Daily Archives: May 5, 2016

CALENDAR of EVENTS

May 14                        4TH Annual Grassland Heritage Foundation Plant Sale Lawrence 785-840-8104

May 15-16      Geary County Fish & Game Assoc. ATA registered shoot 785-238-8727

June 3-12        Nebraska Wildflower Week Nebraska Native Plant Society http://nnps.wsc.edu/

June 4             Spring Wildflower Tour Maxwell Wildlife Refuge [email protected]

June 5-10        KWF 28th Outdoor Adventure Camp kids 10-12 Call Theresa Berger 785-658-5159

June 11           Spring Wildflower Tour Maxwell Wildlife Refuge [email protected]

June 11           17th Annual Cowley Co. Wildflower Tour Winfield [email protected]

June 11           Women on Target event Geary County Fish & Game Assoc. Shirley Allen 785-375-7305

June 11           Prairie Field Day Mine Creek Battlefield Linn Co. Tami Neal [email protected]

June 16-18      National Wildlife Federation 80th Annual Meeting Estes Park, CO

June 18           FOK Cleanup Float Johnson Co. Register at [email protected]

June 18           Prairie Pollinators: Wildflowers and Butterflies Chase Co. [email protected]

June 25           FOK River Cleanup below Springhill Suites Register at [email protected]

July 16                        Float the Kansas River Manhattan CVB Register w/Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

July 16                        FOK Little Apple Paddle Event Register with Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

July 30                        FOK Let’s Paddle the Kaw event Register with Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

Aug 2-4           KGLC Mid  & Shortgrass Range School Scott County Registration www.kglc.org

Aug 6              FOK Water Matters Day More info from Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

Aug 16-18       KGLC Tallgrass Range School Camp Wood Registration www.kglc.org

Aug 27                        FOK Let’s Paddle the Kaw event Register with Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

Sept 10                        FOK Let’s Paddle the Kaw event Register with Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

Sept 24                        FOK Great Kaw Adventure Race Register with Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

Oct 7-8                        FOK Fundraiser event Astronomy & Wine Register w/Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

Oct 8               FOK Let’s Paddle the Kaw event Register with Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

Oct 29             FOK Little Apple Glow Paddle Register with Marcia Rozell 785.776.8829

For a more up-to-date calendar go to http://www.kswildlife.org/ww/events/.

Steele House nominated to National Register

At its meeting on Saturday, April 30, the Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review voted to nominate the Steele House at Lake Scott State Park to the National Register of Historic Places. This action sends the nomination to the National Park Service for their consideration and final action. It also adds the home to the state’s Register of Kansas Historic Places.

The Steele House was built ca. 1894 by Herbert and Eliza Steele on the west bank of Ladder Creek in what later became Lake Scott State Park. They were among the earliest Euro-American settlers in the county. The seven-room, two-level limestone house was built into the side of a hill so the lower level is partly recessed into the hill. The nomination also includes a crude limestone spring house built by the Steeles over a still-active spring and a decorative pond and bench built with help from the Civilian Conservation Corps ca. 1934 after the Steeles had passed away.

Lake Scott State Park is located in Ladder Creek Canyon about 13 miles north of Scott City in Scott County. Before Euro-American settlement, the canyon was home to several Central Plains Native American groups, dating to proto historic and early historic times. El Cuartelejo, the remains of the northeastern-most pueblo in the U.S., are located a short distance north of the Steele House. The El Cuartelejo Archaeological District National Historic Landmark established in 1964 – a concentration of remnants from these cultural groups – surrounds the Steele House and was made possible by the Steeles’ willingness to have their land investigated by archeologists beginning in the late 1890s.

The Steeles were aware their picturesque property was an ideal setting for a park. In 1928, they sold 640 acres of their land to the Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Commission – a forerunner of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) with the stipulation they be allowed to live in their home until their passing. In May 1930, the Commission completed a dam across Ladder Creek and created the 100-acre Lake McBride which later was renamed to Lake Scott.

Herbert Steele passed away in September 1929, having never seen the lake and park he helped create. Eliza Steele died in July 1930, one month after the park opened. Today, the house is a museum operated by volunteers.

Lake Scott State Park is a featured location along the Western Vistas Historic Byway. The National Register nomination application can be found online at http://www.kshs.org/p/hsbr-meeting-april-30-2016/14633. More information about the park is located at http://ksoutdoors.com/State-Parks/Locations/Scott. Information about the Western Vistas Historic Byway is at http://www.westernvistashistoricbyway.com/

Biologists take tissue samples to evaluate bass stocking program

Fisheries biologists at the Meade Fish Hatchery have been fooling Mother Nature to get largemouth bass to spawn earlier than normal. By controlling water temperature and photo-period (day length), along with other biological factors, hatchery staff are able to create an environment where largemouth bass spawn up to two months earlier than they would in the wild. The fry produced have a huge advantage over naturally-spawned bass because they are large enough to feed on small fish through the spring and summer. By fall, these larger bass are more likely to survive their first winter in a Kansas lake.

So far, early-spawn bass have been stocked into select Kansas reservoirs where bass are popular with anglers but natural reproduction and normal stocking practices aren’t maintaining good bass populations. To evaluate the success of the early-spawn program, fisheries staff have conducted creel surveys to determine if catch rates have improved. In addition, DNA testing of adult bass caught in these lakes will tell biologists what percentage of the bass population is made up of early-spawn fish.

A unique quality of the early-spawn program is that genetic records kept on the brood fish allow each bass produced to be traced back to the hatchery. KDWPT biologists are working with bass tournament organizers to obtain samples from bass brought to tournament weigh-ins at select lakes. Recently, staff worked with the East Kansas Bassmasters club during a tournament on Hillsdale Reservoir where early-spawn bass have been stocked since 2012. Fingernail-sized clippings from the upper caudal fin were collected from fish at the weigh-in before the bass were released. The tissue samples will be tested to determine if they came from fish produced at the Meade Fish Hatchery.

In the past five years, more than 10 million largemouth bass have been produced and stocked through the early-spawn procedure. The evaluation efforts will help biologists determine the program’s effectiveness in bolstering bass populations, as well as what changes should be made to improve stocking success.