project. In the meantime, unbeknownst to us, Audubon members from across the state had dutifully responded to our request and written their letters of concern to the Kansas Fish and Game Commission. We received a call from Pratt inviting us to
Luckily, one of the Audubon letterwriters happened to be a woman of influence who called her son, State Senator Joseph Norvell from Hays, to explain how important those wetlands were – and to tell him to do something about it! Now we had a champion in both the Kansas State Senate and Kansas House of Representatives. But what could be done to save Cheyenne Bottoms?
Pooling Resources: Building a Statewide Coalition
The objectives of this group were twofold: ■ Achieve state-wide awareness of the critical situation at Cheyenne Bottoms,home to diverse species and vital to migrating waterfowl and shorebirds; and ■ Develop a proposal for a feasibility study identifying problems and WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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■ Support recommendations for restoration, and work for passage of legislation; and ■ Expand public awareness and concern for values associated with wildlife and natural resources. The Kansas Audubon Council and the Kansas Wildlife Federation joined forces to co-sponsor a Saving Cheyenne Bottoms Conference on September 22, 1984, held in Great Bend. Conference participants learned in detail the problems confronting the Bottoms and possible alternatives to improve the situation. L to R: Representative Ron Fox, Vice-Chair House Energy and Natural Resources Committee; Senator Joe Norvell; Jan Garton; and Mike Hayden, Speaker of the House.
possible restoration options, and to seek funding for this study from the state legislature during the 1984 and 1985 legislative sessions. The Kansas legislature meets annually, although bills that don’t clear in the odd years are carried over to the following year. The elections take place in evennumbered years, so those who served in 1985 would have been elected in November 1984. After Audubon meetings there were many late-night brainstorming sessions over cups of hot chocolate in a local restaurant in Manhattan. Notes on napkins held the design for a Save Cheyenne Bottoms – Great Birding in Great Bend bumper sticker. The Great Bend Chamber of Commerce liked the idea, paid for production of a high-quality product and became a strong ally. Other tactics for raising public and legislative awareness statewide included: newsletters, posters, pamphlets, press releases, letters to the editor, establishment of a speakers’ bureau and a prepared slide presentation, contacts with outdoor writers, resolutions, booths at public events, T-shirts, mugs and special events. To emphasize the importance of water to the Cheyenne Bottoms wetland complex, members of the Kansas Chapter of The Wildlife Society organized an avid relay team of runners to carry water to the Capitol in Topeka. Alternately running distances of a mile to several miles at a
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time, members Randy Rodgers, Bob Culbertson, Joe Kramer, Jim Hays, Bunny Watkins, Bruce Zmrzla, Mike Watkins and Joe Schaefer carried a PVC baton filled with water from the Bottoms. They used Steve Sorensen ’s orange van as their trail vehicle and to carry their precious liquid cargo. When they arrived in Topeka after a weekend of running, members provided Senators with a porcelain jug and Representatives with a beer bottle specially labeled Bottoms Up! Governor Carlin received both containers. As Jan said, “Best of all, lots and lots of just plain folks said over and over again that Cheyenne Bottoms had been a part of their childhood, an experience in their coming of age. They didn’t want to see it die. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people spoke out.” The ripples became waves of public action.
The Great Bend Chamber of Commerce handled conference registration and welcomed the group. Jan Garton presented the slide show, “Cheyenne Bottoms: Endangered Wetland” and Jean Schulenberg of Emporia voiced the peril of the endangered Least Tern. John Campbell, Kansas Assistant Attorney General discussed Colorado’s impact on the Arkansas River. Tom McClain, Kansas Geological Survey, highlighted the water supply problems for Cheyenne Bottoms. Clark Duffy, from the Kansas Water Office, illustrated how the State Water Plan protects wetlands and wildlife resources. Senator Joe Norvell and Representative Ron Fox provided insight to the legislature’s role in saving the Bottoms. And Kansas Fish and Game officials discussed current situations and possible solutions. An afternoon caucus to coordinate goals and activities of interested groups was conducted by Mari Peterson, director of the Kansas Natural
Making Waves: Preparing a Legislative Initiative The mission of the Cheyenne Bottoms Task Force was daunting: ■ Collaborate with state agencies to prepare and coordinate a feasibility study proposal for restoration; ■ Prepare legislation for the 1985 session and work for passage of a funding bill; ■ Coordinate with the private consulting firm assisting with this process;
Jan Garton being interviewed by Dale Goter, reporter, following the distribution of the "Save the Bottoms" seat cushions.
Resources Council, followed by a tour of the wetlands and water-control structures. The banquet speaker, Len Greenwalt, former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and then Vice-President of the National Wildlife Federation, eloquently explained why Cheyenne Bottoms is of national significance.
The Bottom Line: Making a Big Splash But an endangered wetland was not a memorable or important issue in the state legislature. Despite the posters, brochures and T-shirts, all designed by Jan, we needed an effective hook to capture attention, especially of the Kansas Legislature. More late night hot-chocolate sessions between Jan, Ed Pembleton Audubon Regional Representative, and me, with notes on napkins and the idea of a Save the Bottoms stadium cushion was hatched. Operating on a shoestring budget from the Flint Hills Audubon chapter treasury, Jan found orange fabric for sale cheap (cloth rejected by the Denver Broncos) and designed a wetland logo for the pillow. With humor, passion and determination Jan Garton urged citizens to visit, write or call their legislators about the importance of the Cheyenne Bottoms wetlands. And with these words, she made the statewide offer for folks to sponsor a seat cushion for their senator or representative.
“IS YOUR LEGISLATOR A SITTING DUCK?” Sponsor a cushion, so while the legislators’ “bottoms” are resting comfortably, the representatives may be encouraged to think favorably about saving our “Bottoms!” A press conference was scheduled in Topeka on Feb. 12, 1985, and with TV cameras rolling, Jan delivered the line with a coy grin, “If we save your bottoms, will you please save ours?” This unique idea caught the attention of the legislators, who made sure they were in their offices to receive their hand-delivered seat cushions, which came with background information and the names of the local
Members of the Kansas Audubon Council urge Governor Carlin to support efforts to restore Cheyenne Bottoms.L to R: Paul Watson, KC: Billie Farmer, Salina; Jean Spinazola, Lawrence; Marge Streckfus, Salina; Joyce Wolf, Lawrence; Dan Larson, Topeka; Jan Garton, Manhattan; Ruth Welti, KC; Seliesa Pembleton, Manhattan.
constituents who had sponsored their cushions. No longer could a Senator or Representative say they were not familiar with the issue.
Liquid Assets: Receiving Funding for a Feasibility Study In one of its final actions of the session, the 1985 Kansas Legislature approved a funding measure for a study of Cheyenne Bottoms, looking at its geology, biology, ecology and hydrology and making recommendations on the best way to restore the area. Long-time activists were astounded that this mission was accomplished in such a relatively short time! On November 22, 1986, the Saving Cheyenne Bottoms II Conference was held in Great Bend. Researchers from the Kansas Geological Survey and Kansas Biological Survey introduced the audience to the findings of the recently completed feasibility study and provided an overview of the tentative options. On January 20, 1987, the Environmental Assessment was submitted to the Fish and Game Commission. At the time the Environmental Assessment for Cheyenne Bottoms was being finalized Mike Hayden became governor. He reorganized the KS Fish and Game Commission and the KS Park and Resource Authority into the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. This happened during his first year in office, in
July 1987. His administration also fought hard to establish stable, permanent funding sources for the State Water Plan – financed by money from the State General Fund, Economic Development Initiative Fund, Clean Drinking Water Fee Fund, fees on water use, sale of fertilizer and pesticide registration and pollution fines. With that many sources, it took two years to craft an acceptable compromise in the Kansas Legislature. Passed in 1989, the Water Plan Fund currently generates about $20 million each year. This was an important step, eventually leading to funding for restoration of the Bottoms. About the same time, KAC hired a part-time lobbyist, Joyce Wolf, who was able to capitalize on the enthusiasm and solid information that Jan’s work for Cheyenne Bottoms had generated. Audubon Chapters across the state received periodic legislative reports on wildlife-resource issues and chapter phone trees were established.
A Flood of Support: Securing Funding for Restoration Now, big tasks lay ahead: selecting management and restoration options, and seeking funding for the restoration process. More letters to legislators, phone calls, visits to Topeka, press releases, letters to editors: finally the Kansas legislature agreed to FY 1992 funding of $1,000,000 for restoration of Cheyenne Bottoms. WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Prior to Governor Joan Finney’s inauguration, but after her election in the fall of 1990, members of the “Environmental Lobby Caucus” were invited to meet with her to bring to her attention issues that each organization had been working on. The group consisted of representatives of: Kansas Audubon Council, League of Women Voters of Kansas, Kansas Rural Center, Kansas Wildlife Federation, the Kansas Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Kansas Natural Resource Council. As the conversation progressed, someone queried the Governor-elect about her environmental priorities. Her response was, “I’m a blank slate,” meaning she was open to all ideas that would be proposed. Joan Finney had a reputation as being a sort of “quirky” politician, and unfortunately, the Sierra Club lobbyist took her statement out of context and straight to the press! Needless to say, it caused quite a stir and subsequently led to her line-item veto in 1992 for restoration funding for Cheyenne Bottoms. However, because of the effectiveness of the “phone trees” of Kansas Audubon chapters, phones in Topeka were ringing off the hooks. Legislators were besieged by callers from their local districts. This had become an issue of national interest with National Audubon, Ducks Unlimited and the National Wildlife Federation supporting their grassroots activists with
American Egrets gathered near a water-control structure.
At the End of the Rainbow: Celebrating Success
interacted with three Kansas governors and thousands of concerned citizens from all walks of life. With degrees in history and in journalism, it is not surprising that when the restoration battles were over in 1999, Jan donated 1.5 cubic feet of documents and associated artifacts to the Kansas State Historical Society.
Although Jan was a modest and shy woman, over the course of a decade, she
Today, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance
letters from national headquarters. The results were stunning. By margins of 36 to 0 in the Senate and 107 to 17 in the House, the Kansas legislature voted to override the Governor’s veto!
Seliesa (Sil) Pembleton began her career as a classroom teacher in MO, AR and KS and obtained a Master’s degree at KSU. As president of Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society in Manhattan, KS, Sil enjoyed the camaraderie and friendship of members and was active in conservation issues including “Saving Cheyenne Bottoms.” After moving to Washington, DC, she worked at the National Science Resources Center, based at the Smithsonian Institution, writing hands-on curriculum for the National Academy of Science. She served as Director of Environmental Studies at Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center, located on the banks of the Potomac, teaching everything from wetland ecology to cow milking. She was invited and traveled to Japan several times to teach environmental education “American style.” She authored two natural history books for children, The Pileated Woodpecker, and The Armadillo, part of the Remarkable Animal series published by Dillon/McMillan Press. Seliesa currently serves on the board of the Jeffers Foundation and works free-lance as an environmental educator and teacher-trainer, encouraging teachers to move the classroom outdoors and team-teach with Mother Nature. She and husband, Ed also lead natural history tours. Ed Pembleton, a life-long educator and conservationist, has dedicated his professional career to connecting people of all ages to nature. Pembleton has taught a wide variety of “students” in settings ranging from the sandbars of the Platte River to the corridors of Congress. A Missourian, trained as a biologist and classroom educator, Ed taught in public schools and nature centers before becoming a Kansas-based field representative for National Audubon and worked throughout five states in partnership with Ron Klataske in the regional office in Manhattan. In 1987, he transferred to Washington, DC, to direct Audubon’s water resources program and redirect his educational skills toward 535 members of Congress and members of their staff. He had become a lobbyist! In 1994 he went independent working as a photographer and an "outside the Beltway" water resources consultant to non-profit organizations and the Department of Interior. In 2000 he returned to the Midwest to join Pheasants Forever as Director of the Leopold Education Project, with a mission to educate individuals to develop a personal land ethic based on Aldo Leopold’s writings in A Sand County ALMANAC. In 2008, he returned to photography, consulting and leading natural history tours.
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recognizes Cheyenne Bottoms as a vital world-class wetland. Approximately 45% of all migratory shorebirds nesting in North America stage at Cheyenne Bottoms. The site is classified as "critical habitat" for the endangered Whooping Crane and Least Tern and also supports other diverse wetland species. On November 6, 2009, twenty Whooping Cranes were reported by the manager of the new Kansas Wetlands Education Center established at Cheyenne Bottoms – and Whooping Cranes have been seen there every spring and fall since then. The center was Jan Garton’s last collaborative effort on behalf of the wetland she treasured. Friends within the conservation community have started a movement to establish a memorial for her at the new center. Jan Garton would blush at the thought of such an honor. Jan maintained a 4:00 am to 9:00 am job loading trucks at UPS because it gave her the day to research, plan, write, create, make phone calls and collaborate on issues of importance. Clean air, clean water, wild and special places and the creatures dwelling there, prairies, parks, trails, burgeoning populations, unbridled development, global climate change, the plight of whales, social justice issues all mattered to Jan and she worked tirelessly on their behalf. But the dire condition of Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Management Area was the focus of Jan’s passion and talents. For more than ten years she devoted herself to Saving Cheyenne Bottoms. Her extraordinary efforts garnered a vital, internationally recognized and restored wetland – as well as statewide admiration and national recognition. In 1990, in Washington, D.C., Jan Garton was honored with a prestigious Chevron Conservation Award. In 36 years, she was only the third Kansan to be recognized by the country’s oldest private
conservation award program judged by a panel of independent conservationists. The presentation of awards began with these words: IN SERVICE TO THE EARTH AS A CITIZEN VOLUNTEER ON MAY 16TH, HERE IN WASHINGTON, D. C., WE HONOR THOSE WHO HAVE TAKEN MEANINGFUL ACTION TO PROTECT AND PRESERVE OUR QUALITY OF LIFE AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. More than ever before, now is the time we must actively seek realistic solutions to our environmental problems. We can achieve success through our imagination, determination and cooperation. Symbolic of these qualities are those individuals and organizations recognized through the Chevron Conservation Awards Program. This year, at the 36th annual awards ceremony and dinner; the pioneers of the new environmental decade will be honored. Their independent spirit and selfless actions help ensure the future of our planet and set the example for us all. Jan Garton set the example for us all.
In the next issue of Prairie Wings, there will be a follow-up article: “Saving Cheyenne Bottoms – Part Two.” With the groundwork having been laid, the next major hurdle was to ensure that its water rights would be upheld by the Division of Water Resources, a part of the State Department of Agriculture. The article will touch on the history of water rights in Kansas and tell the story of the monumental decision upholding the Bottoms’ water right.
Jan Garton grew up in Chapman, and then lived the remainder of her life in Manhattan. She died at age 59 on November 9, 2009. I thought of Jan and Sil Pembleton two days earlier when visiting the Wetlands Education Center. One of the things usually missing from official display, as in this case, is the vital role of public citizen conservation advocates in pushing governmental agencies and lobbying other institutions to do the right thing to protect our natural heritage of wetlands, wildlife, prairies, rivers and more. Jan provided the passion and intellect that was the catalyst for turning the fate of Cheyenne Bottoms from one of dryland fields and occasional wetlands to a wonderfully managed wetland complex. We wish Jan could have been there that extraordinary weekend: 36 Whooping Cranes were observed in a single day in the vicinity of Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. On Monday after learning of her death, the first thought was that, “Her spirit will undoubtedly be under the wings of these magnificent birds as they lift in the thermals as they continue their migration.” If Kansas, following Missouri’s lead, ever develops a Conservation Hall of Fame, we trust that Jan will be honored with a plaque—and an accompanying “Save the Bottoms” seat cushion in a case nearby. – Ron Klataske
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An Audubon of Kansas Position: Safeguards for Whooping Cranes Need to be Restored
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ne of the most discouraging aspects of conservation advocacy is the fact that substantial successes seldom stand for long without attempts by other interests to dismantle them. That proved to be the case in 2012 when the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism’s Secretary and the Commission chairman decided to scrap important safeguards for Whooping Cranes established by the KDWP Commission in 2005. The idea promoted and implemented was that change the shooting hours for Sandhill Cranes from “one-half hour after sunrise to 2 p.m.” to make it now from “sunrise to sunset.” Following the shooting of three Whooping Cranes by a group of Sandhill Crane hunters near the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in November 2004, the KDWP Commission modified the shooting hours to reduce the prospect going forward that hunters would again mistake the federally endangered Whooping Cranes for the more abundant Sandhill Cranes. The hunters claimed that they mistook the Whoopers for Sandhill Crane shooting around sunrise. In 2005 the commission changed the daily opening of shooting hours from sunrise to a half hour after sunrise to provide for a bit more light on normal days. We urged that change in the regulations and applauded the commission’s approval as a vital safeguard for Whooping Cranes. On many occasions when the glare of the early morning light is behind the birds they all appear as silhouettes. Aside from a difference in color with Sandhill Cranes generally gray with some brown coloration and adult Whooping Cranes white with black wingtips and juveniles modeled white and rusty, they fly the same and are shaped the same. They also roost in the same areas and frequently fly together.
Article and Photos by Ron Klataske
Allowing shooting of Sandhill Cranes in low-light conditions in places where both species fly together and congregate to roost has been, and will again be in Kansas, an accident waiting to happen. In most cases mistakes, carelessness or vandalism of this nature are not discovered or revealed, but when it occurs it will be costly to our wildlife legacy and prospects for recovery of this endangered species. The approach to shooting a protected species is often half-jokingly characterized by the phrase, “shoot, shovel and shut up.” Shoved into the reeds, the remains of even birds as large as these are dismembered, eaten and dispersed by scavengers within a night or a few days. Collisions with powerlines are the largest known mortality factor for migrating Whooping Cranes. Intentional and accidental shooting is also a factor, possibly much greater than is known. Retaining the 2005 to 2011 shooting hours for Sandhill Cranes would have served to reduce the risk of mistaken identity by otherwise honorable (and KDWP&T sanctioned hunters) who cannot distinguish one crane silhouette from another and/or are overly anxious to shoot. During the discussion at the April commission meeting it was argued by the two audience proponents (one a Wichita outdoor writer and the other a KWF spokesman) that mistakes like that aren’t likely to occur again because everybody knows that Whooping Cranes are protected. And, in order to get a permit one has to pass an online questionnaire! Confidence in the theory that these provisions will keep all hunters from becoming overly anxious was disproved within a couple weeks of the meeting. Tragically, two spring turkey hunters were
Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words. 38
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– Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac, 1949 WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
shot by their hunting companions whey they mistook them for Wild Turkeys. One hunter was shot a second time, perceived to be a wounded turkey. One young hunter was killed. If tragedies of this magnitude cannot be prevented by mandatory hunter safety courses, how can we conclude that an online questionnaire will prevent the shooting of Whooping Cranes when shooting of Sandhill Cranes is allowed in low light conditions and/or when the birds are silhouettes against a sunrise or sunset? The Audubon of Kansas Board of Trustees of Trustees, several of whom are hunters and including two who are Life Members of the NRA, unanimously opposed the change. At the April meeting, Commission Chairman Gerald Lauder asked if the National Audubon Society was anti-hunting. Having worked for National Audubon for 28 years (1970-1998) I indicated that I only knew on one instance when that could be suggested. That was when Audubon opposed the suggestion of some entity that National Parks should be open to recreational hunting. When it became clear in mid April that AOK and others were going to oppose the change is shooting hours, KDWP&T proponents sought and received on the day of the commission meeting, letters of endorsement from the Kansas Farm Bureau and the Kansas Livestock Association. At the June commission meeting, two commissioners (Debra Bolton and Donald Budd, Jr.) voted to keep the safeguards in place. The five others voted to implement the proposed sunrise to sunset shooting. Although the thought was that sunrise to sunset shooting would provide more shooting opportunity for Sandhill Crane hunters, it may prove to diminish hunting opportunities in Kansas. With few places to retreat to rest and roost, more of the Sandhill Cranes may be forced to continue their migration earlier. In the case of Sandhill Crane hunting, I submit that it is wrong for our state agency to permit and even encourage crane shooting in Cheyenne Bottoms proper or on the “shooting line” that is set up on the edge to take birds as they arrive or leave. Shooting cranes at wetland
Whooping Cranes on a migratory stop in Kansas.
Crane silhouettes, one view of cranes flying by a hunting blind at sunrise or sunset.
roosting sites is done without respect for this wildlife resource, and in the case of sunrise to sunset shooting hours without concern for either of our crane species. However, since it is now promoted by KDWP&T it isn’t against the law. But, we would submit, it is a crime! There are only a few places--wetlands with shallow waters--in Kansas that are suitable as roosting habitat for thousands of Sandhill Cranes, and Whooping Cranes. The places that are relatively undisturbed are fewer still. Aside from the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Cheyenne Bottoms is the best available potential roosting and loafing area and it is publically owned by the agency charged by statutes with safeguarding wildlife in the public trust. The “utilitarian-only” perspective is not entirely new. In 1949 Aldo Leopold wrote that, “Wildlife administrators are too busy producing something to shoot at to worry much about the cultural value of the shooting.” Declining revenues due to declining resident game habitat and populations, and declining numbers of hunters, may be a motivation for the agency’s quest to promote more shooting opportunities. No investment required. Without a doubt, Ding Darling and Aldo Leopold would be appalled by the institutional abandonment of the philosophies of conservation and hunting ethics that they instilled in a generation of wildlife professionals and sportsmen. Along with their outdoorsmanship, these philosophies were foundational to their inspirational writings and careers. Needless to say, the legacy of Audubon advocacy to “Save Cheyenne Bottoms” or sixty years of crane conservation work carries little currency with current KDWP&T leadership. With Audubon opposition to changes in shooting hours, and advocacy of more focus for tourism on the staging of Whooping Cranes during the fall migration, it wasn’t surprising that no Audubon representatives were asked to be directly involved in the Eco-tourism Task Force. We are not sure what can be done to achieve restoration of Whooping Crane safeguards? But we do believe that it is appropriate for constituents to share their perspectives with Governor Brownback, and those who succeed him. Perseverance is a prerequisite for the conservation community, not just in one generation but for generations. WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Whooping Cranes in Kansas.
e were delighted when Governor Sam Brownback hosted an Ecotourism Summit on April 28 at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area, and also with recent news that an appointed committee of 16 people will explore ways to enhance opportunities for hiking, biking, camping, wildflower walks, wildlife watching, river floating, enjoyment of unique landscapes and many other outdoor activities In March of this year, it was a special honor to accompany Governor Brownback on an afternoon trip to the Lillian Annette Rowe Bird Sanctuary along the Platte River in central Nebraska. Governor Brownback joined Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to discuss and experience nature-based tourism and share ideas on interstate water compacts. It is always nice to be back on the Platte with tens of thousands of Sandhill Cranes every spring. I first experienced After touring the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center, Rowe Sanctuary this natural world spectacle and started hosting annual tours Manager Bill Taddicken, governor’s Dave Heineman, Sam and conferences there in 1971. Those gatherings have Brownback and John Hickenlooper lead the way to the wildlife continued for 42 years in various Audubon-sponsored and viewing blind on the banks of the Platte River. other similar events as the nationally acclaimed “Crane Celebrations/Festivals” in Kearney and Grand Island. National develop proposals on how wildlife-viewing opportunities can be Audubon acquired the first parcels of land to create the sanctuary improved in Kansas and present these ideas for consideration to from farm families who shared our conservation vision in 1973. committee members or directly to the governor’s office. As he Other initiatives combining conservation and nature recalled his trip to Africa, we share Governor Brownback’s thought appreciation/nature-based tourism have included development of the that some “out-back” type, overnight shelters could be provided at proposals and spearheading the efforts that led to the Niobrara Cheyenne Bottoms or on some other wildlife areas where the sounds National Scenic River in Nebraska, Tallgrass Prairie National and sights of nature could be experienced in ways that are not Preserve in Kansas, trail systems using current flood-control levees otherwise available to most people – young or old. It could be not and abandoned railroads in Lawrence and Manhattan, and the only compatible with wildlife – but inspirational. Tallgrass “Prairie Parkway” Wildlife and Natural Heritage Trail. We believe that additional wildlife-viewing and photography Most recently AOK’s contributions have included the Niobrara blinds – on public and/or private land – will attract and reward more Sanctuary with two guesthouses and Mt. Mitchell Prairie Heritage people. Opportunities to experience Prairie-chicken courtship rituals Preserve. are limited and have to be carefully orchestrated to avoid During the next few weeks we will be sharing our ideas, and others disturbance. However, at the other end of the spectrum, prairie dog that you and other members or partners of Audubon of Kansas submit colonies can provide year round fascination, educational and to us. KDWP&T did not invite any specific representatives of enlightenment perspectives. Audubon organizations or the Kansas Ornithological Society to be on During the first couple weeks of November, the state of Kansas the committee. Therefore it is important for birders and others to has an opportunity that is somewhat comparable to the gathering of
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“I’ve never been to Kansas, but I’ve driven through.” – a declaration first heard many years ago. So much is missed when travelers stay on the interstate and pass through Amercia’s heartland.
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Sandhill Cranes can be seen in both Kansas and Nebraska.
Sandhill Cranes each spring in central Nebraska. The Quivira National Wildlife Refuge is the most consistent and one of the best places to view Whooping Cranes during fall migration. Family groups of whoopers arrive and there are often a dozen or more at Quivira and/or Cheyenne Bottoms for days in early or mid November. They are often joined by tens of thousands of Sandhill Cranes and lots of waterfowl. Audubon of Kansas recommends creation of, and we are willing to partner in, an extended “Celebration of Cranes” to draw attention to the birds and provide assistance to visitors. Although some members of the committee represent organizations that have staunchly opposed Rails-to-Trails initiatives in the past, we urge the committee to recommend that the State does everything feasible to preserve abandoned railroad lines in a “rail banking system” and promote the creation of a network of trails. In a state that ranks 50th in public ownership of land, this is the easiest way to provide access for enjoyment of the countryside. There are also overlooked opportunities in Kansas metropolitan areas to utilize flood-control levees as trails, as we have done in Lawrence and Manhattan. Topeka and Wichita have similar potential trail possibilities. In addition, with elimination of unnecessary and too-frequent mowing of the floodways, those areas could provide more wildlife and wildflower viewing – and provide additional habitat for Meadowlarks, Harris’ Sparrows, Juncos, Northern Bobwhites and attract raptors as well. Some of these areas consist of hundreds of acres, and are places where kids could
experience a bit of nature. Maybe, just maybe, state and local leaders should provide managers of these lands with copies of the book LAST CHILD in the Inside the wildlife viewing blind, Marian Langan (center), WOODS/ Saving Audubon Nebraska Executive Director, joins the governors and Bill Taddicken for an historic photograph. Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. We need to are wonderful contenders. All that is provide ways through the fences and access required is that we recognize these special beyond the “No Trespassing” signs. pastoral places, awaken our collective awareness of their value, and find ways to Full implementation of the share them with others. recommendations to KDOT included in the 2008 Aesthetics Task Force report, will help – Ron Klataske to sell Kansas as the “Prairie State” with some of the most pleasing displays ECOTOURISM AND of native grasses and spectacular OUR ECONOMY displays of wildflowers at various times of the year. We recommend inclusion 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, of a KDOT staff member on the ecoand Wildlife-Associated Recreation tourism committee. KDOT has been a Last year, 90.1 million Americans 16 years valuable partner in building old and older enjoyed some form of fishing, appreciation for the Flint Hills. hunting or wildlife-associated recreation. Outdoor recreation is a huge contributor to Country roads also provide far-tooour nation’s economy. Expenditures by this few-of-us with a chance to view the group of outdoor enthusiasts were $145 changing seasons and experience many billion. dimensions of nature. An array of Almost 37.4 million Americans participated striking fall flowers gives way to the in fishing, hunting or both in 2011. On crimson leaves of sumac and bright average each sportsperson spent $2,407 in yellow leaves of ash in early autumn. A 2011. Nearly 71.8 million people engaged in fresh snowfall calls for a holiday from wildlife watching. That number fed birds, everyday tasks. Redbuds and wild plum photographed and/or observed wildlife. blossoms color April. One doesn’t have Approximately 22.5 million participated by to go to Vermont for fall colors or taking trips for the purpose. Overall triprelated expenditures pursuant to wildlife Texas to see their famous roadside watching increased 67% from 2001 to 2011. wildflowers. The Flint Hills, Smoky Hills, Red Hills and Chautauqua Hills WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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AOK Applauds Appeals Court Decision Kansas Court of Appeals Supports Position of Landowners Hosting Reintroduction of Black-footed Ferrets
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uly 2012 - Audubon of Kansas applauds the decision of a Kansas Court of Appeals panel that affirmed an earlier decision by Senior Judge Jack Lively, which permanently enjoined the Board of County Commissioners of Logan County from eradicating prairie dogs on approximately 10,000 acres of ranchland owned by Larry and Bette Haverfield, Gordon Barnhardt and Maxine Blank. Prairie dog colonies are scattered over several thousand acres of rangeland on these jointly managed ranches, making it the largest and possibly the most ecologically important Black-tailed Prairie Dog complex in the state of Kansas. It serves as a principle focus for the reintroduction of federally endangered Black-footed Ferrets in Kansas. This small predator relies almost exclusively on prairie dogs for prey and lives in the burrows they create. After being regarded as extinct in the state for fifty years, fourteen captive-raised ferrets were released on the Haverfield/Barnhardt complex in December 2007. Several Larry & Bette Haverfield and Gordon & Martha Barnhardt. Notice the additional releases followed, and the ferrets have been recently released Black-footed Ferret peaking out of the burrow! reproducing in the wild on the property and another nearby – Photo courtesy of USFWS reintroduction site. As argued by attorney Randall Rathbun on behalf of the the Haverfield ranch complex with mandates that the land be landowners – who wanted to retain prairie dogs, the ferrets and poisoned with toxicants including Rozol® Prairie Dog Bait and other wildlife on their land – the Endangered Species Act (ESA) Phostoxin, a dangerous gas that kills everything in treated preempts the county from unilateral eradication of prairie dogs burrows. The Logan County Commission and the Kansas Farm within the complex. Eradication as “authorized” under K.S.A. Bureau have spearheaded litigation to force landowners to comply 80-1202 would destroy the food supply and habitat of the Blackwith eradication orders. The landowners have defended their footed Ferret, constituting an unlawful taking under the ESA. interests in various court proceedings. In summary, the Court of Appeals declared that the ESA It was hoped that the recent Kansas Court of Appeals decision preempts K.S.A. 80-1202 because eradication may constitute an would bring the seemingly endless barrage of litigation against the unlawful taking within the meaning of the act. The district court ranch landowners, and their rights to retain wildlife on their land was correct that it did not have jurisdiction to determine the issues to a close. . the County has presented that clearly fall under federal Audubon of Kansas and other wildlife conservation jurisdiction. The court decision stated that, “The County’s organizations have argued in the Kansas Legislature that the contention lacks legal merit because it is an attempt to do an end eradication statutes (K.S.A. 80-1202) used by counties to force run around the ESA and the protection afforded the black-footed landowners to poison prairie dogs, enacted more than a century ferret.” ago, is antiquated and should be repealed. When eradication The Logan County Commission began a campaign to force mandates are imposed, they drastically infringe on private landowners throughout the county to eradicate prairie dogs in the property rights and promote extinction of wildlife when summer of 2005. During the past seven years the commission has conservation and support for stewardship should be the state’s role hired and sent extermination contractors and a county employee to – rather than promoting extinction. In filings and arguments before the Court of Appeals hearing, A detailed article on the other aspects of the controversy was Logan County commissioners contended that if the landowners published in the 2011 Fall/Winter edition of Prairie Wings magazine. failed to eradicate the prairie dogs at least they should adopt the Entitled “CONSERVATION of Prairie Dogs and Reintroduction of Black-footed Ferrets REQUIRES COURAGE”, the article can be same management and control strategy employed by The Nature viewed online at http://www.prairiewingsmagazine.org. Conservancy at the 16,800-acre Smoky Valley Ranch preserve.
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Never mind that different entities involved in ranchland management have different objectives. In an effort to accommodate the County Commissioners and critical neighbors, and stay within an established management plan to keep the prairie dog complex to about 2,000 acres or a bit more, TNC has maintained an established strategy of eliminating prairie dogs within a half mile of the boundary. Additionally, designated areas within the complex have been poisoned to provide areas that can be “filled in” with any growth of the population – possibly deterring expansion outward. Although Commissioner Carl Uhrich acknowledged in the first court trial that his preference would be for total elimination, this approach was advocated by Mr. Uhrich and the county’s “expert” wildlife extension witness in the first trial in November 2006. Needless to say, if prairie dogs were poisoned back a half mile from all of the 27 miles of property line around the Haverfield/Barnhardt/Blank ranch complex, there wouldn’t be enough area left for a serious Black-footed Ferret recovery program. That, of course, is the second objective and ongoing thought process in the commissioners’ destructive pursuit, and
that of the Kansas Farm Bureau – which filed an Amicus brief, and assisted with other aspects of opposition to the ranch landowners. Except for limited boundary control with Zinc Phosphide (not Rozol®), Larry Haverfield and Gordon Barnhardt prefer to rely on Ferruginous Hawks, Bald and Golden Eagles, Black-footed Ferrets, Swift Foxes, Coyotes and Badgers to help keep prairie dog numbers in check on the ranch complex. Control beyond this property (and that of TNC’s land) is provided without any cost to neighboring landowners by APHIS with funding from a partnership including USFWS, KDWP&T and TNC. Following word of the decision by the Kansas Court of Appeals an avid anti-prairie dog person with no interest in property near the Haverfield/Barnhardt Ranch, and with only limited property interest near the TNC property, organized several opponents to ask the commissioners to appeal the decision. In early August, the county filed a Petition for Review with the Kansas Supreme Court, stating in traditional legal language that, “The County prays that the lower courts are reversed and the matter is set for trial.”
Black-Footed Ferret Counts in Kansas
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he two recent Black-footed Ferret (BFF) nighttime spotlight surveys demonstrate that, with sufficient habitat, the reintroduced animals are adapted to survive extreme drought and many of the dangers that threaten this small but specialized prairie-dog predator. The results also reveal that the protection afforded to the prairie-dog colonies that provide food and shelter to the ferrets has been incredibly valuable to this endangered species. Although adversely impacted by several years of drought and a substantial decline in prairie dog numbers in the winter of 2010-11, the BFF population has proved to be sustainable and had substantial reproduction on the Haverfield/Barnhardt/Blank (Haverfield Ranch) complex this year (2012).
A BFF litter survey was conducted by a group of interns in August who devoted 15 nights to spotlighting on the two reintroduction sites. They observed four litters with 13 BFF kits, along with four females on the Haverfield Ranch, plus an additional four solitary adults. One adult was observed on the TNC Smoky Valley Ranch. A fall survey was conducted with the involvement of 36 volunteers between September 25 and October 4. Thirty-four BFFs were observed on the Haverfield Ranch, consisting of 14 juveniles (8 females and 6 males), 14 adults (8 females and 6 males) and six that were not captured. The survey also confirmed the likelihood that there were five BFF litters on the Haverfield Ranch this year.
Five BFFs were located on the TNC property, one adult female, one adult male and three unknowns. Twelve newcomers were brought in from the captive-rearing facilities and released on the TNC Smoky Valley Ranch to boost the population there. The release of these new recruits brought the known population going into the winter to a total of 51, with 17 now on the TNC property and 34 on the Haverfield Ranch. Spring and fall surveys are organized by Dan Mulhern, project leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The large number of volunteers from as far away as Massachusetts is an incredible testament to the value placed on this recovery effort by people from Kansas and across the country.
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Article by Ron Klataske
It is as if “SILENT SPRING” and the lessons of DDT were irrelevant, as now EPA’s “Office of Pesticide Programs” disregards concerns for wildlife.
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n 1962, exactly 50 years ago, Rachel Carson had just finished writing a book called “Silent Spring” which detailed pesticide usage in the1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s and the impacts thereof. In particular, the book drove home the point that the insecticide DDT was impacting humans and wildlife far beyond the originally targeted insects. Her book began awaking the nation to the unintended consequences of broad-scale pesticide applications that indiscriminately kill wildlife. “Silent Spring” spoke to the myriad of problems that occur when natural food chains are contaminated and/or disrupted by alien chemicals. She noted how it often took years or decades to comprehend that plummeting populations of one animal could be traced back to pesticide or chemical applications made – with good intentions – much earlier in time.
The realization that pesticide applications can ripple through natural ecosystems and cause unintended consequences elsewhere, was new to most of the scientific community and the public. The unavoidable truth was that DDT was causing eagle, falcon and other raptor populations to plummet by causing thinning of raptor eggshells, which in turn prevented raptors from fledging young birds. That seminal book was in no small way responsible for an entire generation of Americans becoming aware of pesticide issues and developing an appreciation for how easy it can be to disrupt natural functions. It ultimately also played an important role in the formation of the federal government agency that Congress authorized to oversee pesticide usage to ensure protection of human and ecological health.
In the photos above: a beautiful, but emaciated, Ferruginous Hawk found unable to fly in a field in Logan County, Kansas in 2008. This is the expected destiny for raptors that are poisoned with levels of anticoagulants that impair their ability to hunt or withstand the elements. Even with the best of veterinary care available, it soon died. Most raptors die in the landscape, unrecorded. One Logan County rancher counted 17 dead hawks in one winter season. – Photos by Gregory Stempien.
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That agency, we know today as the Environmental Protection Agency or the EPA. It remains the lead agency to oversee risk assessment, regulation and appropriate use of pesticides to prevent future adverse impacts on human and ecological (fish and wildlife) health. To be sure, EPA has many roles beyond regulating the labeling and use of pesticides, but the Office of Pesticide Programs within EPA is charged with riding herd on that industry, and it is a big job indeed. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case, it appears that over time some within that section have become overly cozy with the very entities they are charged with regulating, and lax in the challenging task that EPA is charged with – protecting the environment. During the Clinton Administration, Vice President Al Gore implemented an across-thegovernment directive directive to adopt “Total Quality Management” with the objective being to “satisfy the customer.” Unfortunately, EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs’ actions indicate that the customer is the manufacturer, rather than the environment or the public interest. Today one has to wonder if pesticide manufacturers, with the assistance of
“hired help” in various capacities, lobbyists and political supporters, have been able to circumvent safeguards and regulations. Some well-informed pesticide program observers have suggested that well-placed administrative personnel regard the agency as the “gateway to market” and are said to keep the dedicated, science-based employees at bay. If this is the case the agency has become so politically diverted or distracted by other issues that it has forgotten its core responsibilities. It is as if “Silent Spring” and the lessons of DDT are irrelevant as EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs methodically green lights pesticide after pesticide without due diligence, thereby setting up potential ecological train wrecks that aspiring authors can reveal in future “Silent Spring” sequels. Recent examples include EPA’s rushed efforts to get additional prairie dog-control
rodenticides on the market. It didn’t seem to matter that there were already a variety of rodenticide products labeled for and effective in killing this burrow-dwelling denizen of the Great Plains. Black-tailed Prairie Dogs have long been a symbol of the shortgrass and midgrass prairies and are a “keystone species” because so many other wildlife species depend on or derive benefit from their presence and colonies. They are also a widely-hated species by many ranchers who view them as competing for forage that would otherwise be consumed by livestock and/or negatively impacting the rangelands. Consequently, various poisons have been concocted since the early 1900s to destroy prairie dogs. However, in the 1960s, after decades of various poisons being used to kill them, there was a push to move toward rodenticides that wouldn’t secondarily poison the next animal in the food chain that might consume a poisoned prairie dog. New poisons were developed that would efficiently kill prairie dogs but wouldn’t poison the raptors or mammalian predators (such as Swift Foxes, Black-footed Ferrets and
2005 photos of dead and dying prairie dogs approximately twelve days after an (illegal) application of Rozol® on a S.D. colony prior to EPA approval in that state. More than fifty were observed over an area of about 160 acres with hundreds more picked up over the course of several weeks. In spite of this type of evidence on the extended dying process and high risk of secondary poisoning, EPA has now made Rozol® (and Kaput-D®) available in ten states. – USFWS law enforcement division photos.
Badgers) that are typically associated with prairie-dog colonies—and would therefore encounter poisoned prairie dogs. During the 1960s and ‘70s various chemicals were evaluated for possible prairie-dog control and many were dismissed for one reason or another. A notable line of potential products called anticoagulants, due to their ability to thin blood, were evaluated. If enough of the anticoagulant is consumed, the animal can completely bleed out – either internally or externally. However, it can take from one to four weeks for prairie dogs to bleed out and die after consuming an anticoagulant. Two of the anticoagulants, Chlorophacinone and Diphacinone, were evaluated and found to have the ability to kill prairie dogs. However, due to the chemicals’ slow-acting nature and persistence within the prairie dog, those early tests determined the chemicals wouldn’t make good prairie-dog poisons because of the secondary poisoning hazard to non-target animals. Other products, most notably zinc phosphide, were developed and thus filled the niche demanded by landowners for an effective prairie-dog rodenticide. Since the 1990s, chemical manufacturers wanting to boost sales of anticoagulant-based products renewed their quest to promote anticoagulants as prairie-dog rodenticides. They apparently thought they needed the assistance of an Extension Service research program with a land-grant college. These colleges are often hungry for funds,
Rozol® bait
If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience. – George Bernard Shaw WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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A concept, or more aptly a ruse, was put forth that prairie-dog poisoners, in conjunction with the landowners or managers, would retrieve (and bury) the poisoned prairie dogs before other animals could consume them. Only a naïve fool would believe there to be the interest and/or time One of two Bald Eagles found that succumbed to available by the people cholorophacinone poisoning in Nebraska. – USFWS poisoning prairie dogs to return to a colony dozens of times to collect dead and which are provided by industry to finance dying prairie dogs. In addition, finding the field studies on the efficacy of chemicals poisoned prairie dogs in diverse designed to kill insects or other pests, or vegetation and terrain is a challenge, and “weeds and brush” (everything that is not to do it effectively one would have to grass in pastures and on roadsides). This collect them early each day prior to the template has been a pathway to hunting of raptors and late each day prior registration used many times in the past. If to the hunting of nocturnal mammalian all goes according to plan, this partnership predators. Badgers, Swift Foxes and gives pesticide/herbicide manufacturers Black-footed Ferrets further complicate something akin to a university’s “good their exposure to secondary poisoning by housekeeping seal of approval,” and entering or digging up burrows to sometimes they acquire the principal consume dead and dying prairie dogs. investigator as a consultant to help advocate either officially or unofficially Enter the EPA Office of Pesticide for the product. Programs: with all the gullibility you’d That proved to be the case with Rozol® Prairie Dog Bait. Sadly, officials in Kansas became the enablers. Field trials conducted under the auspices of the KSU Research and Extension Service by the wildlife specialist determined that this anticoagulant was lethal to a large majority of prairie dogs in a treated colony – exactly what Liphatech wanted for marketing purposes. But, the negative ecological impacts were not thoroughly studied prior to a rush to get Rozol® labeled for sale and use. It was left to others to try to contend with all of the collateral damage that has and is occurring. As to be expected, a lot of the dead and dying prairie dogs end up on the surface, which obviously poses hazards to predators and scavengers, including raptors. Ferruginous Hawks and Golden Eagle are just two among many victims. Due to eradication of prairie dogs and other food sources, poisoning and shooting, these two magnificent raptors are now plunging toward extinction as breeding species in Kansas, with a further toll taken on migrants.
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expect from out-of-touch and/or disinterested Washington bureaucrats, somebody in that office was eager to believe that pesticide applicators would continually return to poisoned prairie-dog colonies for weeks to retrieve dead prairie dogs. Other federal biologists pointed out to EPA staff in that office that during the one-to-four weeks that prairie dogs in a colony are bleeding out, after consuming the anticoagulant poison, there are live – but progressively debilitated – prairie dogs that also pose a hazard to whatever might consume them. EPA needed a remedy for that dilemma. The chemical manufacturers suggested, and EPA was quick to agree, that adjusting the chemical label to include retrieval and disposal of even the moribund (live) prairie dogs along with the dead prairie dogs would thus solve the secondary poisoning issue. One wonders if EPA could really be that easy to fool? It turns out the answer is an embarrassing, yes. Obtaining approval for the use of Rozol® first occurred in Kansas in 2005 and proved to be an easy task. The Kansas
Department of Agriculture applied to EPA for approval for use in the state under Section 24(c) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), a Special Local Needs (SLN) provision. With funds funneled through KSU and directly to the staff member for follow-up consulting services, the ground was already plowed for Liphatech in this state. The salary for the wildlife extension specialist is partially funded by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, so in essence the agency’s endorsement was implied along with that of KSU. That may have been the reason it was overlooked at the time by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) staff in Kansas. An “SLN” is supposed to be based on an existing or imminent pest problem within a state for which the state lead agency, based upon satisfactory supporting information, has determined that an appropriate federally registered pesticide product is not sufficiently available. First, as previously noted, there were and are other effective rodenticides available without the secondary poisoning issues. Second, EPA originally requested consultation with USFWS on chlorophacinone (Rozol®) and diphacinone (Kaput-D®) in 1991. USFWS issued a biological opinion in March of 1993, identifying concerns with the use of chlorophacinone for specific rodentcontrol activities and that this use would jeopardize the continued existence of 21 listed species (at that time). The use of chlorophacinone for prairie dog control was not included as a use in this consultation and thus not evaluated with new future uses expected to undergo their own section 7 consultation. Under Section 3 of FIFRA, consultation with USFWS must be conducted for any new use. Nebraska was the next target for Liphatech, the manufacturer of Rozol®. In the spring of 2006 the company asked the state’s pesticide board to approve this toxicant for statewide use under the second “Special Local Needs” request. Biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Nebraska and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission opposed the request. However, the
wildlife extension agent from Kansas was there on behalf of the manufacturer to urge approval, and he also recruited and convinced his Nebraska extension counterpart to add another voice to Liphatech’s request. State pesticide boards are comprised principally of folks involved in the industry as applicators or agricultural users. They are not expected to be ecologists; EPA should fulfill that function as a backstop. Approval was granted and EPA took no action to disapprove, possibly in part because they had already opened the gate to marketing and use in Kansas. Liphatech printed thousands of promotional brochures with testimonials espousing the high efficacy of Rozol® in Kansas and had them placed in extension offices and farm stores throughout the west. The ten-page publication is fraught with misleading statements, and omissions. It makes no mention of the fact that the label requires removal of dead prairie dogs or that there is a substantial risk of secondary poisoning. In contrast, it states on the cover that Rozol® use is “With less effort and less risk to nontargets.” That statement targets competition from Zinc Phosphide Prairie Dog Bait, a toxicant that does not present nearly as much risk of secondary poisoning, but does involve the added work of pre- baiting with untreated oats. The implication is that if one overlooks the need to remove dead prairie dogs, one can poison the colony with Rozol® in one pass and move on. In fact, a sales representative for Liphatech suggested at a Logan County Commission meeting in 2006 that people shouldn’t need to worry about picking up dead prairie dogs. Subsequent label changes now indicate even live prairie dogs are to be retrieved. The floodgates were opened and within the next couple of years, semi loads of Rozol® were being delivered throughout western Kansas, and other Great Plains states that followed suit and received Special Local Needs approval from EPA. Logan County Kansas officials alone purchased 46 tons of Rozol® in 2008 as part of their attempt to force every landowner in that county to eradicate prairie dogs.
By August 2008 the Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) wrote to EPA urging the agency to “rescind any existing permits” (for Rozol® and Kaput-D®) and immediately suspend issuing any more permits. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent similar letters. The concern was that the widespread use of the anticoagulants was resulting in the deaths of unknown numbers of “non-targetwildlife species”. The EPA Office of Pesticide Programs acts as if it could care less about the need to consult with the USFWS, even on endangered species, and concerns expressed about migratory birds seem to fall on deaf ears. The biological opinion drafted by
USFWS in April of 2012 emphasized that the measures included to protect listed species are inadequate for protecting raptors and that unpermitted take of eagles and other migratory birds are expected to continue despite current Rozol® use restrictions. With official comment letters and litigation, Audubon of Kansas has partnered with Defenders of Wildlife (which has provided legal expertise and leadership in Washington D.C.) and the American Bird Conservancy to try to persuade EPA to address the ecological risks of these poisons and the concerns expressed by WAFWA and USFWS. Anticoagulant poisoning of raptors can start them on a debilitating spiral towards death. The poison may not kill them directly or immediately; however, the anticoagulant toll on body condition – and the ability of these precision athletes to capture elusive prey – more likely renders them incapable of surviving in the wild and/or successfully reproducing and rearing young. Scientists
Note that the cover states that Rozol® use is “With less effort and less risk to non-targets.”
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THE GRASSLAND RAPTOR IN GREATEST JEOPARDY The Ferruginous Hawk, perhaps more than any other raptor, is an indicator of the health of grassland and shrub-steppe ecosystems. Because the species is a small-mammal specialist, the presence of ground squirrels, prairie dogs, pocket gophers, hares, and rabbits has historically been correlated with stable hawk popula ons. The loss of these prey species from control and eradica on programs, and the poten al effects of secondary poisoning from roden cides are especially concerning because they occur not only within Ferruginous Hawk breeding ranges, but where the con nental popula on of Ferruginous Hawks congregate to forage. A er breeding, Ferruginous Hawks east and west of the Con nental Divide arrive in large numbers in the northern plains to feed on Richardson’s Ground Squirrels, and in winter many of these hawks migrate to the southern and central Great Plains to Black-tailed Prairie Dog colonies. On these same ranges Ferruginous Hawks are experiencing other stressors including wind turbines, new residen al development, conversion of na ve habitat, exposure to West Nile Virus, electrocu on, and poaching, that either result in direct mortality or displacement from these tradi onal habitats. Addi onally, Ferruginous Hawks do not compete well with Red-tailed Hawks where habitat is altered, and the result is that Ferruginous Hawks are being forced into smaller na ve ranges that are o en of increasingly poorer quality. The Ferruginous Hawk is listed as Threatened in Canada, a Species of Conserva on Concern in the United States, and a Species of Concern in Mexico. The status of Ferruginous Hawks in the U.S. has been shrouded with uncertainty through the years because of presumed widespread nomadism of the species that makes determina on of its breeding popula on status difficult. This was a factor in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to not formally list the species as threatened or endangered in 1992. However, recent migra on The remains of prairie dogs in this nest in studies of adult and juvenile Oklahoma attest to the importance of this Ferruginous Hawks failed to find prey. The hawk pictured above is eating a nomadism among any rangeground squirrel. wide breeding popula ons (www.ferruginoushawk.org). From a regional perspec ve, the species is listed as Threatened, Endangered, or Imperiled in 7 northern states or provinces in the American west, including a 2009 Endangered lis ng in Alberta, one of the two historic nes ng strongholds for the species. Nine western states iden fy the Ferruginous Hawk as a species of concern. Widespread concerns from federal, state and provincial lis ngs warrant monitoring of hawk popula ons and point to the need for further review of the Ferruginous Hawk as a federal candidate for T/E species lis ng in the U.S. – James W. Watson (WDFW) Jim Watson is a Wildlife Research Scientist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, specializing in raptor studies. His raptor investigations span 40 years, including a 10-year international study of Ferruginous Hawk migration, and current studies on wind turbine/raptor interactions.
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with the U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center have demonstrated that the standardized avian acute oral toxicity test, used by EPA to generate risk assessments for the rodenticides such as chlorophacinone and diphacinone, underestimate the real-world hazards to wild raptors. Recommendations to correct the limitations of the standardized acute oral toxicity test methodology have resulted in stonewalling by EPA, and if officially proposed will likely cause pesticide lobbyists and their political allies to "howl" louder than coyotes on steroids. Tragically, the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs has for the 2012 prairie dog poisoning season (October to April) authorized two anticoagulant rodenticides for the purpose of killing prairie dogs under the trade names Rozol® and KaputD®. Looking forward, we can expect the skies of the Great Plains to be increasingly empty, especially of Ferruginous Hawks and Golden Eagles, and the remaining shortgrass prairies to be less accommodating for Swift Foxes and Black-footed Ferrets. Once EPA gives a green light for use of a toxicant, even though they haven’t adequately considered the risks or consulted with the USFWS, it is difficult to pull it out of distribution. It becomes hugely profitable for companies to later disregard EPA risk-mitigation decisions. Industry attorneys and lobbyists force the agency into years of administrative processes and litigation prior to removal of the pesticides in question, if it ever comes. Once something is registered it takes a Herculean effort to get it removed. This was particularly evident with carbofuran, an insecticide that resulted in millions of bird kills annually prior to the 2009 restrictions on most uses in granular form. Carbofuran also causes neurological damage in humans. EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs handling of registration of rodenticides that pose substantial secondary-poisoning risks to other wildlife, especially imperiled species, is bad precedent unworthy of an agency with such noble beginnings rooted in a book called “Silent Spring”. Americans and our continent’s wildlife resources deserve better stewardship.
Prairie Dog Colony Reestablished at AOKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Niobrara Sanctuary Article and Photos by Ron Klataske
ate this summer and early fall a hundred Black-tailed Prairie Dogs were captured at the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge and relocated to the Hutton Niobrara Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary. Although there used to be prairie dogs on the property and in that part of Rock County, they were extirpated a couple decades ago.
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The relocation was allowed under a Scientific and Educational Permit issued by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Staff of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission evaluated the reintroduction site and carefully considered the views of all stakeholders prior to approval. Qualifications for the permit were extensive, and required considerable investment, but ecological restoration of a full complement of prairie wildlife native to this vicinity is an integral part of our management plan. We are hoping that the experience and information obtained will help to encourage and/or prove useful to other landowners and managers who want to establish new and/or maintain existing prairie dog colonies. In particular, success with fencing may help landowners who want to include it along with other techniques, such as vegetative barriers, to discourage dispersal from existing prairie dog colonies to adjacent areas where they are not wanted. We also know that the new colony will benefit many of the species traditionally associated with prairie dog colonies. These include Burrowing Owls, Ferruginous Hawks, Golden Eagles and Ornate Box Turtles.
feed" and oats more quickly, and they routinely turned the traps over to spill the bait.
Capturing Prairie Dogs
Then our luck changed and a few prairie dogs began emerging from most of the flooded burrows. We grabbed them with our gloved hands as they emerged soaking wet and rushed them over to water coolers with spigots where they were rinsed off. Then they were placed in holding cages kept in the shade since it was another of many days with temperatures above 100 degrees.
On Saturday July 28 and on September 13, Fish and Wildlife Service staff and family members, and students working at the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge for the summer, volunteered to lead the way in the capture of prairie dogs from the horse pasture behind the headquarters and residential facilities. The population there has been encroaching into that area beyond the level desired for other management purposes. I had tried in mid July to capture prairie dogs with box traps, however, that approach wasn't successful. In this location, the horses in the pasture discovered and responded to the "sweet
During the previous week, NWR staff had been in the field helping with the major effort to fight the devastating wild fires that had erupted from lightening along the Niobrara River valley. After the fires were under control the refuge's fire engines were available for the prairie dog capture enterprise. With a soapy substance added to the water in the tanks, water was flushed down prairie dog burrows to flood them out. Usually the suds would come up out of one or more additional interconnected burrows, suggesting a direct connection. Other long-established burrows seemed to be bottomless and could conceivably accept hundreds of gallons.
At the end of the first afternoon, a fairly long day with a brief break for pizza and ice cream, we loaded them in the stock trailer acquired to be a mobile wildlife viewing blind at the sanctuary and headed 70 miles east to the relocation site designated to be a new prairie dog colony on the Niobrara Sanctuary. WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Purposes of a New Colony: Ecological The idea is to establish the new colony to serve several ecological, scientific and educational purposes. We have prepared a remarkably inviting place for their new home. Although prairie dogs were once common in Rock County, and occurred on the property now owned by Audubon of Kansas, the species has apparently been totally extirpated from the county. A couple small colonies have survived in Keya Paha County a few miles north, across the Niobrara River. Lewis and Clark first encountered prairie dogs about 50 miles northeast of the sanctuary, at a place called Baldy Knob. Lewis and Clark described their first prairie dog "town" experience near the Nebraska/South Dakota state line, west of the Missouri River and north of the Niobrara River, where they captured their first prairie dog. A live prairie dog was among the specimens sent to President Thomas Jefferson from Fort Mandan in 1805. From the Expedition Journals, September 7, 1804: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Discovered a Village of Small animals that burrow in the ground (those animals are Called by the french Petite Chien) Killed one and Caught one alive by poreing a great quantity of Water in his ....â&#x20AC;? As a prairie keystone species that benefits many other wildlife species, the added presence of a prairie dog colony at the sanctuary should soon or eventually provide nesting habitat for Burrowing Owls, and become a part of the prey base for Ferruginous Hawks and Golden Eagles that fly overhead. However, predation will be a factor that we will try to minimize until the colony is well established within the 20-acre enclosure designed for this purpose. The colony will help to fulfill our goal of making the sanctuary a place that will help to maintain grassland birds and other prairie wildlife native to the area.
Purposes of a New Colony: Education and Wildlife Appreciation One of the important goals of the Niobrara Sanctuary is to provide unique wildlife viewing opportunities to give visitors an opportunity to gain insight into the behavior of various wildlife species and interaction between species. The observation blind adjacent to the colony site will also be a good place for photography, especially once the colony is established and active. Among other things, prairie dog colonies attract a diversity of birds, including Upland Sandpipers, Western Meadowlarks, Horned Larks, and Sharp-tailed Grouse.
Purposes of a New Colony: Scientific (Evaluating Fencing and Relocation Success) The project will give us an excellent opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the fence I designed several years ago. We used it in western Kansas to discourage dispersal, but this will be an opportunity to observe its effectiveness as a complete enclose. In this case we can evaluate its effectiveness at keeping translocated prairie dogs on the site (within the fenced enclosure), and hopefully
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discouraging some badgers from invading the site and potentially decimating the new inhabitants. For the first few days, possibly weeks, prairie dogs translocated to new colony sites (without any deep burrows available) are particularly vulnerable to predation by badgers. In this instance, we dug "starter burrows" by auguring at an angle at least three feet deep into the ground with a 4inch posthole auger. That is not nearly enough to provide security from the digging skills of a badger, but it provides a brief underground hiding place with some sense of security. To make these starter burrows even more accommodating, and consistent with natural burrows, Bruce and Marge Kennedy brought their weed eater and cut the vegetation surrounding many of the starter burrows. We used a mower to accomplish the same around some of the other potential burrows. Prairie dogs prefer short vegetation
adjacent to the burrows so they can see approaching predators and retreat to their burrows when alarmed. A stock trailer converted to a mobile wildlife viewing blind was parked adjacent to a special smaller enclosure. Corn was placed near the burrows to make sure that they had nutritious food available, even though vegetation was relatively abundant. The area was drought stricken without much grass growth this year in this “old field.” We captured a disproportional number of young-of-the-year "pups", but there were some adult prairie dogs. One aggressive "scar-face" male bit down on my gloved finger and held on like a Snapping Turtle! Thick gloves designed for welders made it possible to handle them without being scratched or severely bitten. We treated each with flea powder prior to release. One by one, they were released, generally head first into the starter burrows. A small quantity of hay was used to cover some burrows to provide an added sense of security for the prairie dogs, and it seemed to accomplish that objective. During the first day, and into the second quite a few of the pups in the smaller enclosure ran around trying to escape. Sometimes they would try climbing up the poultry netting, stall out as they reached the overhanging netting extending inward, hesitate and then drop or climb back down to the ground two feet below. The electric wire on the inside of the enclosure was not turned on and it never seemed to be necessary to prevent their escape.
confines of the fenced area, it is unlikely that there will be much if any dispersal pressure in the foreseeable future. In addition to the effectiveness of the fence, tall vegetation serving as a visual barrier surrounds the site just beyond the fence and that will further discourage adventurous prairie dogs. We are keeping the electric fence wire on the outside of the large enclosure electrified. It may also help deter Coyotes and Badgers from entering the enclosure, but we do not expect it to be impermeable. Badgers have been our greatest concern, and one gained entrance and started devouring prairie dogs within a couple weeks. The first order of business was to make the burrows less accessible to Badgers. That was accomplished by purchasing special panels similar to “cattle panels” but with 4”x4” square openings. They were securely staked to the ground to prevent them from being dislocated. This proved to be effective as a deterrent, but it wasn’t possible to provide cover for every burrow. The prairie dog colony is one of several wildlife conservation and habitat projects implemented within a 212-acre unit of the Hutton Niobrara Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary designated as the Harold W. “Andy” Andersen Wildlife Habitat Area. Most of that unit was previously cultivated. Native grasses and forbs planted on a 150acre portion have become a brood-rearing habitat for Sharp-tailed Grouse, and it is a magnet for nesting Dickcissels and Grasshopper Sparrows.
By the third day it appeared that all of the prairie dogs were conditioned to run to a nearby burrow and disappear underground. They did not linger above ground.
Potential Limiting Factors: The Vulnerability of Pups in Their First Year of Life With starter burrows located throughout the large enclosed field, there are certainly a sufficient number of sites for released prairie dogs to establish new burrows now and later. Considering the relatively large area of high-quality habitat available within the
Lana Micheel, Niobrara Sanctuary Coordinator
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ARE ETHANOL SUBSIDIES AND MANDATES A FOOL’S ERRAND? Article by Robert T. McElroy
n the Spring of 2008 I led a surgical team to do what I expected to be urgently needed surgery in a small hospital on the north coast of Haiti about 20 miles from Cap Haitien, the second largest city in Haiti. I have made 30+ trips to Haiti over the past decades to perform surgery in the Bon Samaritain Hospital in Limbe. During that time I have come to admire the stoical resignation of the Haitian peasant as he or she endures crushing poverty and the frequent diseases that are preventable in any modern advanced society. Still when one walks off the plane at Cap Haitien, the immediate impression is one of heat, noise, confusion and small boys aggressively demanding: “You! You, give me one dollar!” The drive into town reveals a town in a beautiful setting with ram-shackle housing climbing the steep hills, streets crowded with vendors, small children, and students all dressed in similar uniforms. The streets are full of trash, the roads unpaved, and one quickly senses a society that does not work well at the civic level. Walking the streets there are times the impression is of hostility, suspicion, glaring stares, and a sense of impending violence.
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When we arrived at the hospital ready to work, the local doctor told us there had been street riots in Port Au Prince, the Haitian capital, over the rapid increase in the price of food, especially beans, rice and corn. Haitians will not come out, or ride public transportation when there is the threat of trouble. For us, that meant the clinics were virtually empty, and my talented team had little to do after finishing a series of minor cases. We would be done by noon; I cannot tell you how disappointed I was. The rioting in Port Au Prince was based on the near doubling of the price of corn and rice, which had a profound effect on the amount of food available in a community where 50 to 70 percent of the residents’ income is spent on food. The world price for these commodities had doubled and so had the price of food in the local market in Haiti. In the United States, where about one-tenth of income is spent on food, rising food prices does not have such a dramatic impact. But in Haiti, Jakarta and many other countries it may mean going from two to one meal a day. Those who are barely hanging on to the lower rung of the global economic ladder risk losing their grip entirely. The
experience is then of hunger, global unrest and as I write in mid-October 2012 renewed rioting in Port Au Prince over food prices. Lester R. Brown, in Foreign Policy Journal, May-June 2011 wrote an article entitled “The False Promise of Biofuel,” which I will quote at length on the relation between the use of food for fuel and the worldwide effect on food supplies. “The U.N. Food Price Index has steadily eclipsed its previous all-time global high.” This trend has continued and as of July 2012 it had climbed for twenty-four consecutive months. “This year’s harvest has fallen short as predicted and governments in Africa and the Middle East are increasingly unstable. With the price of food sustaining one shock after another, food is quickly becoming a hidden driver of world politics.” Although food prices were not the spark that started the uprising in Tunisia, it was a factor that contributed to the protests. Egypt is reported to have only a few months of food reserve in a country that is facing potential economic freefall. We are entering a new paradigm of chronic, global-food scarcity with its associated instability and unrest.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” – Aldo Leopold, American ecologist, 1887-1948 52
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In the same article Lester Brown continues, “Until recently, sudden price surges just didn’t matter as much, as they were quickly followed by a return to the relatively low food prices that helped shape the political stability of the late 20th century across much of the globe. But now both the causes and consequences are ominously different. Historically, price spikes tended to be almost exclusively driven by unusual weather – a monsoon in India, a drought in the former Soviet Union, a heat wave in the U.S. Midwest. Such events were always disruptive, but thankfully infrequent. Unfortunately, the elevated demand is driven by trends that make it more difficult to increase food production: a rapidly expanding population, increasing drought associated with rising
temperatures (aka climate change), and irrigation wells running dry.” Alarmingly, the world and especially the United States are losing their ability to affect changes in the world food supply. Until about 1995, the United States had either grain surpluses or idle cropland that could be used for reduction of potential famine. When the Indian monsoon caused a total crop failure in 1965, for example, President Johnson’s administration shipped one-fifth of the U.S. wheat crop to India, successfully staving off famine. This safety net is now gone. There has been a strong desire by the environmental movement to lower the level of carbon dioxide and dependence on foreign oil by substantially increasing the use of biofuels. They were successful in getting Congress to pass laws that required the EPA to issue standards for blending ethanol with gasoline. This legislation resulted, as Lester Brown pointed out, “By 2010 nearly 400 million tons of grain were harvested, of which 126 million tons was sent to the distillery for conversion to ethanol. This massive capacity to convert food to fuel means
that the price of grain is now tied to the price of oil. If the price of oil goes up, so does the price of grain, which makes it more profitable to blend ethanol with petroleum products. Outside of the United States, Brazil is using sugar cane to produce ethanol, while the European Union seeks to have 10 percent of its transport fuels come from renewal sources and China had declared its intention to produce 15 percent of transport fuels from renewable sources.” Henry Miller and Colin Carter in the article “Running on Empty (Hoover Digest, 2008 No.1; The Environment)” observed that, “President Bush announced in January 2007 a goal of replacing 15 percent of domestic gasoline use with biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) over the next 10 years, which would require almost a fivefold increase in mandatory biofuels use to about 35 billion gallons. Six months later Congress pushed the target to 36 billion gallons, of which 15 billion gallons were to come from corn and 21 billion from other sources that are more advanced but largely unproven.” Miller and Carter continue, “The demands on the American farmer would be staggering, considering the amount of farmland and energy needed to produce such huge amounts of corn for ethanol and the rather meager amount of energy yielded by ethanol, because it is 30 percent less efficient than gasoline or diesel. An analysis by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggests that replacing even 10
Irrigation for corn production is the largest use of both groundwater and surface water in many parts of the Great Plains. Current usage rates are not sustainable in most areas. Above, opposite page: Plowing of native prairie, as witnessed here in Kansas, has become drastically increased in recent years. WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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Crop Subsidies Contribute to Massive Habitat Losses Subsidies and the resul ng high commodity prices have contributed to the loss of more than 23 million acres of grassland, shrub land and wetlands between 2008 and 2011, wiping out vital habitat that sustains many species of wildlife, according to a report on recent research by Environmental Working Group and Defenders of Wildlife. Of the 23.7 million acres, more than 8.4 million were converted to plant corn, more than 5.6 million to raise soybeans and nearly 5.2 million to grow winter wheat. Wildlife habitat was destroyed across the country, but the greatest losses took place in states of the Great Plains and Upper Midwest. The study showed that some of the highest rates of conver ng habitat to cul va on were in drought-plagued por ons of West Texas and Oklahoma. In each of 10 west Texas coun es, growers plowed up more
percent of America’s motor fuel with biofuels would require that about a third of all the nation’s cropland be devoted to oilseed, cereals, and sugar-crops. Achieving the 15 percent goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, a whopping 40 percent of the world’s corn supply.” Miller and Carter also point out that, “Another unintended consequence with ethanol production is the pressure on water supplies. According to a report from an environmental advocacy group, three to six gallons of water are needed to produce each gallon of ethanol. Just to process the corn and produce the fuel, the group estimates, 2.6 billion gallons a year could be required from a single large aquifer that extends from Texas, to South Dakota, and an additional 120 billion
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than 50,000 acres of habitat to plant co on, corn and wheat, for a total loss of more than 655,000 acres of wildlife habitat. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, widespread destruc on of grassland is pu ng at risk numerous imperiled species including Sage Grouse, Lesser Prairie-chicken, Swi Fox and Mountain Plover. Many wetlands and grasslands are also cri cal habitat for migratory birds and a diversity of wildlife. In the Dakotas, more than 3.2 million acres of habitat were destroyed between 2008 and 2011. Experts also es mate that 1.4 million small wetlands in the eastern Dakotas, which are especially important for breeding ducks, are at high risk of being drained.
gallons a year would be needed for irrigation to grow more corn.” Travel around the Sandhills of Nebraska and other parts of the northern Great Plains reveals hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine prairie that has been recently plowed and replaced with corn, irrigated with water pumped from wells. Some ranchers have indicated that there is now a shortage of adequate grazing and haying land. The drought of 2012 has, of course, aggravated this condition. Miller and Carter reported,“The effect on food and corn prices has been dramatic. Corn has gone from $2/bushel to the $7 to $8/bushel range. An Iowa State University study estimates that food prices have already increased by $47
annually per capita, or $14 billion overall. Prior to the ethanol boom, more than 60 percent of the U.S. corn harvest was fed domestically to cattle, hogs, chickens, or used in food or beverages. Thousands of food items contain corn or corn byproducts. Cattle production has also felt the effect of feed prices over the last several years, with one large producer reporting an increased cost of 36 percent and adding $101 to each animal finished at the feedlot.” Corn growers and ethanol producers have greatly benefited from the windfall of artificially enhanced demand. But it is already proving to be an expensive and dangerous experiment for the rest of us. Any shock to corn yields, such as drought, unseasonably hot weather, pests, or plant disease could send food prices
AMERICA, SWEET LAND OF SUBSIDIES into the stratosphere. Such It has been calculated that replacing concerns are not without their all U.S. transportation fuels with corn There is now a federal subsidy program basis in reality. In 1970, a ethanol would require farmland three for every year that has passed since widespread outbreak of a times the size of the continental U.S. In Emperor Augustus held sway in Rome. On fungus called southern-cornOctober 2010 the Congressional Research January 22, 2010 the federal government leaf-blight destroyed 15 Service reported that if the entire record reportedly added its 2,000th subsidy percent of the U.S. corn crop, U.S. corn crop of 2009 was used to make program. The number of federal subsidy and in 1988 drought reduced ethanol, it would replace only 18 percent programs soared 21 percent during the U.S. corn yields by almost 30 of the country’s gasoline consumption. 1990s and 40 percent during the 2000s. percent. Because of the ”Expanding corn-based ethanol ... to drought in the Midwest this significantly promote U.S. energy security summer the ending stocks for is likely to be infeasible,” the researcher plentiful. It is also clear why the EPA has 2012/13 were projected in the November concluded steadily reduced its mandate for the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Although breakthroughs are always production of 100 million gallons of Estimates report at 647 million bushels, possible in the scientific quest for cellulose-based ethanol to six million the lowest since 1995/96, when ending affordable biofuels, at present, corn and gallons stocks were 426 bushels. sugarcane must provide the main – if not David Biello further stated, “in the David Biello, in the August 2011 issue the only source – of alternative biologic year 2010 subsidies of $5.6 billion were energy, straining a global agriculture of Scientific American states that, “The needed to produce ethanol mandated for hope of obtaining more advanced biofuels system already struggling to provide food, fuel consumption. Ethanol is not very that could be produced at commercial feed, and fiber for seven billion people – energy efficient and its production is not volumes has failed to appear. Great plus livestock – and counting. carbon neutral. Fermentation, the core attempts with large financial input to It is difficult not to conclude that the technology for making ethanol, extract or brew ethanol from corn stalks, effort to produce requires heat from burning switch grass, or even trees, using sugar economical and highfossil fuels such as natural derived from the stalks and husks and not energy biofuels in gas or coal to distill the the edible kernel have not proven face of the world’s ethanol, plus more commercially viable. Nor has liquid fuels need for food is energy is required to harvested from algae, which more immoral, because of plant, fertilize, harvest efficiently turn water, CO2 and sunlight chronic human and transport the corn to into fats that can be converted into hunger and potential the distillery. After all hydrocarbons, or more effective still, starvation of that trouble, a gallon of from genetically engineered millions in the ethanol supplies a vehicle microorganisms that could directly developing nations. with only two-thirds of the excrete hydrocarbons. The Navy recently From an ecological energy in a gallon of bought 21,000 gallon of algae-derived jet damage standpoint, petroleum-based gasoline. fuel at $424/gallon compared to diesel at it is proving to be a Those energy inputs cost $5 per gallon. Current experience fool’s errand. money, too, and corn suggests that the scientific or industrial ethanol may never improvements needed to solve the compete on price with challenges of making advanced biofuels Foxes of the vanishing gasoline without subsidies. shortgrass prairie, two practical may be extremely difficult to Greater production is also Swift Fox kits. attain.” limited by fertile land.” The goal of producing 36 billion gallons of biofuels annually by 2022, set Robert Thomas McElroy is a retired general surgeon. He worked in Topeka for many years and was founding president of Tallgrass Surgery, PA. of Topeka. Dr. McElroy has a strong interest in by the U.S. government as a significant helping the poor in the third world. Early in his career he lived and worked at a remote hospital in solution to energy independence and Western Ethiopia with his wife Jean for nearly two years. He has made more than thirty medical climate change, looks to be an even more service trips to Haiti, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Zaire. He is currently on the board of AMOS Hope distant prospect. And the California lowand Health which sponsors rural health clinics in Nicaragua. He and Jean have two sons. Tom carbon fuel standards, which will start in currently works in London. Will and his wife Jill live in California and are parents of two 2015, expect the new generation of granddaughters, Hannah and Fiona. Bob enjoys trail and open country riding with his Tennessee biofuels like cellulosic ethanol to be Walkers, many aspects of nature, including upland gamebird hunting. References: Biello, David; “The False Promise of Biofuels,” Scientific American Magazine, August 10, 2011, pp. 59-65. Brown, Lester R.; “The New Geopolitics of Food,” Foreign Policy Magazine, May-June 2011, Miller, Henry I. and Colin A Carter; “Running on Empty,” Hoover Digest, 2008 No. 1; The Environment WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013
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A Kansas Native Led the Politically-Challenging Campaign to Create the Arctic Wildlife Range/Refuge Fred Seaton and President Eisenhower on the campaign trail.
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he Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska is the largest refuge of its kind in the United States. With 19.3 million acres, it contains the greatest diversity of plant and animal life of any protected area inside the Arctic Circle. The refuge began in December 1960, when the Secretary of Interior, by administrative order, set aside 8.9 million acres as the Arctic National Wildlife Range. In 1980, Congress doubled it in size and changed it to a “Refuge.” The Secretary of Interior in late 1960 was my uncle, Fred Seaton. Fred had grown up in Manhattan. He later moved to Nebraska, and was always active in Republican politics. He served four years in the Nebraska legislature and briefly filled a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. He traveled the country with Eisenhower in the 1952 campaign and Ike appointed him Assistant Secretary of Defense, then Administrative Assistant to the President, and finally in 1956, Secretary of Interior. Fred had graduated from Manhattan High School and Kansas State University, and always retained close ties with Kansas – both family and business. The movement to establish a wildlife refuge in Alaska was much older. It began in the Teddy Roosevelt era, but the emerging environmental movement in the 1950s gave it new impetus. Many of the powers in place in Alaska opposed preservation of the area by the federal government. Alaska had achieved statehood in early 1959. By 1960, the state legislature, the governor, both U.S. Senators and the lone Alaska House
Article by Dick Seaton
Member all opposed a federal refuge. On the other hand, as you might expect, all the national conservation organizations supported it. This led to objections in Alaska about “outsider” interference. There was also hostility toward the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a strong preference on the part of some for state agency control of the refuge. The editor of Alaska Sportsman magazine even called it “socialism,” and one letter to the Fairbanks paper said it would better be named “Seaton’s Ranch.” In spite of the opposition, a bill to establish the Refuge actually passed the House of Representatives in 1959. But it was bottled up in the Senate by Alaska’s own Senator Bob Bartlett. Fred Seaton had preferred congressional action to create the refuge, and in fact his department had drafted the legislation. Ted Stevens, later a long time Senator from Alaska, was then solicitor for the Interior Department. He advocated long and hard for passage of the legislation. In the presidential campaign of 1960, Fred campaigned for Nixon in Alaska. But Nixon lost there, as he did in the nation. After Kennedy’s election, and before his inauguration, there was a “lame duck” session of about two months. Congress had failed to act and Republicans were about to depart. On December 6, 1960, Fred signed the administrative order setting aside 8.9 million acres as the Arctic National Wildlife Range. In the same order, he also set aside 1.8 million acres in southwest Alaska and 415,000 acres on the Alaska Peninsula as additional Wildlife Ranges.
“The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders.” – Edward Abbey 56
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Map provided by and ©University of Alaska Press. Used in the LAST GREAT WILDERNESS, The Campaign to Establish the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge published 2006.
Douglas Brinkley, in his book The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, extols Fred for his last-minute action, and says he is among the most “underrated Secretaries of the Interior in U.S. history.” Following the designation, he said, “I felt it my duty, in the public interest, to move as promptly as possible to take the steps administratively which would assure protection and preservation of the priceless resource values contained in the proposed Arctic National Wildlfie Range area.” Twenty years later, in 1980, under President Carter, Congress enlarged the area to 19.3 million acres, and renamed it the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It was at that time that Congress also designated 1.5 million acres along the north coast for study, looking toward the future of petroleum development. However the legislation requires congressional action before drilling can begin. This has been the focus of recent political wrangling about drilling in the arctic coastal plain in Alaska
In addition to annually hosting the Porcupine Caribou Herd and Central Arctic Herd in summer, totaling substantially over a hundred thousand caribou, the refuge is an extraordinary expanse of arctic biodiversity and wilderness. The 1980 legislation designated the remaining 8 million acres of the original Range as Wilderness. The 10.1 million acres added at that time was designated for “minimal management.” Interestingly enough, Ted Stevens, in his capacity as Senator from Alaska and who had supported the earlier set aside of 8.9 million acres, led the charge against the 1980 legislation to enlarge it. Of course the political winds are constantly shifting, but I’m sort of glad that his old boss Fred Seaton was no longer around to see that. Fred died in 1974.
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