Wet spring makes dent in grassland’s drought

The folks of Morton County may never let Lance Brown leave southwest Kansas. Brown, the Cimarron National Grassland district ranger, arrived last summer and with him came-much needed rains to an area in the midst of an especially long drought.

“Starting last August, it seems we started getting the rain. Just as I was getting here (mid-August), things were finally starting to green up,” said Brown. “In my first few months here I saw the Cimarron River running three times. We had kids in high school who had never seen the Cimarron River run.”

For the first time in several of their own generations, wildlife on the 108,000-acre, federally-owned grasslands may also be looking at a positive future, thanks to rains this spring and summer creating good habitat to what was created last year.

Kansas’ most southwestern area, Morton County can be pretty dry even during an average year of rainfall. It generally totals about 19 inches per year, while Wichita averages 32 inches. Still, in recorded history there probably hasn’t been a decade like the past decade in terms of continued dryness through the region. Some stretches during that time were drier than the legendary droughts of the “Dirty Thirties” and 1950s.

Some summers, cactus died from a lack of water and box turtles left drag trails through the dust that sometimes rose in clouds. Brown said most wildlife populations on the grasslands, which are largely made up from lands purchased after being abandoned by farmers gone bust in the Great Depression, dropped dramatically. That’s been bad news to hunters, birders and the local economy.

Area motels and campgrounds that used to fill with hunters heading out have been all but empty the past few seasons. The drought couldn’t have come at worse a time for lesser prairie chickens, a bird recently put on the federal threatened species list because their numbers were shrinking in many areas.

Past surveys had showed the grasslands to hold 46 cumulative breeding areas, called leks, for lessers through the years. This spring, one was found on the grasslands. Another two, he said, were found on nearby private lands, but it’s believed they were used by prairie chickens that spent some time on the Cimarron National Grasslands.

But since those lek surveys in the spring, conditions have been ideal for producing good lesser prairie chicken nesting and brood-rearing habitat.

“We’ve had periods of thunderstorms and showers when it’s been kind of cool,” Brown said. “Then the temperatures warm up and a lot of those grasses and forbs and shrubs really respond and take off. It’s looking pretty green out here.”

A turnaround might already be in progress.

“Bobwhites seem to be doing fairly decent. They’re not great, but better than most things,” said Kraig Schultz, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism biologist for the area. “We should have some improved reproduction going now, with the moisture.”

Brown said the 2013 spring lesser prairie chicken survey showed five birds using the grasslands. (In the 1980s, several flocks numbering more than 100 birds were documented most winters.) This year, the count had risen to nine birds on the grasslands. He’s heard reports of people seeing some young quail and pheasants. Still, he doesn’t think that means the hard times for hunters and birders are over.

“You know how wildlife can really respond to the right conditions, and produce a lot,” he said. “But it would probably take several consecutive good years to get the populations back up to what people are hoping to see.”

As long as Brown doesn’t leave, maybe there’s a chance the much-needed rains will continue.

This story was originally published August 9, 2014 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Wet spring makes dent in grassland’s drought."