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March 14, 2003 Good To Be Back Home
In early March I decided to avoid the air crunch and returned to the road to visit clients in Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle. Last year I traveled over 225 days, and most of those were by air. Yet the post-9/11 world is a far more difficult place for frequent travelers, and I chose to see the southern Great Plains by auto this time around. In Kansas I first dropped by Great Bend and Cheyenne Bottoms. Fermata developed a strategic plan for the region last year. Our labors have continued as we have constructed a new web site for Cheyenne Bottoms, and managed the installation of the first web cam in the region. Working with Cris Collier and Gary Gore (as well as numerous local interests), Great Bend has embraced the opportunities presented by nature tourism. Recently the state committed over $2 million for the development of an interpretive center at Cheyenne Bottoms, one of the fruits of our joint efforts. We continue to assist the community as it works to expand on this initial funding. As I departed Great Bend a "blue norther" ripped through the state and temperatures began to plummet. In less than an hour a pleasant spring morning became blanketed in snow, sleet, and ice. Roads were virtually impassible, yet in four-wheel drive I skated toward Salina. Now what was I saying about the pleasures of a driving trip? God willing, I arrived in Salina little worse for the wear. Ken Brunson (Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks) had asked me to address their state’s all-bird conservation meeting. I have spoken at a number of these around the country, focusing the discussion on the social side of the conservation equation. For the next two days Ken, I, and over 70 regional biologists and professionals huddled inside and allowed the inclement weather to pass. From Salina I returned south to Oklahoma City. Although I arrived Wednesday night, I had scheduled my meeting with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation for Friday morning. My day off would be spent in the Wichita Mountains. The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, situated in southwestern Oklahoma, arose from tragedy. The Great Plains once hosted over 60 million bison, but by 1900 virtually all had been slaughtered. Elk disappeared from western Oklahoma by the early 1880s, and turkeys were no longer found along the creeks and streams. To restore such wildlife to the Great Plains President William McKinley established a Forest Reserve in the Wichita Mountains in 1901, and President Theodore Roosevelt extended protection to the region as a Game Preserve in 1905. The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is the oldest managed wildlife preserve in the United States. With the land protected, the next step was to restock the wildlife that had been lost. Fifteen bison were donated by the New York Zoological Society and arrived in October 1907. Merriam’s elk (a distinct race from the Plains) was extinct by this time, but Rocky Mountain elk from Wyoming were introduced instead. Turkeys were transplanted from Texas and Missouri. In August 1927 a small herd of Texas longhorn cattle were returned to the grasslands where they had thrived since the 1500s. Today the nearly 60,000-acre refuge is a wildlife-watcher’s delight. I spent the entire day birding, photographing, and enjoying being alive. This refuge in one of the icon sites on the forthcoming Great Plains Trail of Oklahoma, the topic of our discussion the next day in Oklahoma City. On Friday I met with Ron Suttles and Melynda Hickman of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, as well as with a number of additional representatives of that agency (including the director, assistant director, and chief of wildlife). The state (and this agency) is progressing with the new Great Plains Trail of Oklahoma, and site assessments should begin this summer. Fermata is proud to have been involved in this important project since its beginning. Thanks to the steadfast support of Ron and Melynda, Oklahoma will soon join the ranks of those states that have seen the value of "conservation through recreation" and have acted on that vision. From the inception of Fermata we have focused on working over the broadest landscape. Today we have worked in virtually every state in the U.S., and several foreign countries. The knowledge gained from these travels has been invaluable. Nothing substitutes for experience. Yet in the past few months I have found myself focusing once again on my home state and the Great Plains. In the next year we will return to Texas, working on a number of projects that extend from the Big Thicket to Big Bend. And we will continue with our efforts to organize the Great Plains Nature Trail, extending from Coahuila and Nuevo Leon north through the Dakotas to the Canadian prairies. Gee, it’s good to be back home. Trip du Jour, 14 March 2003 Good To Be Back Home by Ted Lee Eubanks Jr.
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