Kansas Biological Survey publication documents vanishing native habitat, suggests preservation steps

Biologist Kelly Kindscher says there’s a lesson in the prairie chicken’s local fate.

“Until recently, we had enough native grasslands in the southwest part of the county you could see prairie chickens,” he said. “I think in the last 10 years, the prairie chicken has gone extinct in Douglas County. If so, it’s because we haven’t made an effort to help them.”

Prairie chicken populations exist in a few counties to the west in the Flint Hills, said Kindscher, a senior scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey and professor of environmental studies at the University of Kansas. But there is little chance the birds will return to the hills and plains of Douglas County, because the natural grasslands that sustain the bird are vanishing.

The prairie chicken with its booming call provides a charismatic example of the consequences of the county’s disappearing native tallgrass prairies, Kindscher said. Less likely to capture public attention are such markers of the prairie’s presence and health as insects and threatened plants like the Western prairie fringed orchid or Mead’s milkweed.

The prairie was 1 of 3 local ecosystems with wetlands and woodlands that immediately started to shrink as settlers established farms and cities in the county, Kindscher said. It’s a process that continues as land goes under the plow, cities grow and residents build homes in rural areas. It is also a trend Kindscher studies and documents.

This year, Kindscher, Leanne Martin, Erica Staab and Jennifer Delisle published “Natural Areas Inventory in Douglas County.” The survey made use of aerial photography, road surveys and field work to identify “high-quality” prairie and woodlands, rank their health and make recommendations on their preservation.

The survey, funded with a Douglas County Natural and Cultural Heritage grant, can be viewed online at biosurvey.ku.edu/publ. The survey builds on the work the KU Biological Survey has been doing since 1988. Between that date and the first survey published in 2005, it was found that 29 percent of the county’s high-quality prairie had been lost and that only 0.5 percent of the county’s vast pre-settlement natural grasslands survived.

The latest survey documented a continuing trend of native habitat loss. It found another 18 percent of natural grasslands were lost from 2005 to 2015. It also noted degradation of previously identified grasslands.

Today, there are 45,403 acres of forested land in Douglas County, which is 4,800 more than when settlers arrived. But Kindscher said that’s only part of the story as 88 percent of the old-growth pre-settlement woodlands have been cleared.

New-growth timber stands do provide food and shelter for wildlife, but they are made up of fast-growing elm, hackberry, honey locust and red cedars, Kindscher said. The new woodlands invite weedy undergrowth and lack the wildflower carpet of the old-growth oak and hickory forest and don’t support rare wildlife such as the flying squirrel, he said.

That is why the survey focused on those high-quality, old-growth forests, Kindscher said. It gave special attention to the four forested areas of the Lakeview area north of Lawrence, the Baldwin Woods and the riparian strips along the Kansas and Wakarusa rivers. The survey makes note of existing or possible conservation efforts and the recreational or public access potential at the four sites.

Kindscher and his survey colleagues met three times with Lakeview homeowners, the Land Institute, which owns 65 acres in the area, and the Lakeview Resort and Association about preservation of the surviving portion of the 3,517 acres of old-growth forest near the oxbow lake. There was support to preserve the remaining 645 acres of old-growth woodlands through the use of conservation easements, he said.

The survey and Kindscher also point to the potential for hiking and biking trails and open-space preservation along the Kansas and Wakarusa rivers. There is the potential to link the county’s cities with such trails, Kindscher said.

Woodlands tend to have a more visceral appeal than natural tallgrass prairie, Kindscher said. Unfortunately, the loss of natural prairie is just as lasting as that of old-growth forests.

“It’s no easier to restore,” he said. “You can plant grasses and get the appearance, but to get back the biodiversity it takes decades, if not centuries. I have published on this. We’re not fully sure there can be full restoration of a tallgrass prairie. Some species are so hard to re-establish.”

That explains why the survey’s recommendations involve preservation and not restoration, Kindscher said. Among the tools the survey recommends to accomplish that goal are open-space planning, conservation easements, buffer zones near surviving high-quality forest and prairies, corridors connecting high-quality parcels as well as greater use of state and federal programs, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program.

A conservation easement can be donated or purchased from willing landowners, Kindscher said. He advocates their use in tandem with open-space planning that looks to protect the high-quality areas identified in the survey.

Kindscher and the survey also advocate a Douglas County funding mechanism to help acquire easements and provide open-space community amenities. When given a chance in other jurisdictions, voters have been supportive of such funding, he said.

Such a program would provide balance against public funding for infrastructure, which promotes the growth that threatens natural areas, Kindscher said.

“South Lawrence is hot with development interest right now,” he said. “That’s what happens when an area has about $350 million worth of infrastructure investment. Think about it for a moment. The completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway is about a $190 million project; the widening of U.S. Highway 59 was about $110 million and the new sewer treatment plant under construction south of the Wakarusa River is about $50 million.”

Douglas County Commissioner Nancy Thellman, who brought the idea of Douglas County Natural and Cultural Heritage to the County Commission when she first took office in 2009, said it was true that voters have approved funding for open-space programs in communities similar to Lawrence and Douglas County. She added, however, any county program would have be considered with other priorities.

“I’m not opposed to the idea, but timing is everything,” she said. “We have very pressing needs before us right now.”

There is urgency if the remaining native grasslands, like the prairie chicken, are not to vanish from the county, Kindscher said.

“There’s a possibility native prairie could disappear in Douglas County in my lifetime,” he said. “The clock is ticking.”