By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
On the Kansas Wetlands Education Center show that aired on 1590 KVGB & 95.5 FM Monday, KWEC Director Curtis Wolf said water levels at Cheyenne Bottoms are better than they been for over three years.
The increased water in the pools is not so much due to rains received in Barton County, but more from rains received out west. Wolf said this runoff allows the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) to manage invasive cattail as quite a bit of water came in June from the Arkansas River diversion and Walnut Creek diversion.
"Right now KDWP is able to put all of that water into storage pools," said Wolf. "Then we don't have a problem with cattail. The other pools won't grow up with those invasive plants. They can still do their management and planting food plots. They have water, hopefully by August or September...the pools that are dry still are in wonderful condition and then they can flood those."
Wolf said the storage pools 1A, 1B and 1C are where the water is currently residing, with pool 1A holding about 54 inches. The rains have helped, but Wolf is hopeful more precipitation will further boost the area’s wetlands.
"I was thinking back to 2013 when we had such a bad drought," said Wolf. "This summer in some ways is somewhat similar to 2013. We had some rains but nothing huge to break that drought until August when we had a big rain. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Who knows, maybe that's what will happen again."
While the months of June and July provide low bird activity times at Cheyenne Bottoms, Wolf said in a couple of weeks the area will start to see the first southbound bird migrants.