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Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area CHEYENNE BOTTOMS WILDLIFE AREA PROJECT AREA DESCRIPTION Walnut Creek and Arkansas River The Cheyenne Bottoms basin has long drainages to the point of ending base been recognized as an area of great flows (85-90% reduction in flows). diversity, especially of birds, with over Increasing agricultural and municipal 320 species counted in recent years. It is water pressures, and existing and one of the last major wetland systems in proposed flood control structures in the Kansas, and is a stopping point for many Wet Walnut drainage are future threats. Location: migratory shorebirds and waterfowl, Western Kansas including all five species of sandpipers. Fire suppression has resulted from This flat elliptical basin is a palustrine farming and the presence of homes in the emergent marsh characterized by cattail Basin which does not allow for extensive and bulrush. The surrounding uplands upland burning programs to be Project size: are dominated by marsh saltgrass, western conducted. 41,000 acres wheatgrass, prairie cordgrass, and spikerush communities. Six federally- PROJECT DESCRIPTION listed threatened and endangered species In the late 1940s, and following 20 years of Initiqtor: can be found there, all birds: whooping efforts by conservationists and the State Kansas crane, bald eagle, piping plover, snowy to create a National Wildlife Refuge, the Department of plover, peregrine falcon, and least tern. State purchased the bulk of the 20,000 Wildlife & Parks State-listed species include the white- acres it now owns in Cheyenne Bottoms. tailed ibis and the eastern spotted skunk. During the 1950s, dikes, dams, and an inlet The area is officially listed as one of only system were built to conserve water and 11 Western Hemisphere Shorebird provide more waterfowl hunting Reserves, and has been designated as a opportunities. By the late 1980s, "Wetland of International Importance" agricultural groundwater pumping was under the Treaty on Wetlands of preventing water from entering the International Importance. Bottoms, by law the State’s right under its status as a "senior" water rights holder. Twenty thousand acres of the basin are In 1990, the State Division of Water owned by the State Department of Resource declared an Intensive Wildlife and Parks (DWP), an additional Groundwater Use Control Area (IGUCA) 7,000 acres are owned by The Nature in Wet Walnut Creek, effectively reducing Conservancy (TNC), and the remaining the amount of water that "junior" water 14,000 acres are in private ownership. The right holders could pump (up to 67%). State and TNC lands are managed for The purpose was to reduce water removal wildlife, primarily migratory water birds. so that the aquifer would rise, allowing Private lands are in agriculture, primarily base flows to return. The IGUCA went grazing, alfalfa, wheat, and sorghum. into effect in January 1992. ECOSYSTEM STRESSES At the same time, the State has been Lack of water has long been a stress to the Bottoms, especially in the last 50 years with increases in agriculture, and even more so since the 1960s with the advent of center pivot irrigation in western Kansas. Irrigation has lowered water tables in Wet ____________ 101 Ecosystem Management in the United States: An Assessment of Current Experience CHEYENNE BOTTOMS WILDLIFE AREA -- continued undertaking an 18 million dollar Monitoring of vegetation control benefiting the project. The coop- renovation effort since 1989 to results and bird and invertebrate erative efforts of professionals, improve water management habitat use levels are included in from many disciplines as well as capability in the face of still- the plan. public and private agencies, has declining water availability. been another benefit. PRESENT STATUS & In 1991, TNC purchased major OUTLOOK Obstacles to Progress tracts adjacent to the wildlife area. The IGUCA is still in effect on Wet Lack of personnel and equipment Since then, the State and TNC have Walnut Creek and its effect will be for vegetation control has hindered coordinated management efforts, evaluated at the end of the five- this effort’s progress. The although each has developed year review period in 1997. The shortage of water will be a con- separate management plans for renovation effort is expected to be tinuing problem unless base flows their lands. DWP’s management completed in 1997. The Advisory are reestablished in the nearby plan was developed in the early Panel is being expanded to nine waterways. Conflict between the 1990s with input from two public members and will be filled by agricultural commu nity and the meetings and using results of work representatives of interest groups State has always been significant, performed by engineering consult- (agriculture, conservation, beginning with the initial purchase ants on the renovation effort. An recreation). Finally, the State’s of land in the 1940s when farmers’ Advisory Panel, consisting of eight Operating and Maintenance land was condemned. This citizens, was created in 1994 to budget for Cheyenne Bottoms has opposition was solidified with the make recommendations to the Area increased in response to the imposition of the IGUCA, which manager, who ultimately decides installation of several pump restricted farmers’ water use. on all land management decisions. stations. Contact information: The plan’s goals are to provide Factors Facilitating Progress Mr. Karl Grover migratory and nesting habitat for Recent public attention and Area Manager waterfowl and shorebirds, as well awareness on wetlands, grants Kansas Department of Wildlife as public recreation opportunities from the Wetlands Conservation and Parks which do not interfere with the Council (under the North American Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area habitat goals. Specific on-the- Waterfowl Management Plan, a Rt. 3 ground strategies include storing federal program), State commitment Great Bend, KS 67530 water when available, vegetation through funding (from pesticide (316) 793-3066 control using mechanical means or and irrigation equipment taxes), burning, and dike and dam and TNC’s land acquisitions have manipulation, among others. been the most important factors ____________ 102.
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