Kansas Wetland Resources
National Water Summary-Wetland Resources 195 Kansas Wetland Resources Kansas once was covered by an estimated 841,000 acres of wet System Wetland description lands; of that area about 435,400 acres, or 0.8 percent of the State's Palustrine .................. Wetlands in which vegetation is predominantly area, remain (Dahl, 1990). Wetlands in Kansas represent some of trees (forested wetlands); shrubs (scrub-shrub the last aquatic areas available for wildlife and plants. Wetlands wetlands); persistent or nonpersistent emergent, provide habitat for many species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, erect, rooted, herbaceous plants (persistent- and nonpersist ent-emergent wetlands); or sub· and invertebrates. Kansas wetlands are particularly important to mersed and (or) floating plants (aquatic beds). migratory waterfowl and shorebirds, which depend on the few re Also, intermittently to permanently flooded maining wetlands in the Central Flyway for food, water, and cover open-water bodies of less than 20 acres in which during their seasonal migrations. Cheyenne Bottoms (fi g. I), a large water is less than 6.6 feet deep. freshwater marsh in central Kansas, is considered the most impor Lacustrine ................. Wetlands w ithin an intermittently to permanently tant migration staging point for shorebirds in North America (Wentz, flooded lake or reservoir. Vegetation, when pres· ent, is predominantly nonpersistent emergent 1988). Cheyenne Bottoms also provides habitat for five nationally plants (nonpersistent--emergent wetlands), o r threatened or endangered species-bald eagle, peregrine falcon, submersed and (or) floating plants (aquatic least tern, piping plover, and whooping crane (Kansas Biological beds), or both. Survey and Kansas Geological Survey, l 987). Riverine ..................... Wetlands within a channel.
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