Category — Media Coverage

Spring in Kansas is notoriously unpredictable - the variability is part of what we love about it here but geez, winter just doesn’t want to let go. It’s starting to impact our field season. The Wetland Learners event scheduled for last Friday had to be postponed.

We’re still all systems go for Lawrence’s Rain Shower’s to Water Towers event tomorrow but I’m definitely going with the layered look.

Wild Birds Unlimited in Shawnee, Kansas, has stocked up on copies of Exploring the Kaw Valley. These are now officially out of print so catch ‘em while you can! As many of you will recall this book, authored by Lynn Byczynski and dedicated to KVHA’s founder Joyce Wolf, has a series of annotated driving loops of natural and cultural interests in the Kansas River Valley.

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The last event in the Westport to Wakarusa Poetry series is set to take place next Thursday, 4/24, at the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum at the Haskell Indian Nations University 7 to 9 pm. Smokey McKinney and Ken Lassman will be sharing some of their writing and insights. The poetry series is a KVHA Partner Project with the Lawrence Poetry Community.

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From Johnson County, Kansas Homepage January 2008
Funding for construction of a Riverfront Park overlooking the Kansas River in De Soto was approved Thursday, January 24, by the Johnson County Board of Commissioners.

The Board authorized $56,685 from the county’s Stream Maintenance Fund for public improvements in connection with the new park. Vote to approve the funding request was unanimous by the Board.

The Stream Maintenance Fund receives royalty payments from sand removed from the Kansas River as it flows through Johnson County. The funds can be used for the cleaning and maintenance of the river upon approval of the Kansas Division of Water Resources and for development of public park lands along tributaries of and along the Kansas River.

The fund was last used in 1996 and 1997 by the Johnson County Park and Recreation District to construct a boat ramp near Cedar Creek.

Thursday’s funding authorization by the Board will be used by the city of De Soto to help finance phase one of its 50-acre Riverfront Park located along the banks of the river with a connection at Ottawa Street. The site of the park is on property of the former commercial sand dredging business operated by the Kaw Sand Company in the 1990s.

De Soto’s concept plan of the park includes a stage for festivals, concerts, and other attractions; hiking and biking trails; an informational kiosk or monument with De Soto history; picnic shelters; playground equipment, including a disc-golf course and sand volleyball area; parking areas, including a site for recreational vehicles; public bathrooms; and shower facilities for campers and RV users.

The first phase of the project now is under way, including site clearing and rough grading for the regional festival and concert viewing area to accommodate up to 2,500 visitors. That work is expected to be completed by mid-February.

Construction of a performing stage overlooking the Kansas River, grass seeding, and final grading work will start in March with completion by early summer. The first concert in the new Riverfront Park is scheduled October 11, featuring a Blues and Barbecue Festival.

Other work in the first phase, with an estimated cost of $700,000, will involve construction of the loop drive snaking through the park, public parking areas, a storm water system, and potable water system along with installation of electrical service and an irrigation pump to provide water from the river to irrigate grass, trees, and plantings at the park.

The project, which is the first Johnson County park along the banks of the Kansas River, is being developed in five phases by the city over five years with a final estimated cost of $3.5 million.

Funds for new Riverfront Park in De Soto authorized

Note: In 2008, KVHA’s WRAPS group approved $40,000 in funding to KDWP for the completion of the Elk Creek Wetland area. See Elk Creek Page

[Read more →]

Karrey Britt and a Channel 6 news crew tagged along on Hillcrest Elementary School’s field trip in October. The coverage was extremely well done. Enjoy!

Channel 6 News Lawrence

http://media.6newslawrence.com/video/2007/10/26/wetlands.mov

KVHA and StreamLink have been working with the COE,  the City of Lawrence Parks & Rec, and the Kansas Trails Council to re-locate a trail that borders this area.   The Free State Fly Fishers have been working with Lawrence Southwest Junior High to monitor the Wakarusa River below the dam.

From www.kansascity.com Posted on Friday, Jul. 13, 2007

Army Corps closes Clinton Lake dam outlet after trash buildup

By The Associated Press

LAWRENCE | The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today closed the Clinton Lake dam outlet to ward off fishermen.Officials said a rapid release of lake water has attracted more fish in the outlet on the dam’s east side. The corps is releasing 1,000 cubic feet of lake water per second, up from 21 cubic feet due to heavy rains.

The people who have come to take advantage of the plentiful fishing have also left more trash, said Jon Carlisle, ranger and natural resources specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Read More…

Note: The new facility will make it much easier for people to find out about the rich eco-history of the Wakarusa watershed.  There are plans to incorporate native habitats and watershed features at the museum.  This is a special opportunity to expand awareness of “watershed restoration & protection efforts”. -ALR

From The Lawrence Journal World June 14, 2007

Construction of a new 4,800-square-foot museum at Clinton Lake could begin this fall.

A preliminary design will be on display during an open house and fundraiser this weekend at the Wakarusa River Valley and Heritage Museum in Bloomington Park at Clinton Lake. The approximately $400,000 museum would be built nearby, according to its director, Martha Parker…..

more…

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/jun/14/open_house_help_fund_new_museum_lake/

Note: “Noodling” was historically a common practice in the Kansas River. There a many tall tales and stories of unfortunate outcomes of this approach to catching prized cats. The Natural History Museum at KU has a wonderful exhibit about fishing on the Kaw. According to local Lawrence lore, Jake… was dragged to his death by a “grand-daddy” cat in 18xx. Jake and his fishing partner, Abe, have been cast in bronze in sculpture at river front restaurant (what else… but) Abe & Jakes, in downtown Lawrence. Abe & Jake’s overlooks “Rock Island”, the setting for KVHA’s River Roots book Catfish Cookies. -ALR

From The Topeka Capitol Journal July 8, 2007

>>Imagine wading through waist or even chest-deep water, feeling with your feet and hands as you go. You encounter a hole and your heart rate quickens. You take a deep breath and submerge to the entrance of the hole, sticking your hand slowly inside. All of a sudden and without warning, a huge catfish chomps on your hand and the battle is on. Sound like fun? Depending on your perspective it could be, but most people have another word for it.”Different areas of the country call it different things,” said Fostana Jenkins of the typical terminology of fishing with your hands. “Some call it noodling, tickling, hogging, grabbling, but the number one thing is probably CRAZY!”

To read this article, please visit:
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/070807/out_183059434.shtml

 The first-ever handfishing season in Kansas opened June 15 and will run through the end of August. Two locations are open to handfishing:

1) the Arkansas River from the John Mack Bridge on Broadway Street in Wichita downstream to the Kansas-Oklahoma border and,

2) the Kansas River from its origin downstream to its confluence with the Missouri River.

Flathead catfish are the only species legal to take and a special permit is required ($27.15), in addition to a regular fishing license. For more information, see www.kdwp.state.ks.us.

Marc Murrell

Article from the Indian Country Today website.

Kansas: Lawrence - Wakarusa Wetlands Save the Wakarusa Wetlands Inc. - an association of Lawrence, Kan.,-based Haskell Indian Nations University alumni, students and community supporters - will observe National Prayer Day at sunrise June 21 in the wetlands south of Lawrence. The ceremony will be led by Jimm Goodtracks, Otoe-Missouria, assisted by Mike Smith, Dene, and is open to all who wish to add their prayers to save this sacred place from the highway builders. Jeremy Shield, Crow, will again sing a song to greet the sun. Participants will ask for the protection of the Wakarusa Wetlands (aka Haskell-Baker Wetlands), threatened by an eight-lane highway project approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but delayed by state budget constraints. After years of claiming the trafficway had been ”de-federalized,” in an attempt to render federal laws protecting Native sites inapplicable, the Federal Highway Administration is back in the game. It recently announced its intent to adopt an outdated and severely flawed Corps of Engineers environmental impact statement in order to expedite federal funds for the beleaguered project. As has happened so often in this long struggle, the announcement of a decision, promised by March, had been postponed until after Haskell students left for summer vacation. A lawsuit is pending if KDOT proceeds with construction. This sacred place is the last significant trace of the original Wakarusa Bottoms, an 18,000-acre prairie wetland environment that existed for thousands of years before the draining and damming of the wetlands, which supplied Native peoples of the region with valuable medicines and important ceremonial items.

Elders have said the Creator caused the course of the Wakarusa River to go directly east toward the rising sun, in sharp contrast to the other rivers in the region, as a sign of sacred healing plants and herbs to be gathered there. About 600 acres of the Wakarusa Wetlands was located directly south of the dorms at Haskell Institute. The last major remnant of this wetland became a refuge where young Indian people from all across the country survived government efforts to exterminate their cultures during the off-reservation boarding school years. There, in the wetland refuge, young Indian people from Maine to California sang forbidden songs, performed dances that were federally punishable with jail time and refused to let the authorities ”kill the Indian” in them. Parents and other tribal leaders camped, often for weeks, beside these wetlands on the bank of the Wakarusa awaiting permission from school officials to retrieve or at least visit their children. Despite efforts to drain the wetland in the early 20th century, and Haskell’s loss of this property during the termination era, the Wakarusa Wetland, like Haskell Indian Nations University itself, has survived and flourished. The entire historic Haskell campus, including the wetlands, is reportedly being considered for designation as a National Historic Heritage area. Contact Michael Caron at (785) 842-6293 or mcaron@sunflower.com with Save the Wakarusa Wetlands in the subject line, or visit www.savethewetlands.org; Lori Tapahonso, executive assistant/public information officer, Haskell Indian Nations University, at (785) 830-2715 or LTapahonso@HASKELL.edu; or RaeLynn Butler, president, Haskell Wetland Preservation Organization, Haskell Indian Nations University, at Rbutler@HASKELL.edu.

From Lawrence Journal World June 29th, 2007
>The Census report released Wednesday showed 59 fewer people in Lawrence this year than last year. That’s a decline of less than one tenth of one percent, but it gets the attention of local residents who are accustomed to the city’s rapid growth in recent years.

more… http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/jun/29/growth_factors/

As I recall Don Huggins with KBS talked about this at a project planning meeting over a year ago. -Alison
** One in two ‘will live in cities’ **
More than half the world’s people will live in cities by 2008, mainly in developing countries, the UN says.

more <http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/in_depth/6244496.stm >