Volume 87, Issue 7, 2009
August-September 2009
- Identifier:
- nela.2009_087_07
- Title:
- Volume 87, Issue 7, 2009
- Issue Name:
- August-September 2009
- Date Issued:
- 2009-08-01
- year:
- 2009
- Season:
- Summer
- PDF filename:
- NL_87.07_2009_Aug_Sep_Spreads_Entire.pdf
- Publisher:
- Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
- Format:
- Periodical
- volume:
- 087
- issue:
- 07
- number:
- 087.07
- Decade:
- 2000s
- Type:
- Rights Holder:
- Copyright Nebraskaland Magazine/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, all rights reserved.
- Extracted Text:
-
Morning light streams through oak trees at Indian Cave State Park.
Photo by Bill Hager.
Published by the
NebraskalandMagazine.com
OutdoorNebraska.org
Volume 87, Number 7, August-September 2009
12 Survivor – The North American Bullfrog
Native to southeastern Nebraska, this amphibian is known as
one of the world’s most prolific invasives.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JEFF KURRUS
20 Paddle Talk
A day on the water with Callaway angler Stan Schied sees its
fair share of tales told while fishing.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JEFF KURRUS
24 A Platte River Purchase
Purchases by officials from the Platte River Recovery
Implementation Program this spring between Lexington and
Minden will benefit least terns, piper plovers, whooping
cranes, and other species of fish and wildlife that utilize the
river. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC FOWLER
26 Homegrown Exposition
The Missouri River Outdoor Expo started modestly, but has
mushroomed into one of the largest outdoor recreation and
conservation education events in the state.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JON FARRAR
34 Returning Fire to the Ecosystem
A prescribed burn this spring was a first step in reviving the
woodlands and hilltop prairies at Indian Cave State Park.
BY GERRY STEINAUER
26
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38 Platte River Caddisfly
In early August, the USFWS will publish its initial review on
the threatened or endangered status of the rarely seen Platte
River caddisfly. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC FOWLER
Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Mixed Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Outdoor Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
In the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Step Outside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Portraits from the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
24
●
34
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Cover: On a Sarpy County farm pond, the North American bullfrog looks anything but
threatening. However, North America’s largest frog is a prolific encroacher in nonnative
regions. See story beginning on page 12. Photo by Jeff Kurrus.
Opposite: A small katydid clings to the top of Indian grass at Nine Mile Prairie in Lancaster
County. Photo by Bill Hager.
NEBRASKAland (VOL. 87 / NO. 7, ISSN 0028-1964) is published monthly, except for the
combined Jan./Feb. and Aug./Sept. issues, by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission,
2200 N. 33rd St., Lincoln, NE. Periodicals postage paid at Lincoln, Nebraska, and additional
mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NEBRASKAland, P.O. Box 30370,
Lincoln, NE 68503-0370.
38
●
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 3
line from Sherman Reservoir on
August 20, 2006, one month after
catching a 46-pound, 42-inch flathead
at the same lake. Both fish were
returned safely to the water after
pictures were taken.
The funny thing is, he wasn’t even
catfishing – he was trying for walleye.
What a surprise!
Deb Walkowiak
Grand Island, Nebraska
Published by the
Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission
Director: Rex Amack
Assistant Directors:
Roger Kuhn, Kirk Nelson, Sam Sidner
Information & Education Administrator:
Doug Bauch
Commissioners
Chairman:
James Ziebarth, Wilcox
Vice Chairman:
Jerrod Burke, Curtis
2nd Vice Chairman:
Mick Jensen, Blair
Dr. Mark Pinkerton, Wilber
Ron Stave, Waterloo
Dr. Kent Forney, Lincoln
Lynn Berggren, Broken Bow
Rex Fisher, Omaha
Mark Spurgin, Paxton
Hooked on Fishing
These pictures are of my son, Tyson
Ritz of Lincoln, his wife, Kristin, and
their one-year-old son, Wyatt, during a
Family Fishing Night event at Holmes
Lake this past June.
I used to take Tyson fishing when he
was young, so being a grandma now, I
thought it was time to introduce my
grandson to fishing. I bought Wyatt his
first pole, which has a plastic worm
with a magnet and a life-sized fish that
also has a magnet on it. Wyatt wasn’t
much interested in the real fishing part
just yet, but he had to check out the fish
dad caught. He did love being outdoors
with his parents and grandparents. We
had a ball and will be going fishing
again and again.
Paula Heidtbrink
Malcolm, Nebraska
Magazine Staff
Editor: Doug Carroll
Associate Editor: Jeff Kurrus
Art Director: Tim Reigert
Senior Editor: Jon Farrar
Regional Editors:
Eric Fowler, Bob Grier, Rocky Hoffmann
Photo Librarian: Sarah Johnson
Circulation: Donna Robinson
Ft. Rob Fun
My husband and I recently rode our
motorcycles to Ft. Robinson State Park
for an overnight visit. We are both
Navy veterans and have been to many
local, state and national parks across
the country. I just had to tell you
how much we enjoyed our stay at
Ft. Robinson. The park was beautiful,
clean and well-maintained, and all the
staff we encountered were friendly and
helpful. The activities available are
amazing, something for everyone.
At the advice of the gal working the
information booth when we arrived, we
went on the hayrack breakfast. She, by
the way, was extremely friendly. It was
a wonderful experience and the driver
was great. We enjoyed the fort so much
we are planning to go back with our
kids and grandkids next summer.
Sharon Schroeder
North Platte, Nebraska
For address changes and questions about
your subscription, e-mail
donna.robinson@nebraska.gov
or call (800) 632-5263
Marketing/Advertising: Jane Gustafson
For advertising information e-mail
ngpc.advertising@nebraska.gov
or call (402) 471-5481
NEBRASKAland Magazine
Copyright 2009, all rights reserved.
NEBRASKAland is available on audio cassette from the
Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille
Service, Suite 120, 1200 N St., Lincoln, NE 68508. (800)
742-7691. NEBRASKAland Magazine and the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission reserve the right to reject
any advertising not in keeping with the agency mission.
Rates: $18 for one year; $33 for two years; $44 for
three years. Nebraska recipients must add
appropriate sales tax.
To subscribe call 1-800-NEBLAND (632-5263),
or go online to: NebraskalandMagazine.com.
Monster Catfish
Here’s a monster fish – my husband,
Bob Walkowiak, caught this 60 pound,
48½-inch flathead catfish on 12-pound
4 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
Whitey
I read an article in the July issue of
NEBRASKAland about the sightings of
black squirrels. It prompted me to send
you a few pictures of our white squirrel.
We first noticed and started feeding
him last July. We feed a lot of birds and
squirrels in our backyard throughout
the year.
My wife, Marie, and I enjoy watching
the birds and animals with our morning
coffee. We always look forward to seeing
“Whitey” a number of times each week.
We can always find interesting articles
and great pictures in NEBRASKAland.
Keep up the good work!
Irving Reiter
Kearney, Nebraska
Headquarters
2200 N. 33rd Street
Lincoln, NE 68503
Phone (402) 471-0641
District Office I
East Hwy. 2, Box 725
Alliance, NE 69301
Phone (308) 763-2940
District Office II
524 Panzer St., Box 508
Bassett, NE 68714
Phone (402) 684-2921
District Office III
2201 N. 13th St.
Norfolk, NE 68701
Phone (402) 370-3374
District Office IV
301 E. State Farm Rd.
North Platte, NE 69101
Phone (308) 535-8025
District Office VI
1617 First Ave.
Kearney, NE 68847
Phone (308) 865-5310
Omaha Office
1212 Bob Gibson Blvd.
Omaha, NE 68108
Phone (402) 595-2144
Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium
21502 W. Highway 31
Gretna, NE 68028
Phone (402) 332-3901
World Wide Web site: www.OutdoorNebraska.org
Brush with Death
I thought you might enjoy seeing a
picture of this deer found last
November in a nine-acre CRP field in
northeast Dodge County.
This was the bigger of two bucks I
had kicked up while spot spraying the
field in August. Wade Stenvers of
Hooper found what was left of the
carcass after he, I and several others
walked the fields for pheasants after the
rifle deer season was over. The buck
had tangled up its antlers in some brush
and couldn’t get loose before dying of
thirst, hunger or predators.
I enjoyed the story of fishing blood
for catfish (July 2009 NEBRASKAland)
as we have done it since the early 80s.
Ed Olson
Craig, Nebraska
Send your comments to:
Doug Carroll, Editor
NEBRASKAland Magazine
P.O. Box 30370
Lincoln, NE 68503
or e-mail doug.carroll@nebraska.gov
Please include your postal address and
telephone number.
Letters may be condensed and edited
for clarity. Photographs are
welcome and will be returned.
Under federal and/or state law, discrimination is prohibited on the basis
of race, color, religion, age, gender, marital status, national origin,
disability or political affiliation. If you think you have been discriminated
against in any program, activity or facility by the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission or want more information, contact the Commission in
Lincoln, NE, at (402) 471-0641 or the Equal Opportunity Commission,
Lincoln, NE, (402) 471-2024, TTY/TDD (402) 471-4693).
Administration
Ted Blume (Adm.)
Craig Stover (Asst.)
Wes Loos (Asst.)
Rod Loos (Asst.)
Murray Johnson
Lincoln
471-5531
Lincoln
471-5532
Lincoln
471-5591
Ogallala (308) 284-8056
Lincoln
471-5003
Panhandle
Officer
City
Phone (308)
Jim Zimmerman (Sup.) Gering
436-7561
Walt Meyer
Chadron
432-4398
Scott Brandt
Gering
436-3418
Heath Packett
Gordon
282-2553
Dennis Thompson
Lemoyne
355-2024
Dan Zuehlke
Ogallala
284-4815
Doug Pollard
Oshkosh
772-9950
Frank Miller
Valentine (402) 376-1183
Dan Kling
Whitney
432-8367
Southwest
Officer
City
Phone (308)
Roger Thompson (Sup.) N. Platte
532-9175
Ray Dierking
Brkn. Bow
872-3078
George Sund
Cambridge
697-4629
Michael Thome
Cozad
784-4362
Matt Andrews
Elwood
785-3025
Dirk Greene
Imperial
882-5328
Virgil Gosch
McCook
345-2185
Dudley Sorensen
N. Platte
532-0747
Rich Routh
Rep. City
799-2085
South-central
Officer
Jerry Pecha (Sup.)
Jeff Jones
Terry Brentzel
City
Phone (308)
Kearney
865-5327
Clay Center(402)762-3124
Doniphan (402)845-2021
Randy Pomplun
Darin Gress
Dale Johnson
Mark Reeves
Robert Finke
Fullerton
536-2987
Hebron (402) 768-2287
Kearney
237-1079
Loup City
745-0662
Milford (402) 761-3537
Northeast
Officer
Tom Zimmer (Sup.)
Dale Davis
Ross Oestmann
Steve Oberg
Daniel Roberts
Jon Reeves
Marion Shafer
Pat George
Eric Wiebe
Tim Williams
Cory Krause
City
Phone (402)
Norfolk
371-6625
Bassett
273-1700
Bloomfield
373-4412
Columbus
564-5937
Fremont
721-7852
Kennard
427-7378
Norfolk
371-2031
O’Neill
336-1588
Ponca
755-2566
Neligh
887-1335
West Point
372-6979
Southeast
Officer
Duane Arp (Sup.)
Sean McKeehan
William Krause
Mike Luben
Douglas Kramer
Dina Barta
Stacey Lewton
Levi Krause
Russell Mort
Dan Evasco
Jeff Clauson
City
Gretna
Ashland
Auburn
Colon
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lincoln
Louisville
Nebr. City
Papillion
Waterloo
Phone (402)
332-2965
944-4174
274-3789
443-4278
466-9001
483-2358
476-0436
234-2212
873-5684
592-6733
359-5301
Nebraska Wildlife Crimestoppers 1-800-742-7627
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 5
“Ticketing” Kids
Daryl Teter
Boating Law Enforcement Officer
Thanks to Bosselmans, Pump &
Pantry and Trotters Whoa & Go, for the
past couple of years, young boaters in
central Nebraska have been getting
“tickets” from Nebraska conservation
officers who catch them on the water
wearing their lifejackets.
Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission law enforcement officers
give out “citations” to the kids after
performing a safety check of the boat
and its occupants. When you mention
you want to give a kid a ticket for
wearing a life jacket, you get a variety
of puzzled looks and reactions until
you give them a card for a free ice
cream cone from one of the businesses
mentioned. It generally brings a smile
to their faces, is a good public relations
tool for both the Commission and the
businesses, and it helps teach the kids
that following the law can be a good
thing.
Although boaters 14 years of age and
above don’t legally have to wear their
lifejackets while on the water, it’s still a
good idea since statistics show that
lifejackets are the number one way to
prevent death by drowning for all ages.
Remember: "They don't work if you
don't wear them."
Snipe Hunting History
Jon Farrar
Appropriately named, the common
snipe is probably one of the most
abundant shorebird species in North
America. They are seldom seen,
though, because of their reclusive ways
and predilection for mucky wetlands
seldom frequented by hunters. Snipe
nests are rarely found in Nebraska,
but they breed and raise young here,
principally in the northern counties.
The autumn snipe migration
through the state peaks in lateSeptember and early October. While
Nebraska has few snipe hunters,
there are no doubt more than hunt
woodcocks, Virginia rails or soras, the
other three shorebirds for which there
are hunting seasons.
Shorebirds were popular game in
Nebraska during the closing decades of
6 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
the 1800s and the opening decades of
the 1900s. Golden plovers, upland
sandpipers, yellowlegs and common
snipe were the most sought-after
species, although smaller shorebirds
also were frequently shot. Woodcock
were locally common along the
Missouri River during the settlement
years, before much of the timber was
cleared.
The Migratory Bird Act of 1913
granted a five-year “rest period” for all
shorebirds except woodcock, snipe,
black-breasted plover and greater and
lesser yellowlegs. That legislation was
challenged in court, and the authority
of the federal government to regulate
migratory bird hunting was not firmly
established until 1918, when the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act with Canada
was signed. Under that treaty, hunting
seasons were allowed for upland
sandpipers, yellowlegs, rails, snipe
and woodcock.
The upland sandpiper season was
closed in 1926, followed by greater and
lesser yellowlegs in 1927. In 1941,
snipe and rails were removed from the
game bird list, leaving woodcocks as
the only “shorebird” legally hunted.
Snipe were restored as game birds
under federal regulations in 1954, and
rails returned to the Nebraska game
bird list in 1957, but the shorebird
hunting tradition had largely lost its
following.
Would-be snipe hunters should don
knee-boots and walk mucky and
shallow-water wetlands around lakes,
ponds and marshes; marshy stream
sides; and hay meadows if early
autumn rains have created small pools.
Snipe are seldom found in heavy aquatic
habitats such as cattails or bulrush. A
20-gauge shotgun and No. 7½ or No. 8
shot is a good choice.
Nebraska in Top 200 Towns
for Sportsmen
Eric Fowler
If you like hunting, fishing and lists,
you’ll like this one from the June/July
issue of Outdoor Life: “The Top 200
Towns for Sportsmen.” The list
includes six Nebraska towns, with
Ogallala, home to Lake McConaughy,
scoring the highest among them and
one spot in front of Nebraska City.
The magazine put greater emphasis
on quality-of-life issues, including
affordable housing, low unemployment
rates, good-paying jobs and everyday
amenities, for its second annual version
of the list. It also included towns of any
size rather than only those with 4,000
people or more. But quality hunting
and fishing, including the number of
fishable and huntable species, proximity
to public land, trophy potential and
hunter-friendly gun laws, were still at
the heart of the final rankings.
Only nine states had more towns
on the list than Nebraska, including
neighbors Colorado (11) and Wyoming
(seven). South Dakota tied the
Cornhusker State with six towns, and
Iowa, Kansas and Missouri had five.
States in the Mountain West ruled the
rankings, with Colorado and Montana
each placing 11 towns and Idaho, with
three of the top-10, claiming eight.
Three-fourths of the towns were east of
the Mississippi. Five states had none.
While this Ogallala native was happy
to see his hometown atop the rankings
of Nebraska communities, I had to
wonder about the methodology when I
saw that Valentine only scored four out
of 10 in fishable species, below every
Nebraska town but Scottsbluff, which
also had four. I’m guessing the editors
only considered Merritt Reservoir or
the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge,
and maybe even overlooked the Snake
River’s trout, when they tallied that
score, because nearly every fish that
swims in Nebraska waters can be
caught close to Valentine. Likewise,
Scottsbluff finished a notch below
Valentine in huntable species, but has a
nearly identical list.
If you want to review the entire list,
or if you live in any of Nebraska’s
other great outdoor towns and want to
state your case for inclusion in the next
8 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
list the magazine compiles, visit
OutdoorLife.com.
Outdoor Life’s Top 200 Towns for
Sportsmen
1
Lewiston
ID
2
Marquette
MI
3
Idaho Falls
ID
4
Rawlins
WY
5
Pocatello
ID
6
Bismarck
ND
7
Sheridan
WY
8
Pierre
SD
9
Rochester
MN
10
Carbondale
CO
60
61
81
98
105
138
Ogallala
Nebraska City
Valentine
Kearney
Grand Island
Scottsbluff
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
Fred Thomas WMA
Julie Watts
Protecting our environment was the
mission of Fred Thomas. Thomas
desired to educate people on the
importance of stewardship, and he did
so by writing the “Our Environment”
column for the Omaha World Herald.
Thus the Fred Thomas Wildlife
Management Area, with a panoramic
view of the Niobrara River Valley
visible from the lookout platform, is
named in his honor.
Located on the south bank of the
Niobrara River at Nebraska Highway 7,
this area has 218 acres of prairie, cedars
and steep cliffs which drop precipitously
to the water. Just south of the parking
area is the trailhead for a walking trail
that begins with a lane which runs
beneath a cedar canopy. It is a fairly easy
walk to the edge of the embankment, but
the edges of the bank are undermined
in areas, so avoid getting too close.
Deer, turkey, rabbit and a multitude
of waterfowl and other bird species
inhabit this unique area of the Niobrara
River Valley. The leaves of the sumac
in the fall are brilliant red, and in the
spring the seed heads, or sumac bobs,
that have fed the birds during the winter
continue to decorate the bare branches
of the shrub.
More information on this area,
including hunting regulations, can be
found at www.OutdoorNebraska.org.
Outdoor License Plate
Omahan Marcus Dryak grew up
fishing and hunting on the Missouri
River near his hometown of Niobrara.
He continues to pursue those passions
throughout Nebraska with rod and reel,
bow, muzzleloader and rifle, with several
trophy deer, muskie, walleye and crappie
to his credit from his home state, as well
as elk and caribou from points abroad.
If you have a unique message plate
you would like to share, or know
someone who does, e-mail a photo
(high-resolution .jpg format only, please)
of it to Eric.Fowler@Nebraska.gov,
along with your name, hometown, and
a brief description of the interests
expressed on your license plate.
Turpin Time
Dick Turpin
To add flavor
to your wild
duck, put the
duck breasts in
one of those zip
lock bags, then
cover it with
orange juice.
Throw that in
your freezer,
and eat it a
month or two later and that is going to
be some delicious duck. Even those
folks that don’t like wild duck might
change their mind.
Becoming an Outdoors-Family
Applications are being accepted for
two upcoming inaugural Becoming an
Outdoors-Family workshops.
The workshops, based on the popular
Becoming an Outdoors-Woman events,
teach a variety of outdoor skills to family
members eight years of age and older.
The following classes are offered:
archery, basic outdoor first aid, beginning
shotgun, camping, Dutch oven cooking,
introduction to firearms, introduction to
GPS, lake fishing, kayaking, pellet gun,
and outdoor survival hiking.
The first workshop will be held
August 7-9 at Ponca State Park, and the
second workshop is scheduled for
September 12-13 and will be held at
the Eastern NE 4-H Camp and Platte
River State Park. Space is limited at
both events and applications will be
accepted on a first-come basis. The fee
is $55 for adults and $45 for children
ages 8-12 for the Ponca event, and
$45 and $30 for adults and children
respectively at the shorter September
workshop.
To apply, visit NebraskaBOW.com or
contact Peggy Kapeller at (402) 4715482 or peggy.kapeller@nebraska.gov.
Here is a list of
upcoming outdoor
events across
Nebraska.
For more
information
about
these and
other events, click on
the calendar at
www.OutdoorNebraska.org.
August 1
• Niobrara SP Buffalo Cookout (also
August 8, 15, 22, 29 and September 5)
• Calamus Carp Tournament
August 1-2
• Pioneer Longrifle Rendezvous,
Indian Cave SP (also September 5-7)
• Fort Atkinson SHP Living History
Demonsrations (also September 5-7)
August 4
Osprey Nesting Platform
• Family Fishing Night – Walnut
Creek, Papillion
Bob Grier
The pair of osprey, Pandion
haliaetus, that established their breeding
and nesting territory northeast of
Scottsbluff in the Nebraska Panhandle
last year (see July 2008
NEBRASKAland) moved into a new
home this spring and as of June were
incubating eggs on a newly constructed
nesting platform. The 2008 nesting was
the first documented osprey nesting in
Nebraska since the early 1900s.
Concerned that last year’s large nest
near power transmission lines created a
hazard for the ospreys, retired U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service refuge manager
Steve Knode of Gering contacted the
Chimney Rock Public Power Company
and linemen from the power company
trimmed back the large nest and placed
safety guards on the transmission lines.
“With the growing nest volume, it
was only a matter of time before one of
the osprey would have been killed,”
says Larry Fiscus, Chimney Rock
Power manager.
In early 2009, linemen from Chimney
Rock Power placed a dedicated osprey
nesting structure near the transmission
pole before the osprey returned from
their wintering grounds. Upon their
return, the breeding pair immediately
began building their nest on the new
platform and incubation activities
continued into early June.
August 11
• Family Fishing Night – Holmes
Lake, Lincoln (also September 8)
August 14
• Nebraska Star Party Star Gazing –
E.T. Mahoney SP dusk to 11 p.m. (also
September 11)
August 19
• Family Fishing Night – Wehrspann
Lake, Omaha
August 22-23
• 1st Annual Heritage Farm Weekend
– Ponca SP
August 23-24
• Calamus Windsurfing Rodeo –
Calamus SRA
August 26
• Family Fishing Night – Bowling
Lake, Lincoln (also September 23)
September 1
• Family Fishing Night, Standing
Bear Lake, Omaha
September 5-7
• Fort Kearney SHP Living History
Demonstrations
September 12
• Moonshell Storytelling Festival
2009 – E.T. Mahoney SP
September 16
• Family Fishing Night – Halleck Park
Lake, Papillion
September 19-20
• Missouri River Outdoor Expo –
Ponca SP
September 20
• Arbor Lodge and Nebraska City
Apple Jack Festival
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 9
Illegally Obtained Permits Will Cost You
Tickclover
Chris Helzer
It’s known as tickclover, tick-trefoil,
beggars lice, and a number of other
names – usually accompanied by some
choice adjectives, none of which are
appropriate to print in this magazine.
Whatever you call them, their oval
seeds stick to clothing, fur and skin like
super Velcro, even through a full cycle
in the washing machine. Despite many
efforts to find more efficient methods,
the only way to get them off is to pick
them off … one by stinking one.
Technically speaking, tickclovers are
members of the genus Desmodium, and
there are eight species native to
Nebraska. They are legumes, found
both in woodlands and grasslands. And,
technically speaking, what sticks to
your socks is not the seed, but a kind of
envelope that holds the seed. If you
take the time to open the envelope,
10 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
PHOTO BY CHRIS HELZER
– Darin Gress, Conservation Officer, Hebron
A Look Back - Summer 1952
PHOTO BY CHRIS HELZER
Can you really purchase a resident lifetime permit if you don’t live in
Nebraska? After having a run in with an individual a few years ago, I
found out just how easy it is to obtain one of these lifetime permits
even when you are no longer a resident. The individual in this case
was originally cited for hunting in the wrong unit during the antlerlessonly late season in January. After the fine was paid, I found out how
small the world really is. Someone who knew this individual made a
comment to me that this person did not actually live in Lincoln, but
that the address given to me was really his parent’s address. After
hearing this, I decided to check into the matter a little closer. I found
out that this individual actually had moved from Nebraska in 1997,
and that in 1998 a resident lifetime hunt and fish permit was issued to
him using the same Lincoln address. My investigation also found that
in December 2001, a lifetime habitat stamp was issued the same way.
I checked with the local sheriff’s office and found out the individual
had lived in three different states since leaving Nebraska in 1997.
When I checked past records of permit sales, I discovered he had
also been issued a resident anterless tag for the 2000 season. Not
only was this person going to be facing more state charges, but he
had also violated the federal Lacey Act for taking a deer across state
lines on an illegally obtained permit.
After working closely with two officers from the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, one in Nebraska and one in Kansas, the individual
not only lost the remaining deer from that year, but also had his
lifetime habitat stamp and permits confiscated. The individual was
charged with two counts of illegally obtaining permits in Lancaster
County, and was also charged with being a nonresident in
possession of a resident permit in Thayer County. Including the
$708 he had paid for the confiscated permits and stamp, this caper
eventually cost this individual $1,727 in fines, liquidated damages
and court costs.
Had someone not recognized his name after he
was cited for hunting in the wrong unit, none of these
illegally obtained permits would have been discovered
and Nebraska would have continued to be short
changed.
you’ll find a rather large, smooth and
hard seed inside. The plants spread
their seeds far and wide by hitchhiking
on furry animals or the fuzzy clothing
of hunters and hikers.
The tickclover’s seed represents one
of the redeeming qualities of the plant,
which – believe it or not – actually
provides some value to offset the hours
spent
pulling the
seeds off
your
sweatshirt
before
you’re
allowed
back in the
house. The
large seeds
provide
excellent
food
sources for
upland
game birds
like quail,
along with a
number of
other
wildlife
species.
Tickclovers
also have
big tender
leaves that
serve as
high quality forage for both livestock
and wildlife. In fact, tickclovers are
rare in many grasslands because they
are preferentially eaten by cattle and
easily grazed out of pastures. In
addition to their food value,
tickclovers are legumes, so they fix
nitrogen, increasing the soil
productivity around them. Finally,
many tickclover species, particularly
those in grasslands, have small but
showy flowers (usually pink) that are
both pretty and important pollen and
nectar sources to various pollinator
species.
The real hidden value of tickclovers
may be that their seed is actually worth
money. No, really, look it up on the
Internet! My quick research shows that
tickclover seed sells for between $10
and $60 per ounce, which comes out to
something like 1/10 a cent per seed. So
Jeff Kurrus
While the August/September
2009 article “Survivor” tells of the
prolific bullfrog, the cover art by
C. J. Pritchard in the Summer 1952
Outdoor
Nebraska
edition
featured
young
minks
feeding on
a frog. In
that same
issue,
multiple
titles
remind us
that some of yesteryear’s issues are
still being discussed today: “How
to Remove a Fish Hook,” “Fishing
Tackle Maintenance,” and “The
Hawk – Friend or Foe.” Much like
today’s “Officer’s Notebook,”
which allows readers to see the
enforcement of hunting, fishing,
and park-related laws through the
eyes of a conservation officer, this
mid-century edition asked readers
to “… Get Aquainted with Warden
A. G. McCarroll,” who, at the time,
was a conservation officer with the
Nebraska Game, Forestation and
Parks Commission.
next time you’re picking the seed out
of your socks, toss them into a handy
bucket and you can tally your profit as
you pick! Then all you have to do is
figure out who it is that actually buys
the stuff.
Classes Forming Now
Heather Weihe
Summer is a great time to take a
Hunter Education class. It seems like I
spend most of my winter planning for
summer; however I usually don’t take
the time to think about fall and winter
until I’m forced to. This summer I
encourage you to at least think about
this fall’s upcoming hunting seasons
and to sign up now for any Hunter
Education or Bowhunter Education
classes you might need to take in order
to legally hunt.
Nebraska initiated its hunter education
program in 1972; as a result Nebraska
continues to experience a 30-year
decline in accidents. With school not in
session and few hunting seasons open
yet, late-summer is a great time for
students and volunteer instructors alike
to set up classes.
To find out what classes are available,
go to OutdoorNebraska.org, select
NGPC Programs, then click on Hunter
Education and select Available Classes.
You can also call Heather Weihe at
(402) 471-5662.
Peregrine Chicks Named
Nemaha, Niobrara, Platte, and
Calamus were the winning entries of
the 2009 Name the Chicks contest,
according to the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission. The names were
given to four peregrine falcon chicks
hatched in May in a nest box outside
the 18th floor of the Nebraska State
Capitol Building.
Roxanne Smith, tourism supervisor
at the Capitol, won the contest by
suggesting the chicks be named after
four Nebraska rivers. Smith’s winning
prize package includes a stuff-toy
peregrine falcon and a one-year
subscription to NEBRASKAland
Magazine.
Peregrine females 97/H and 98/H
were given the names Nemaha and
Niobrara, respectively. Male falcons
91/A and 92/A were given the names
Platte and Calamus, respectively. The
names were selected from 388 contest
entries.
This is the fourth successful breeding
season for the pair of peregrines using
the Capitol nest box. In 2005, the pair
successfully raised a chick that was
named Pioneer. In 2006, three chicks
fledged and were given the names
Willa, Bess and Sterling after famous
Nebraskans Willa Cather, Bess Streeter
Aldrich and J. Sterling Morton. In
2007, four chicks fledged and were
named Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and
Zephyrus after the four wind gods from
Greek mythology that are ascribed to
the cardinal directions North, South,
East, and West. The 2008 nesting
attempt failed. ■
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 11
Survivor
The North American Bullfrog
Text and photos by Jeff Kurrus
Bullfrogs are North America’s largest frog,
measuring up to eight inches in length and
weighing upwards of one pound. They have
shown the ability to survive through a
Minnesota winter and a Louisiana summer, on
glacial lake and brackish coastal water, and
their impact in nonnative regions can be
catastrophic.
P
ull a North American bullfrog
from the water, hold it around
the waist so its legs dangle, and
it’s hard not to conjure images of
Michigan J. Frog from the Looney
Tunes cartoon shorts. For many people
throughout the world, however,
bullfrogs provide little reason to laugh,
much less smile. They are carriers of
disease, killers of local animal
populations and one of the world’s
most prolific invasives. Most of all,
though, they are survivors.
Invasion
Native to the southeastern portion of
the state, bullfrogs can currently be
The North American bullfrog is one of eleven frog and toad species found in Nebraska. Their color can range from
various shades of green to almost black, as seen from this bullfrog in a Sarpy County farm pond.
Three generations from the Blaser family of Platte County hunt bullfrogs at dawn.
12 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
found in every Nebraska county and on
almost every body of water, from
backwater riverbanks and ponds, to
wetland areas and even cattle tanks.
Nationally, while native to the eastern
part of the country, bullfrogs are found
coast to coast and from Mexico to
Canada. Internationally, bullfrogs have
been introduced to Europe, Asia and
both South and Central America, as well
as a host of islands throughout the world.
During this time when bullfrogs are so
prolific, however, other amphibians are
disappearing throughout the world.
According to Texas A&M biologist
Malcolm McCallum, the current mass
extinction of amphibians far exceeds
earlier extinctions in history linked to
calamitous events, such as continental
drifts and “super” volcanoes. “The
general trend of amphibian extinction
suggests catastrophic future losses and
uncertain opportunity for recovery,”
McCallum said. In addition, the Red
List of Threatened Species and the
Global Amphibian Assessment has put
about one-third of all amphibian species
at high risk of extinction. The bullfrog is
not on that list. It is, however, on another.
According to the International Union
for Conservation of Nature, the bullfrog
is one of the 100 worst invasive species
in the world. For example, they were
introduced in mainland China in 1959
and, being larger than any native frogs,
soon put local frog populations at risk.
In Europe, it is illegal to import
bullfrogs because of their effects on
native amphibians.
One current issue involving the
effects of bullfrogs on native species is
their link to the fungus Batrachochytrium
dendrobatidis (Bd), also known as
chytrid. While there are multiple chytrid
fungi species, the term “chytrid” has
become synonymous with the Bd fungus
that specifically infects amphibians.
According to Jennifer Holland’s April
2009 National Geographic article
entitled “The Vanishing,” chytrid
attacks keratin, a key structural protein
in an animal’s skin, perhaps hampering
oxygen exchange and the control of
water and salts in the body. Chytrid is
now reported on all continents where
frogs live, and also exists in Nebraska.
In Holland’s article, Australian researcher
Lee Berger was quoted as saying: “The
impact of chytridiomycosis [the
infection caused by a chytrid fungus]
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 13
PHOTO BY GARY M. FELLERS, USGS
PHOTO BY THOMAS R. JONES, AGFD
California red-legged frog
Sonoran tiger salamander
PHOTO BY JEFF KOOSER
on frogs is the most spectacular loss of
vertebrate biodiversity due to disease in
recorded history.”
Currently, there is no cure for this
fungus, which has negatively affected
at least 200 species of frogs worldwide.
Chytrid can be spread from just about
anything in nature, including bird
feathers and frog legs. Curiously, while
bullfrogs are a carrier of this fungus,
they do not appear to be harmed by it.
According to Thomas R. Jones,
Amphibians and Reptiles Program
Manager for the Arizona Game and
Fish Department (AGFD), biologists in
that state know that bullfrogs there
carry chytrid, and they know that their
native frog populations are suffering
from the fungus, but they “just don’t have
the smoking gun link between the two.”
Arizona is one of many states dealing
with nonnative bullfrogs. Bullfrogs
were introduced by the AGFD in the
early 1970s for sport, and some were
also likely inadvertently introduced as
tadpoles with fish stockings. Jones has
spoken to some people in the state who
also redistributed bullfrogs simply
because “they liked them.” Since their
introduction, all six native Arizona
ranid frog species, five of which are
leopard frogs, have declined.
While habitat loss has been important
to amphibian declines in Arizona,
bullfrogs have also contributed to the
ABOVE: A bullfrog swallows a bluegill whole. RIGHT: Male bullfrogs are distinguished
from female bullfrogs by the size of their eardrums, otherwise known as their
tympanum. If the tympanum and eye are similar sized, the frog is a female. If the
tympanum are considerably larger (pictured), the bullfrog is a male.
decline of northern leopard frogs and
Chiricahua leopard frogs. “Whether the
decline is directly due to bullfrogs or
not,” said Jones, “recovery of those
species is definitely linked to bullfrogs.
Except in a few relatively dramatic
cases we don’t have a timeline to show
that bullfrogs eliminated the natives.
What we do know is that bullfrogs now
occupy many of their historical habitats,
and recovery at those sites is impossible
without getting rid of bullfrogs.”
Introduced bullfrogs compete with
native frogs from the tadpole stage to
adulthood and also prey on native
wildlife. They consume worms, fish,
insects, crustaceans, small mammals
including mice, snakes, bird and bat
species, and other frogs and tadpoles.
Needing to eat approximately 5 to 10
percent of their body weight each day,
they capture and hold their victims
with their upper jaw teeth before
swallowing them whole. “I was just at
a site early this week doing bullfrog
control work where we have a population
of federally endangered Sonoran tiger
salamanders,” said Jones. “The stomachs
of the larger bullfrogs we caught were
full of salamander larvae.”
The AGFD, in collaboration with the
U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy and
local organizations, are working on
multiple projects to eliminate bullfrogs
from parts of Arizona. However, Jones
knows how much work there is to do
14 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
and the problems associated with it.
“Recently, a fishing lake was drained
and bullfrogs were eliminated from the
lake,” said Jones. “Following this, we
worked on eliminating the bullfrog
populations in a 250-square-mile area
surrounding the lake. During this
project, while working at one of the
many small, cattle-tank sized water
sources in the area, we removed over
100,000 tadpoles. That’s the product of
maybe 10 individual frogs. But to
ensure the success of our project, we
will have to try and eliminate all the
bullfrogs from the area. Otherwise, the
frogs will recolonize the lake and we
will be back to square one.
“But we’re facing a deadline because
Arizona’s summer rain season is coming.
As soon as that starts, all bets are off
because of how well bullfrogs can
move across the landscape.”
In California, where bullfrogs have
also been introduced, there are similar
issues. “The problem here is so
overwhelming because the bullfrog is
so ubiquitous,” said Betsy Bollster,
Statewide Coordinator for the
Conservation of Amphibians and
Reptiles with the California Department
of Fish and Game. “We barely have the
resources to manage native species,
much less bullfrogs.” The curious part,
Bollster said, is that most people think
bullfrogs are native because they have
been in the state for so long.
They were first introduced to
During the breeding season, which in Nebraska usually starts in
June or July when water temperatures near 70 degrees, female
bullfrogs are attracted by the voice of the male, who uses a series of
bass notes to make a sound best described in multiple publications
as resembling “jug-o-rum.” Males are highly territorial as they call,
defending upwards of 25 yards of shoreline from neighboring males
by “wrestling,” while females traditionally stay away from the shoreline
until breeding time.
Once a female chooses a mate, she will lay between 10,000 and
20,000 eggs on the water’s surface in a disc-shaped film up to five
feet across. This large surface area of eggs increases the likelihood
that each embryo will obtain sufficient oxygen for normal development. The
male then fertilizes the eggs, which drift until they attach to vegetation
or debris. About four days later, small spotted tadpoles emerge from
the floating egg mass.
Once hatched, bullfrogs stay in the tadpole stage for one to three
years, taking longer to fully develop in the northern part of their range
while occasionally fully developing by that same fall or early winter in
the southern part. Typically, however, they overwinter for at least one
season as tadpoles and metamorphose the next spring. During the
tadpole stage, bullfrogs can range from less than an inch up to six
inches in length, and survive by eating algae and aquatic vegetation,
and being well-camouflaged.
Metamorphosis, the transition from tadpole to adult, occurs
when the tadpole’s three sets of gills are replaced by lungs. Most
bullfrogs take two years to reach sexual maturity from the time
they metamorphose, but some might breed the summer after
this process. Size, length of growing seasons, food and temperature
determine the rate of maturation. In warmer climates, female bullfrogs
may lay two clutches per year.
Natural predators throughout a bullfrog’s life cycle include snapping
turtles, snakes, birds, fish and man. Because adult bullfrogs will eat
anything available, they have been referred to as “dietary generalists.”
In areas with large concentrations of bullfrogs, other bullfrogs are this
species’ greatest predator.
California in the early 1900s to serve
as a food source after the California
red-legged frog was overharvested.
Since their introduction, bullfrogs have
decimated the California red-legged
frog population, a species of special
concern in the state, by consuming
members of the species as well as
competing for habitat.
Bullfrogs have even affected local
social events, as they are used instead
of red-legged frogs at the Calaveras
County jumping frog contest – celebrated
in Mark Twain’s writings. This is due
in part to the negative effects bullfrogs
have had on red-legged frog numbers.
In addition, bullfrogs also eat the
larvae of the California tiger salamander,
which only lives in that state and is
also threatened. In California, bullfrog
densities can exceed 10,000 per hectare.
To combat the problem, there is no limit
on bullfrogs when hunting, but the state
still allows bullfrogs to be imported for
food sale.
Like California, Arizona also has
unlimited bag limits on bullfrogs taken
by hand, gig, or net, and it is illegal for
people to possess live bullfrogs.
Despite these regulations, said Jones,
more Arizonans still don’t realize the
effect that bullfrogs have on native
wildlife, and funds are limited for
working on their control.
Closer to Home
The Nebraska Game and Fish
Commission began moving bullfrogs
throughout the state from their native
habitat in southeastern Nebraska at
least as early as 1907.
In Nebraska, bullfrogs can be taken by hook-and-line (pictured) or by hand.
Bullfrogs will eat a host of prey, including crayfish, birds, mice, fish and other toads and frogs, including smaller bullfrogs.
16 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
“It is yet too early to forecast the
result of the introduction of the bull-frog,
but from the experiments carried on
with them at the hatcheries the past two
years I am confident they will provide
a highly profitable addition to our work
and a valuable asset to the state,” stated
Will J. O’Brien in the 1908 Biennial
Report of the Game and Fish
Commission.
“Originally, bullfrogs were stocked
for both a game resource as well as a
method to feed bass populations in
newly state-created water bodies,”
said Dan Fogell, Life Sciences
Instructor at Southeast Community
College in Lincoln and associate editor
of herpetology for The Prairie
Naturalist. “But bass don’t eat bullfrog
tadpoles. There is a toxin in tadpole
skin that’s unpalatable to bass.”
The Commission ceased its stocking
efforts in the first half of the 20th
century. In the 1942 Nebraska
Conservation Bulletin, G. E. Hudson
stated the following: “Although the
bullfrog is native to Nebraska it’s
original distribution was no doubt
much more restricted than at present.
Countless thousands have been released
by the game commission in all parts of
the state.”
Years before Hudson’s 1942 statement,
during the same time the Nebraska Game
and Fish Commission was evaluating the
release of bullfrogs throughout nonnative
portions of the state, the Omaha WorldHerald’s Sandy Griswold wrote the
following on June 12, 1910:
“In the course of the spring months I
accumulated a wonderful assortment of
little creatures and put them in my
pond. There were salamanders that
crawled around among the pebbles on
the bottom, in company with crayfish,
snails, and small, black, red-spotted
turtles. Three tiny water snakes
entrenched themselves at one end of
the sloping bank, while at the other,
just as far away as possible, were half a
dozen little brook frogs, just learning to
use their newly acquired legs. Out in
the water swam minnows, tadpoles,
sunfish and whirl-a-gig bugs, all living
in harmonious contentment.
Occasionally, however, one of the
tadpoles mysteriously disappeared, and,
coincident with the catastrophe, a snake
would be seen to increase materially
his girth, but, aside from these little
tragedies, peace and quiet reigned
supreme; until one day – an evil day –
when I placed in the tub one of those
huge pond bullfrogs. The first to vanish
were the little frogs and tadpoles, and
by the end of ten days not a salamander
was left, and only one lone snake. The
fishes lasted well, and only after many
days did the last sunfish finally disappear
from the tub. But the old fellow must
have struck a snag when he tried a diet
of turtle shells or crayfish, or perhaps it
was remorse for his former companions;
for one morning we found him in the
water, his ponderous white stomach
extended to its fullest extent, lying flat on his
back – dead – and so ended our aquarium.”
Not All is Good
Despite their voracity, throughout the
last century bullfrogs in Nebraska have
still had to endure hardships. The 1912
Biennial Report stated: “The attempt to
acclimate the bull-frog has not up to
date been a decided success. Plants
made at Long Pine, in Brown County,
Beatrice, in Gage County, and
Benkelman and Imperial, in Chase
County, have promised some results,
but the efforts to introduce them into
the swampy sandhill lakes has thus far
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 17
Until 1958, there were no regulations regarding bullfrogs in Nebraska.
That year, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission placed a bag
and possession limit of 12 on the species, and bullfrogs could be
taken by rifle, spear, hook-and-line, hand net or hand. In 1974,
firearms were outlawed and bow and arrow was added as a legal
method of take.
In 1979, the Commission imposed even stricter limits, placing a size
limit of four and a half inches from nose to vent. Gigs, arrows and
spears were no longer legal to use. That same length limit still applies
today, as does the law that they may only be captured by hand, hand
net or hook-and-line. Current regulations allow “frogging” from August
15 to October 31, with a bag limit of eight per person. Hunting is
usually done from dusk to dawn and a Nebraska fishing permit is required.
While regulations have changed through the years, there has been
one constant as relevant now as it was at the turn of the 20th century –
how they should be cooked: “First dry the saddles [the bullfrog’s legs],
dip them in egg batter, roll in corn meal and cook them in boiling hot
fat until they have a light brown appearance.” – Omaha Daily Bee,
July 29, 1894.
A bullfrog’s eyes are blinded with a hand-held spotlight as a “frogger” makes an attempt at catching one by hand.
been marked with failure.”
In addition, it was not until 1974 that
rifle shooting was outlawed in Nebraska
for bullfrogs. During the heavy drought
in the 1970s, a decline in bullfrogs was
noticed by conservation officers and
fisheries biologists across Nebraska.
Because bullfrogs take from one to
three years to reach adulthood, a
permanent water source is needed for
their long-term survival. A 1976-1977
study conducted by then-University of
Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student
Joseph McAuliffe researched bullfrog
growth and maturity rates and suggested
a later opening date, a size limit and a
reduced bag limit for bullfrog season to
ensure maximum reproduction. These
limits were adopted by the Commission
and are still in effect today.
It also appears as if bullfrog tadpoles
can be affected by the tadpole edema
virus, which causes hemorrhage in
skeletal tissue similar to that caused
with frogs afflicted with the ranavirus
frog virus. In addition, bullfrogs can be
18 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
affected by UV exposure, which has
increased worldwide, because bullfrog
eggs are laid on thin sheets on the surface
of water (see sidebar on page 16).
Furthermore, a study in the St. Lawrence
River Valley of Quebec, Canada revealed
that endocrine-disrupting chemicals,
namely herbicides and pesticides, cause
hindlimb deformities in various
amphibians, including bullfrogs. Lastly,
in 1996 the Australian government
banned 84 herbicides, each containing
glyphosate as the active ingredient, near
streams and waterways because of its
apparent effect on frogs and tadpoles.
Glyphosate, which is the active
ingredient in Roundup®, is a staple
herbicide in Nebraska.
Mistaken Identity
Despite their invasive characteristics
when introduced to nonnative regions,
bullfrogs thrive in their native ecosystems
and do not pose the same threats as they
do when introduced to these new areas.
“It’s funny,” said Fogell. “We did some
research a few years back with students
from the University of Arizona in the
southeastern part of Nebraska. When
they saw bullfrogs in these regions, they
got mad. They looked at them with
disdain. ‘Hold up,’ I told them.
‘They’re supposed to be here. They’re
just not supposed to be in
Arizona.’”
As stated earlier, bullfrogs are
native to parts of Nebraska, just
not the entire state. While it
doesn’t seem as if they have had a
negative impact on Nebraska’s
amphibian populations,
including cricket frogs and Great
Plains leopard frogs, little is
known about the bullfrog’s
current status across the state.
Commission biologist Mike Fritz
said that there is a probability
that bullfrogs are increasing in
Nebraska, but added “we do not
track bullfrog numbers.”
Talk to various people
throughout the state, and you’re
likely to get various answers
regarding bullfrog populations.
Some say numbers are steady,
and others say that do not see or
hear as many as they used to.
This is a topic that should be
watched closely.
With all the detrimental issues North
American bullfrogs cause internationally,
and as many issues as amphibians face
worldwide, analyzing the bullfrog’s
effect in nonnative areas of our own state
is extremely important. As is ensuring
that these survivors remain prolific
throughout their native regions. ■
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 19
T H E
G O A L
I N
L I F E ,
I
B E L I E V E ,
Stan and his wife, Kim, spend
an early fall morning fishing a
Sandhills pond.
Paddle Talk
Text and photos by Jeff Kurrus
Talk to most anglers and they will tell you that
the most important part of the fishing trip is
not the fish, but the tales told while on the
water.
W
hen watching Sandhills
bass angler Stan Schied of
Callaway fish, it’s obvious
it isn’t his first day on the
water. When watching his
wife, Kim, fish beside him, it’s sometimes
hard to tell who taught who how to
fish. While their techniques differ, any
story about 100-bass days or trophy
largemouth would never even come
close to raising a curious eyebrow
with these two. They know how to
fish, period.
Just like their technical differences,
with Stan wanting to bury his boat in
the thickest, most vegetated areas
possible and Kim wanting to fish fast
until she finds fish, albeit open or
heavy-covered water, they both have a
difference in their words when on the
lake. Kim’s usually, if not always,
relate directly to the current fish she is
trying to catch. With Stan, his stories
can be as varied as his lure choices,
and serve as nothing more than a way
to pass the time between casts.
For the fortunate listener, these
stories are part of the entire outdoor
experience that is only understood by
anglers on the water or hunters in a
blind. The best part about spending
time on the water with a new fishing
partner like Stan? His stories are all
new. The following are some of Stan’s
tales spun on the water, a stream-ofconsciousness look at a few hours spent
in the Sandhills between bulrushes and
bass.
The Nebraska Sandhills sit atop the
massive Ogallala Aquifer. Marshes and
temporary and permanent shallow
lakes are common in low-lying parts.
The eastern and central sections of
the region are drained by tributaries of
the Loup and Niobrara rivers, while the
western section is largely composed
of small interior drainage basins.
As a Child
I’ve been fishing these lakes for a lot
of years and many of them haven’t
changed a bit. When I got to be about
10 years old, I’d say I wanted to fish
and was told to have fun. We’d seine
minnows from the area creeks. Then,
when we got done fishing, we were
told to “feed the fish.” I’m sure we
threw carp into the lakes, too – we just
didn’t know any better.
I think I had as much to do with
some of the lakes going bad as the
adults. When we weren’t using live
bait, I caught the rest of my bass on a
Johnson’s silver minnow or a Rapala.
This one time, I saw a bass splash near
the bulrush. I made a cast, caught the
fish, then saw something in its mouth.
A bird’s feet. I pulled on the feet and
the blackbird was still alive.
Bad Fishing Partners
Aggressive and beautifully-colored Sandhills largemouth bass is what Stan loves
about fishing in north-central Nebraska.
20 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
Early on in my marriage, I fished a
tournament with a guy. At the time I
didn’t have a lot of money. And every
time I got my crankbait hung up, he
wouldn’t let me go and get my lure. So
I had to cut my line each time. When
you have no money, lures get expensive
quick. I never fished with the guy
again.
I took another guy one time to one
of my little private lakes up here, and
came back a couple months later and
there was a tournament going on at the
lake being hosted by that guy. There
was a field full of cars with Iowa
license plates in the Sandhills. Man, I
was so naïve at the time.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 21
I S
T O
F I N D
A
S P O U S E
office and found where there
had been bass stocked. Any
lake that was the right size
and had the right size of
fish, I went to look for
permission. It didn’t mean
that they had to let me fish,
but I sure could ask.
One time, several years
back, I was planning to fish
a public lake, Cottonwood
Steverson. I saw a guy
coming out of his field near
where the lake was. He
asked me why I was going
there. I told him I wanted to
catch and release bass. He
said, “You don’t want to fish
here. You want to fish my
lake.” I took him up on the
offer.
If you’re just polite when
you’re talking to folks it
sometimes works out.
Fish Guides
Kim holds a largemouth caught near bulrushes on a
recent trip with her husband.
Permission
Years ago when I was in school I
wanted to start bass fishing. Someone
told me I could go through the state’s
stocking records. So I sat on the floor
in the Nebraska Game Commission’s
I was talking to a fishing
guide one time and I asked
him about the biggest bass he had ever
caught. He said it was 11 or 12 pounds,
but at the time he caught it he was
fishing with a client who wanted to take
it home and claim it as his own. This
was before you could get the synthetic
mounts for fish. A little bit later while
W H O
I S
D E D I C A T E D
22 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
T H E
S A M E
T H I N G S
A S
Y O U
we were fishing, he
caught a great big
rainbow trout. “I
finally get one of
these to mount,” he
says. Then I say,
“No, that’s my fish.”
You should have
seen the look on his
face before I started
laughing.
Million Dollar
Muskrats
Originally, my
granddad followed a
herd of longhorns up
here from Missouri.
He liked it, and took
a job at a ranch
called the U-cross
that covered
hundreds of
thousands of acres.
He noticed all these
lakes had muskrat
dens and he knew
how to trap. At the
time, the muskrat
skins were worth 3
cents less than an
acre of ground. “So
I just kept my mouth
shut and buried my
money in a coffee
can,” he told me
years later. So he
got enough money
to buy land, then he started raising
cattle. No one thought this ground was
worth anything because you couldn’t
grow corn on it. But it sure would grow
cattle. Through the years, Dad built the
acreage up to 20,000 acres. And to
think it all started with a few muskrats.
A Pattern for the Pros
Stan, running a foot-controlled trolling motor, guides the boat into thick bulrushes in
search of bass.
T O
When we were younger, we had a
pattern on these Sandhills lakes that
would work every time. So, one day
when I was feeling unstoppable, I called
Rick Clunn shortly after he won those
two Bassmaster Classics in a row. I told
him I was thinking about turning pro.
He was a very nice man, and he
chatted with me for quite awhile. Then
Stan fishes with youngster Jake Adamson on a sunlit fall morning.
he says, “Okay, let me understand this.
You got a couple lakes you know like
the back of your hand, right? Well, why
don’t you get on a reservoir you’ve
never seen before and fish against me.
Unless you’re really financially healthy,
you might want to think twice about
this decision.” I think it was some of
the best advice that I ever got. There’s
a difference between professional fishing
and recreational fishing. And I’m more
partial to the thought of the latter.
Fitting In
When I was a kid growing up, I didn’t
fit in very well socially with the city
kids. Growing up 10 miles north of
Lincoln near Ceresco, I always had
cow (expletive) on my boots every
morning when I went to school but I
couldn’t help it. Dad said to milk those
dang cows, and I had to milk those
dang cows. But up here in the Sandhills,
when I visited I didn’t have that problem
with the kids because all of us had cow
(expletive) on our boots.
Valentine. That country is so horrible,
no one will even live there.” I kept a
straight face and said, “Isn’t it. It’s
absolutely the armpit of the Earth.”
“I can get you a job back east,” he said.
“I’ll think about it,” I said. But if he
thought I was going to leave an area so
close to that “armpit,” he was nuts.
The Armpit
Stan’s stories resonate time spent on
the water. Only a person who has
logged so many hours could talk about
bird-eating bass and other oddities
with a straight face. Yet it is these
tales that reveal how comfortable
Stan is in this part of the world, where
day-to-day bass fishing trips form
stories he’ll remember and re-tell for
a lifetime. ■
We had a guy that did some contract
work at our hospital in Callaway. I
couldn’t stand him. He walked like he
was special, talked like he was special.
Wore a four-piece suit, the whole bit.
He came in one day and said, “God, I
did a terrible thing. I drove to a town
called Chadron and a town called
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 23
A Platte River Purchase
Text and photos by Eric Fowler
F
water users and conservation groups that began in the early1980s when Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation
District initiated efforts to relicense Kingsley Dam, which
holds back the waters of the North Platte River to form
Lake McConaughy, bringing the Endangered Species Act
into play.
The program will take an incremental approach in its
restoration efforts. The first increment will span 13 years and
cost $320 million, with the federal government contributing
$157 million for its share and Colorado and Wyoming
pitching in $30 million in cash, as well as land and water.
Nebraska’s share of the program’s cost will be entirely
covered by contributions of land and water.
During this phase, 10,000 acres of land bought from
willing sellers or protected through conservation easements
is to be restored between Lexington and Chapman by 2019.
Phase II could add another 19,000 acres.
Jerry Kinney, executive director of the program, said his
group is looking for properties within or adjacent to the high
bank of the river. Within the high banks, trees and shrubs
will be removed to recreate an open, braided river with bare
sandbars where terns and plovers can nest and cranes can
rest. Sloughs and backwaters will be restored, and adjacent
uplands will be restored to native prairie and wet meadows.
Kinney said because little conservation work has been
done west of Kearney, their initial push for land acquisition
and restoration is focused in that reach. But they are also
looking for land east of there next to other properties that
have already been restored, such as those owned by the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Platte River
Whooping Crane Trust and Nature
Conservancy. Ideally, two- or three-mile-long
blocks of restored habitat spanning both sides
of the river can be created. “We’d like to have a
number of those chunks spread over the entire
critical habitat reach,” Kinney said.
Public access, including hunting and fishing,
might be allowed on some land purchased by
the program, Kinney said, but that will hinge on
the type of research being done on the
property.
One of the program’s goals is to reduce
target flow shortages in the Platte by 130,000 to
150,000 acre-feet per year, especially during
the time when it can most benefit terns, plovers
and whooping cranes. But that won’t be easy.
When the cooperative agreement was signed in
1997, the states agreed to make up for future
depletions; yet in Nebraska’s portion of the
Platte River basin alone, more than 3,000 new
irrigation wells have been added. Whether the
The interior least tern is one of four threatened or endangered species the
states can make up for post-1997 development
Platte River Recovery and Implementation Program is designed to protect.
or more than two decades, advocates for restoration of
the Platte River have been putting their foot down in
defense of this biologically unique and important
resource and the fish and wildlife that depend on it. Now
they nearly have something to really put their foot down on:
land.
This spring, officials with the Platte River Recovery
Implementation Program purchased four parcels of land
covering 1,000 acres and located between Lexington and
Minden, and are working to close on four more tracts
covering 1,700 acres. The land will be restored to benefit
least terns, piping plovers and whooping cranes, all federally
threatened or endangered species, and other species of fish
and wildlife that utilize the river.
For more than 100 years, the Platte’s water has been
impounded and diverted for power and irrigation projects,
erasing the ebb and flow that maintained what was once an
open, braided river channel. Thousands of irrigation wells
in the Platte Basin have compounded the problem, reducing
the level of hydrologically connected groundwater that
contributes a substantial portion of the river’s flow. As
a result, the river’s width has been reduced by 50 to
90 percent, and vegetation has encroached on 80 to
95 percent of what is left.
Approved in 2006 and launched in January 2007, the
recovery program grew from a cooperative agreement signed
in 1997 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the
governors of Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado to find
solutions to problems on the Platte. The agreement was the
end result of legal wrangling between the Service, states,
24 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
Habitat restoration projects on land acquired by the Platte River program will be similar to that done on the private land
near Wood River shown here, including clearing trees from islands and restoring sloughs.
is key to meeting target flows, Kinney said.
Kinney said they are also looking for new places to store
water to supplement base flows, pulse flows or both.
Twenty-five potential sites have been identified and that list
will soon be narrowed to three for further analysis.
A water action plan developed in 2000 is being updated,
focusing on “exactly what we’re going to do to reduce the
deficit to target flows and manage the pulse flow targets we
need,” Kinney said. That work will include determining how
to best use water in the Environmental Account in Lake
McConaughy, which stores a percentage of annual flows to
be released to maintain river habitat.
In April, the Service and Platte River Recovery Program
staff worked together to test a pulse flow to provide
information on how long it takes water released from
McConaughy to reach downstream locations and how much
it affects water levels. They will continue to evaluate the
effectiveness of pulse flows to determine whether they are
enough to strip vegetation from the riverbed and sandbars as
spring flows once did or if the river will need to be cleared
mechanically.
Restoring habitat and river flows are the meat of the
program, but monitoring and management will ensure the
activities actually produce the desired benefits before the
second increment of the program is launched in 2020.
“We don’t know everything we need to know to help the
[threatened and endangered] species recover. The fact is, we
don’t agree on everything we think we know,” Kinney said.
“Adaptive management allows you to stop arguing long
enough to gather enough information to make informed
decisions.”
Studies will gauge the response that whooping cranes,
terns and plovers, the fish and insects that terns and plovers
feed on, and vegetation has to the restoration and
management practices. Others will ensure that any actions
taken in the central Platte region do not negatively affect
pallid sturgeon in the lower Platte. And a new candidate for
listing, the Platte River caddisfly (see story on page 38),
will also be watched closely and considered when work is
planned. “One of the objectives of the program is to try and
prevent other species from joining the [threatened and
endangered species] list,” Kinney said.
Kinney said program staff will work closely with the Fish
and Wildlife Service to identify caddisfly habitat and insure
their land restoration efforts don’t affect the species, and also
try to incorporate features that would benefit or provide
habitat for caddisflies.
An independent science advisory committee and peer
review panels will follow and evaluate the program’s efforts
on the river. “We have a lot of questions to answer,” Kinney
said. “Thirteen years sounds like a long time, but when
you’re trying to gather data in a living laboratory where a lot
of things are uncontrolled.
“It’s challenging, but it’s a very exciting challenge.” ■
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 25
HomegrownExposition
Text and photos by Jon Farrar
ABOVE: Niobrara State Park assistant superintendent Mark Rettig points out Missouri River geologic features.
OPPOSITE: Instructor Todd Kratke instructs a beginner in proper form and arrow release.
T
he Missouri River Outdoor Expo that
has been held in September at Ponca
State Park each year since 2005 started
modestly, but has mushroomed into one of
the largest outdoor recreation and conservation
education events in the state.
The mission of the Expo is relatively simple –
bring together, in an old-fashioned county fair
atmosphere, experts in many areas of outdoor
sports, recreation and conservation and invite
the public to learn more about their favorite
activity or be introduced to new possibilities.
It was a concept born at exactly the right
time, when participation in traditional
outdoor recreation was declining.
The first Expo was scheduled for lateSeptember when the weather was predictably
mild and pleasant. Defying more than 100 years
of weather averages, a dark cloud hovered
over Dixon County for most of the 2005
event, dumping eight inches of rain. Some
activities and demonstrations were moved
26 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
inside the Missouri National Recreational
River Resource and Education Center, and
other events went on outside as best they
could during breaks in the downpour.
Remarkably, an estimated 6,000 people still
showed up that inaugural year, and each year
since the weather has been gorgeous for the
event.
The beauty of the Missouri River Outdoor
Expo is that it is spread across much of the
2,400-acre park – from the spacious resource
and education center, the “Shooters Village”
tucked away in a wooded hollow of the
Missouri River bluffs, and to water sports at
the river’s edge. Shuttles transport people
from one site to the next, but many walk from
event to event through woodlands showing
the first hint of autumn color. Thousands of
people attend the Expo but it never seems
crowded. Outdoor recreation and conservation
exhibits and demonstrations are outdoors
where they belong.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 27
A list of everything a Missouri River Outdoor Expo visitor can
see and do would fill this page, but a sampling suggests the
variety: Shooting sports, including archery, shotgun,
muzzleloading, pellet gun and .22 rifle; outdoor skills
demonstrations such as Dutch-oven cooking, trapping, game
calling, fly tying/fishing and kayaking; and conservation
education events such as bird banding and a sandbox where
young people can dig for fossils. In the resource and education
center, Expo goers view art, photography, taxidermy and book
exhibits. In 2008, more than 50 vendors and exhibitors attended
the Expo, hawking everything from recreational vehicles, custommade knives and game calls, to ornamental metal work produced
ABOVE: Youngsters and oldsters
have a hands-on experience
with kayaks on a shallow
Missouri River backwater.
LEFT: James Horn, retired
National Park Service employee,
demonstrates handmade Native
American items used to survive
on the Great Plains.
RIGHT: Muzzleloader Tom
Roberts showed Expo visitors
how quickly his flintlock could
be reloaded and fired.
28 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
by blacksmiths laboring over onsite forges. There are dog training
seminars and the popular “Splash
Dogs” competition.
Expo boat rides on the Missouri
River are more than just an
adventure; they’re an opportunity
to learn about the Missouri
National Recreational River, the
only unchannelized portion of the
river bordering Nebraska; its
geology, fauna and flora, and the
history of river travel in the 1800s.
There are presentations on game
cooking, outdoor survival, wildlife
management, hunter ethics and
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 29
Last year an estimated 42,000 people attended the Missouri
River Outdoor Expo. Accommodating so many and providing
diverse experiences requires a huge gift of time from volunteers,
not just putting on the event but planning it as well. It also
takes money. About half of the funding for the Expo comes
from the Commission, mostly in the form of staff time and
equipment. The other half comes from vendor fees and sponsors.
There are six levels of sponsorship. At the top are the Heritage
Sponsors, those businesses or organizations contributing
$5,000 or more. In 2008, those sponsors included Scheels All
Sports, Interstate Batteries, Nebraska and Iowa chapters of
Friends of the National Rifle Association, Pheasants Forever,
Great Plains Communications, Z98/Fox Sports Radio and
KTIV TV Channel 4 in Sioux City, Iowa.
What has made the Expo so successful, Fields said, is local
land stewardship. Visitors can check out the
latest waterfowl decoys or all-terrain vehicles
on the market. Youngsters and oldsters can see
and touch fish, snakes and turtles. There are
more things to do at the Expo than a family
will have time to do in just one day. And, there
are prize drawings and discounts for Nebraska
Youth Lifetime Hunting-Fishing Permits.
Jeff Fields, superintendent of Ponca State
Park, is quick to praise the volunteers who
make the Expo happen. In 2008, more than
300 volunteers assisted with the event, with
the Better Ponca Foundation recruiting
two-thirds of them from Ponca and nearby
30 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
communities. Volunteers serve as shuttle
drivers and guides, man information booths –
whatever needs to be done. Other volunteers
come from Commission staff and conservation
organizations. Again the list is too long to note
all, but the 2008 Expo had volunteers from such
organizations as Pheasants Forever, Ducks
Unlimited, Nebraska 4-H Shooting Sports,
Friends of the National Rifle Association, and
the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. Commercial
vendors in 2008 included Yamaha, Polaris, Reel
Wings Decoys, Browning/Winchester, Benelli
USA, Beretta and a host of smaller outdoor
sports businesses and cottage industries.
ABOVE: The spacious
Missouri National Recreational
River Resource and Education
Center was filled with art,
photography, taxidermy and
book exhibits.
RIGHT: Dean Slader
demonstrated blacksmithing
throughout the Expo’s two
days last year and offered
hand-forged items for sale.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 31
and regional support. “It’s
the people’s event and they
make it happen.” An advisory
board of 25 people drawn
from local communities,
regional Commission staff,
and conservation groups and
organizations meet monthly
to plan the next Expo. They
look at what worked, what
did not and how the event
can be improved.
Most Expo visitors come
from northeastern Nebraska,
southeastern South Dakota
and western Iowa. Since 2006,
about 300 fifth-grade school
students from the region have
come to the park the Friday
before the Expo opens to the
public and experience most of
the same demonstrations and
hands-on events that happen
on the weekend. Fields said
the swelling interest in the
Expo has been amazing,
particularly in a time when
organized sports, video
games and the Internet seem
to dominate young people’s
time at the expense of
traditional outdoor sports.
And the Expo meshes nicely
with the Commission’s
recently developed Hunter
and Angler Recruitment,
Development and Retention
Plan to draw young and old
into, or back to, traditional
outdoor sports and
experiences.
“I think we have created
the sort of event we set out
to do,” Fields said. “It is
something families do together
and many come back year
after year. The Expo has a
rural atmosphere, just like the
old county fairs. It was timed
32 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
for right before the hunting seasons, when
people are getting geared up, planning,
anticipating, and learning more about their
favorite outdoors pursuits. And, of course, we
want to encourage young and old alike to be
outdoors; to hunt, fish, camp, watch birds,
whatever interests them. The Missouri River
Outdoor Expo is an opportunity to sample
the possibilities.”
The Missouri River Outdoor Expo slogan,
“An Outdoor Family Tradition,” aptly
describes the goal of the event – to provide a
venue where parents, grandparents, aunts
and uncles can spark interest in hunting,
fishing and camping within their children,
grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and pass
on their outdoor heritage. ■
enter the park. Food vendors are on the grounds.
Other Commission-sponsored outdoor expo events
for 2010 include: the east version of the Nebraska
Outdoor Expo for fourth and fifth grade students
on April 21-22 at Platte River State Park; the west
version in Scottsbluff for fifth, sixth and seventh
grade students May 4-5; the original Nebraska
Outdoor Expo at Fort Kearny Recreation Area on
May 13-14 for fourth through sixth grade students,
and May 15 for the public; and the Missouri River
Outdoor Expo at Ponca on September 17 for fifth
grade students, and September 18-19 for the
public. Additional information about outdoor
expos can be found on the Internet at
www.nebraskaoutdoorsexpo.org or by calling
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission event
coordinator Julia Plugge at (402) 471-6009.
Editor’s note: This year’s Missouri River Outdoor
Expo will be held September 19-20. Expo hours are
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
on Sunday. There is no admission charge, but a
valid Nebraska State Park Permit is required to
OPPOSITE: A climbing wall provided by the U.S. Army gave
youngsters an opportunity to safely try their hand, and feet, on
sheer, vertical climbs.
BELOW: Game and Parks Commission wildlife biologist Tom
Welstead demonstrated how to use different types of turkey calls
to a group of future turkey hunters.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 33
Returning
Fire to the
Ecosystem
Burning the Woodlands
at Indian Cave State Park
By Gerry Steinauer
N
Woodland Ecology
Prior to settlement, the bluffs and
breaks of the Missouri River and its
larger tributaries in eastern Nebraska
were only partially wooded. Basswood,
red oak, black walnut and other moistureloving trees grew in the somewhat
fire-protected bottoms and low on
north- and east-facing slopes. Higher
on these slopes grew the more open
stands of bur and black oak, shagbark
hickory and other trees that were more
drought and fire tolerant trees.
The dry west- and south-facing
slopes and ridgetops supported tallgrass
prairie and savannah – prairies with
scattered oaks. Lightning and Indianset fires burned with intensity through
grass-fueled prairies and open
woodlands at least every few years,
burning with less intensity or going out
when they reached the denser low
woodlands.
“The last fire to burn through Indian
Cave State Park was about 40 years
ago,” said Bill Kerkow, Indian Cave
State Park employee and longtime local
resident of the area. “Old man
Morehead to the north burned off his
34 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
PHOTO BY GERRY STEINAUER
ative Americans understood
the benefits of fire to eastern
Nebraska’s deciduous
woodlands and frequently set
them ablaze. Fires thinned the
trees and brush in the stream bluff and
floodplain woodlands, making travel
easier, promoting fruit-bearing shrubs
and acorn-producing oaks – both
important food sources – and attracting
game.
Early European settlers continued to
burn woodlands for much the same
reasons. However, that tradition was
gradually lost in the early 20th century
when forest fire suppression became
official policy. The subsequent decades
without fire, or with relatively few
fires, have resulted in drastic changes
in the tree composition and density of
woodlands, impacting both native
plants and wildlife populations.
This past spring, a 1,100-acre
prescribed fire was conducted on the
wooded Missouri River bluffs at Indian
Cave State Park in Nemaha and
Richardson counties. This burn was
a first step to restore the park’s
woodlands and once again make fire
part of the ecosystem.
Jarren Kuipers of the Northern Prairies Land Trust watches the Indian Cave State Park fire from a hiking trail.
Here on a high, wind-exposed ridgetop with plenty of oak leaf litter the fire burned with intensity.
woods and the fire worked its way
down through the park area.”
The recent lack of fire has allowed
fire-intolerant shrubs and trees, such as
rough dogwood, buck brush, hackberry,
elms and eastern red cedar, to proliferate
in the park’s woodlands, shading out
grasses and wildflowers that prefer open
woodlands. Brush and trees have also
overgrown the prairies and savannahs,
so that they are restricted to narrow
bands on only the highest and driest
ridgetops in the park.
Oaks in particular suffer without
periodic fires – oak seedlings and
saplings require ample sunlight and
will not survive to maturity in densely
shaded woodlands. Presently, Indian
Cave’s woodlands are too dense for oaks
to regenerate, so without fire to thin
brush and trees, they will eventually be
lost. Most oak woodlands throughout
eastern Nebraska are suffering this
same fate.
Oaks and many other native trees are
well-adapted to fire – the thick bark of
oaks protects them from fire, and if
top-killed by fire they resprout. Oaks
may even promote fire – their fallen
leaves remain thick and durable, readily
burning and carrying fire when dry. In
contrast, the thinner, less durable
leaves of elms, hackberry and other
fire-intolerant trees degrade rapidly and
burn hesitantly even when dry.
Other native prairie and woodland
plants and wildlife will also eventually
disappear if fire is not returned to the
park. For example, Indian Cave is one
of a few sites in the state where the
endangered southern flying squirrel
still survives. The diminutive squirrel
requires open oak woodlands with
large trees to provide den sites and
acorns for food. Also, because these
squirrels move between trees by gliding
(hence their name) on skin membranes
that stretch between front and hind
legs, they must have open woodlands –
they can’t survive in tree-choked
forests of elms and hackberries.
An additional problem at Indian
Cave is that recent ice storms have
littered the woodland floor with downed
limbs and trees, adding to those that had
accumulated during decades without
fire. In some areas, the downed timber
has made the woods nearly inaccessible
to hikers, mushroom hunters and other
park users, so fire is needed to help
consume the downed wood.
The Burn
On the morning of March 19, 2009,
a dozen Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission employees and other
conservationists gathered at Indian
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 35
mix of gasoline and diesel fuel, four
crew members set fire along the two
miles of blacktop.
Once the fire was started, there was
little for the burn crew to do except
patrol the fire’s perimeter and watch
the flames and smoke. The wind was
generally from the south at about five
miles per hour, so on wind-exposed
slopes with lots of oak leaf litter the
flames moved at a steady pace. Where
it burned down slope and into the wind,
the fire moved at a snail’s pace.
Stronger winds would have sped the
fire along and allowed it to burn more
areas, as many slopes with few oak
leaves did not burn.
Compared to prairie fires, which are
fed by abundant grass litter and are in
open country, deciduous woodland
fires, fed by leaf litter and often in
wind-sheltered hills, are slow burning.
To speed the burn, a few burn crew
members set fires along some of the
many hiking trails that meander
through the woods.
The only real danger with this burn
was where standing dead trees caught
fire near the road – these flaming towers
could burn for several days, and if the
wind were to pick up they could send
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
Cave State Park to set fire to 200 acres
of Missouri River floodplain wetlands
and 1,100 acres of bluff woodlands. It
was a fairly good day for a prescribed
woodland fire – the sky was clear, the
air temperature was predicted to reach
the mid-60s, and the winds were
relatively light. The burn was originally
planned for early March, but rain, snow
and cool temperatures had postponed it.
The snow had now melted, however,
and the leaf litter was sufficiently dry
to burn.
After finalizing their plans, the burn
crew started burning the wetlands at
10 a.m. to set back the young
cottonwoods that were invading the
area. As the wetlands burned, a few
crew members took all-terrain vehicles
armed with spray units and burned
around picnic shelters and other
structures in the bluff woodlands to
protect them from the main fire.
By 1 p.m. the wetlands had burned,
so the crew ate a quick lunch and then
got ready for the woodland fire. The
woodland burn unit was bordered by a
blacktop road on three sides and the
Missouri River on the east, providing
safe fire breaks from which to light the
fire. Using drip torches filled with a
Dutchman's breeches were one of several woodland wildflowers in bloom just weeks after the fire.
PHOTO BY GERRY STEINAUER
Commission employees Rick Souerdyke (left) and Brad Seitz dowse a burning dead
tree adjacent to one of the park’s blacktop roads.
36 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
burning embers across the road into
unburned areas, so all burning trees
near the road were dowsed with water,
cut down with chainsaws and allowed
to burn out on the ground.
The fire worked its way through the
woods throughout the afternoon and
into the evening. Most of the burn crew
departed at supper time, though a few
stayed late into the evening watching
the fire. At dusk, lines of flames still
flickered in the woods and smoke hung
heavy over the park.
The next morning some standing
snags and downed logs still burned.
Hiking trails prevented some patches
with sufficient fuels from burning, so
crew members went into the burn unit’s
interior and set fire to the unburned areas.
In all, approximately 60 percent of
the woodlands within the unit burned.
The areas that did not burn generally
had few oaks and oak leaf litter. It is
important to note that the burn had no
negative impacts on wildlife – several
tom turkeys were seen foraging among
the burned leaf litter, white-tailed deer
browsed in unburned patches, and
songbirds sang profusely. Just weeks
after the burn, Dutchman’s breeches,
white trout-lily and other spring
wildflowers had pushed through the
ash and were in bloom.
This burn was a first step in reviving
the woodlands and hilltop prairies at
Indian Cave State Park. Decades
without fire had deteriorated the
woodlands and it will likely take
decades of fire to restore the woodlands
to health. Portions of the park will
likely be burned each spring and fall,
but the cutting of small trees and brush
in areas may also be needed. In time,
proper management will reduce tree
densities, allowing oaks to regenerate,
enlarging prairie openings and
enhancing native plant and wildlife
populations.
Future burns will likely occur on
weekdays and provide only a minor
inconvenience to park visitors. Visitors
must realize a little smoke in their
campground is a small price to pay for
healthy woodlands and abundant
wildlife. ■
Gerry Steinauer lives in Aurora and is
a botanist for the Nebraska Game and
Parks
Commission’s
Wildlife Division.
He has been
contributing
stories and
photographs to
NEBRASKAland
since 1990.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 37
Platte River
Caddisfly
Rare insect may become state’s next
endangered species
Text and photos by Eric Fowler
here are a few species of
caddisflies that call the Platte
River Valley home, but with an
adult life stage that allows
them just a few weeks to fly
around and be seen, few people are
aware of that, or would even know a
caddisfly if they saw one. One caddisfly
species flew so far under the radar that
it wasn’t discovered until 1997.
Presumably found nowhere outside the
Central Platte, it was aptly named the
Platte River caddisfly (Ironoquia
plattensis). Already rare when
compared to other insects when it was
discovered, its numbers have since
dropped in some locations, raising
concerns that could earn it a spot next
to 13 other plants, mammals, fishes,
insects and amphibians found both in
Nebraska and on the federal list of
threatened and endangered species.
By August 8, 2009, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (USFWS) is to publish
its initial review on the status of the
Platte River caddisfly in the Federal
Register. This court-ordered deadline is
in response to a petition by WildEarth
Guardians, an environmental group that
in 2007 petitioned the service to list the
Platte River caddisfly and 205 other
species as threatened or endangered.
Facing several threats, including
changes to river hydrology, loss and
degradation of habitat and threats from
invasive species, it appears that such
protection for the Platte River caddisfly
may be warranted. But little is known
about the obscure insect.
“We don’t know if it should be listed
or not,” said Robert Harms, fish and
wildlife biologist with the USFWS in
T
Grand Island. “At this point, we’re still
gathering information about the species
and its threats. But given the declines
in the number of insects at some sites,
it could very easily meet the mark to
make it a candidate species.”
The Platte River caddisfly was
discovered by Beth Goldowitz and
Matt Whiles, biologists who were
studying wetland sloughs and the
amphibians, fishes and insects that
inhabit them for the Platte River
Whooping Crane Trust on its Mormon
Island Crane Meadows property south
of Grand Island. Following a wet year
in 1995, scientists had noticed a huge
spike of biological activity in the
wetlands, especially in the number of
frogs, toads and fish, and hoped to
better understand the ecosystems, their
value to migratory birds and how
fluctuating water levels affected them.
In June 1997, biologists set up drift
fences and pitfall traps – buckets sunk
in the ground – to collect insects and
invertebrates that were migrating out of
the water and onto land. When they
checked their traps one day, they found
a surprise: “The bottoms of our buckets
were just full of thousands of these
caddisfly larvae,” said Goldowitz. “We
literally discovered this insect
completely by accident.”
Both Goldowitz, a fisheries biologist
working for the Crane Trust, and Whiles,
a Kansas State University entomologist,
immediately recognized the larvae as
caddisflies. But Whiles knew there was
something different about this species –
it was smaller and left its wetland
habitats earlier than other caddisflies
38 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
A Platte River caddisfly rests on a twig near a Hamilton County slough, one of 10 sites in the
Central Platte River Valley where the rare insect is currently known to exist.
known to inhabit the region.
There are about 1,350 caddisfly
species in the order Trichoptera that
inhabit freshwater rivers, streams,
lakes, marshes and other wetlands.
Caddisflies in general are small,
moth-like insects with two sets of hairy
wings that take the shape of a tent
when folded against their bodies. Adult
females lay their eggs on or under the
water, and sometimes even in vegetation
above it. In as little as three weeks, the
eggs hatch into larvae which live
underwater and, depending on the
species, feed upon algae, vegetation or
other insects. The larvae of some
species roam freely on the bottom of
whatever body of water they inhabit.
Others build cases with silk they
produce and silt, rocks, sand or small
pieces of vegetation that they carry with
them throughout their life much like a
snail carries its shell. A third variety
builds a net that they use both as a
retreat and to catch food. Larvae go
through several growth or instar stages,
shedding their rigid exoskeleton
between each and expanding their case
as needed. After their last larval stage,
the insects pupate, a process that may
last weeks or months. Some species
pupate underwater and others on land.
When pupation is complete, they
emerge as adults. As adults, their
primary purpose is to mate – they do
not eat and it is a short life, lasting just
one to two weeks for most species. To
ensure adults have a chance to mate,
emergence is synchronized, with males
hatching before females. Trout anglers
know this phenomenon as the “hatch,”
common among caddisflies as well as
mayflies and stoneflies.
While the caddisfly Goldowitz and
Whiles found was similar to Ironoquia
parvula, a species more common east
of Nebraska, further work in the lab
failed to match them to that or any
other member of the genus. “At that
point we had to collect adults in order
to be able to definitively identify
them,” said Goldowitz.
Screened boxes were built and placed
around the wetland at an elevation near
where the caddisfly larvae had been
collected. Technicians working on the
wetland study, which was funded in part
by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, checked the traps daily for the
next three months before adults finally
emerged in late-September.
Specimens were sent to the science
department at Wayne State College,
where Kevin Alexander used a scanning
electron micrograph to visually dissect
male and female samples and confirm
the find was indeed a new species. The
insect was accepted by the American
Entomological Society in 1999.
“That first year what we learned is
that all of the adults emerge within
about a 10-day period,” Goldowitz said.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 39
PHOTO COURTESY OF W. WYATT HOBACK
A Platte River caddisfly larvae pokes its head out of its case in the entomology
lab at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
“That was it. Boom, boom, and it was
over.”
In 1998, Goldowitz and Whiles
collected larval samples monthly to
study the lifecycle of the species, which
they learned is closely adapted to the
hydrologic regime of the sloughs and
wet meadows it inhabits. After adults
emerge from late-September through
mid-October, they mate and lay their
eggs on the surface film of water in
shallow sloughs, linear
depressions that were once river
channels. The eggs sink to the bottom,
but do not hatch for about a month,
presumably a safeguard against
wetlands drying once more before
becoming wet for the winter.
Unlike similar Ironoquia species,
Platte River caddisflies grow very little
after hatching in the fall and spend most
of their first larval stage dormant on the
bottom of the wetland, which can freeze
solid during winter. Larvae build a case
with small particles of sand and soil
bound with silk and live in and carry
Platte River caddisflies use sand and silk to form a case they carry with them until
they pupate and emerge as adults.
40 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
this case until they emerge as adults.
In February, the larvae begin growing
and feed by shredding aquatic vegetation
and plant material found beneath the
water. In late-May or early-June,
during the fifth and final growth stage,
larvae move from the wetland to the
adjacent wet meadow. The timing of
this emigration occurs when wetlands
often dry out for the summer, and is
much earlier than other caddisfly
species that pupate on land. Larvae
spend the summer beneath the
vegetative litter of the adjacent wet
meadow, where they remain somewhat
active but do not feed.
In early September, the insect pupates
within its case and emerges later that
month when surface and groundwater
levels are rising and water is returning
to the wetlands. Unlike other species of
caddisflies, which fly upstream to lay
eggs that then develop as they drift,
Platte River caddisflies are poor fliers
and don’t range far from the slough.
“They don’t need to because this is a
wetland slough,” said John Reins, a
University of Nebraska at Kearney
(UN-K) graduate student who has
studied the Platte River caddisfly. “The
water stays relatively constant. They
probably lay their eggs the same place
that their mother laid her eggs, or
pretty close, within 10 feet or so.”
Goldowitz continued to monitor the
Platte River caddisfly on Mormon Island
through 2003. In 1999, she branched
out to look for other populations of the
insect’s larvae at 17 sites between
Overton and Chapman, finding them at
five new locations, all within a 46-mile
stretch of the Platte between Gibbon
and Central City. In the fall of 2004,
she conducted another search for the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission,
taking sweep net samples at 28 sites
along the Platte and Loup River in
eastern Nebraska in hopes of capturing
adults, but finding them in only two
sites where she had previously found
larvae. None were found on the
Mormon Island site where the species
was discovered. Bad weather scuttled
plans to search similar habitats along
the Elkhorn River.
UN-K entomology professor Wyatt
Hoback and his students are continuing
the search for the insect in known and
new locations. This spring, Lindsay
Vivian, using a Geographic Information
Lindsay Vivian holds a larval case left behind by a Platte River caddisfly that she found while searching the area around a
Hamilton County slough with fellow University of Nebraska at Kearney graduate student John Reins.
System model she helped develop as
part of a graduate study to help identify
likely habitats, as well as studying aerial
imagery on Google Earth, found larvae
in six new locations, stretching its
known range west to Kearney and east
to Silver Creek.
“We thought it was so very rare, so
to keep finding more populations is
good news,” Vivian said. “I was
definitely excited.”
While that is good news, the number
of insects remains high in only two of
the original sites where they were
found. They are very low in number at
two of the original sites as well as the
eight new ones, and are not found two
others.
Changes to the historic flow regime
of the Platte River are the primary
threat to the survival of the Platte River
caddisfly and its wetland and wet
meadow habitats. Winter ice jams and
high spring flows once regularly sent
water over a broad swath of landscape,
creating new backwater and slough
habitat and scouring vegetation from
old ones. High spring flows are now
stored in irrigation reservoirs and seldom
occur. Diversions and the proliferation
of groundwater wells for irrigation in
the region have reduced summer river
flows and lowered groundwater levels,
which provide water for wetlands and
wet meadows in the valley that are
utilized by many other fish and wildlife
species. The effects of these changes
were readily visible during the recent
prolonged drought, in which the
Central Platte ran dry each summer from
2002 to 2006, sometimes for months.
Additionally, the conversion of
75 percent of the historic wet meadows
and sloughs to cropland, and intensive
grazing on many of the remaining native
grasslands, are also factors that have
affected Platte River caddisfly numbers.
“Its evolutionary adaptation to the
Platte River system and the historic
flow regime makes it an important
component of that whole system,”
said Mike Fritz, zoologist with the
Commission’s Natural Heritage
Program. “It represents how that system
used to function with historical flooding
and drying cycles and groundwater
regimes that are unique to the Platte
River and created and maintained those
backwater sloughs and wet meadows.
“But most of those habitats have
been either significantly reduced or
severely degraded, so working on the
conservation of the caddisfly works
toward the conservation and restoration
of those types of plant communities in
the Central Platte River.”
Other threats to the Platte River
caddisfly include invasive plants, some
of them nonnative, such as phragmites,
purple loosestrife, reed canarygrass,
eastern red cedar and Russian olive that
are encroaching on the Platte River
caddisfly’s known habitats.
Also, the nonnative mosquitofish
(Gambusia affinis), a minnow-sized
fish introduced to Nebraska waters to
help control mosquito populations, is
known to feed on all aquatic
invertebrates and has expanded its
range since the discovery of the Platte
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 41
MAP BY SUDHIR PONNAPPAN, GIS SPECIALIST
AREA
ENLARGED
River caddisfly. Hoback said
mosquitofish are present at one of the
two sites that have healthy caddisfly
populations, as well as other locations
where the insects’ numbers have
declined. Laboratory studies are underway at UN-K to determine how much
The small hairs on a Platte River
caddisfly’s wings sparkle in the sunlight.
the fish might be affecting the insect.
Hoback and his students are also
studying the longevity of caddisfly
cases left on the banks of sloughs after
adults emerge. “We don’t know how
long they persist, but we suspect they
last more than a year,” he said.
Knowing the answer to that question
will help make population estimates,
which can include counts of cases
found on land, more accurate.
The UN-K studies, funded by grants
from the Service and the Commission,
are leading to other new information
about the insect. Hoback said that while
collecting larvae this spring, they also
collected sediment from the bottom of
the wetland to take back to the lab.
“We looked at the container and pretty
soon we saw five more larvae we didn’t
know were there, and a little while later
we found some more,” he said. “So we
learned they burrow into sediment,
presumably to hide from predators.
We’re learning a lot by happenstance.”
Still, much is yet to be learned about
the insect. Researchers do not know
whether flooding might carry larvae
from one wetland to another, but it is
believed the limited mobility of adults
prevents females from seeking water in
which to lay their eggs if the wetland
42 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
they emigrated from is dry.
Scientists also do not yet know if
another wet period similar to the one
that preceded the discovery of the species
in 1997 could result in a significant
increase in the number of the insects that
are found, as well as the locations they
are found in. Some sloughs where the
species was found in 1999 were dry for
several years, but have been wet for the
past three and still no caddisflies have
been found.
“I don’t see any evidence of that
happening, but I don’t know what is
causing the decline,” Hoback said.
“Nobody does, or even if it is declining.
“This particular insect has a life cycle
of only one year, so it’s a lot like the
[endangered] Salt Creek tiger beetle –
it’s probably not hiding out for 10 years
and then showing up in mass numbers.”
No doubt many will question the
need to provide federal protection to an
obscure insect that may have never
been abundant in number, but as has
been the case with other species listed
under the Endangered Species Act, the
Platte River caddisfly is considered an
indicator species – its decline mirrors
that of its natural habitat.
Certainly, this caddisfly’s value to
the world is not fully known, but its
feeding habits – shredding vegetation
on the bottom of wetlands – may help
improve the health of the wetland. It may
have also once provided an important
food source for fish, birds and other
creatures. In the slough where it was
originally discovered, the Platte River
caddisfly comprised 30 percent of the
total insect biomass found there. Its
decline is “a huge loss for everything
that would prey on and use it as a
forage base,” Fritz said. “So that’s what
the value of something as small as
these individual caddisflies are.”
If the Platte River caddisfly is added
to the list of threatened and endangered
species, it may have an effect on property
owners, especially if they need to
obtain a federal permit, authorization
or funding. But because caddisflies are
not found in crop fields, farming would
not be affected, nor would grazing and
even some cases of wetland and river
habitat restoration projects.
In this case, even becoming a
candidate for listing could be a
significant step toward its recovery. “It
would definitely bring money to the
table,” said Harms. “That would allow
us to do more research to see if we can
restore these habitats or transplant these
insects to restoration sites.”
Federal funding could also allow
more extensive searches for additional
populations. Goldowitz said she never
imagined she would be involved in the
discovery of a new species when she
started her work. “The fact that we
happened to have selected a study site
in this particular spot, that was really
pure dumb luck,” she said. “I don’t
know how else to describe it.”
While initially dumbfounded by that
luck, she then realized that finding a
new insect wasn’t that rare of an
occurrence simply because so little
research has been done on insects in
Nebraska. Indeed, Hoback said that
hundreds of new insects are described
worldwide each year. “Careful
observation leads to new information,”
he said.
Already that thought is playing out.
“There are a lot of those little sloughs
and drainages back through those areas
that by and large we haven’t been able
to get on because they’re on private
land,” Fritz said. “Once we start looking
more, or if we can get access to more
sites, I don’t think there’s any question
that we’ll find more [caddisflies]. Now
whether we find enough that it changes
their status is hard to say.
“We might find that the listing isn’t
to the level of endangered. Maybe it’s
threatened, or maybe it doesn’t get listed,
but because it is a declining species it
means it is one we have to look at and
focus conservation work on.”
“It’s pretty clear that this species is
probably in trouble,” said Harms. “We’re
trying to do something in the 11th
hour. It’s hard to work with a species
when we don’t have many populations
left. We’re in triage mode.” ■
For more on the Platte River
caddisfly, visit the site developed by
University of Nebraska at Kearney
students and staff at
http://cgi.unk.edu:16080/hoback/prcf/.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009 • NEBRASKALAND 43
Dove Demographics
Many Litterers Can Be Saved
Since 2003, wildlife managers have intensified mourning dove research.
Knowing why you visit nature may be reason enough to clean up after self.
By Jon Farrar
By Doug Carroll
to adjust the harvest to be
unters harvest
compatible with the dove
more mourning
population. “We want a
doves nationwide
better understanding of
than all other
the population dynamics
migratory game
for mourning doves,
bird species combined.
which will allow for
Even in Nebraska, which
better management,”
does not have the long
Lusk said.
dove-hunting tradition
The current survey
found in southern states,
is nationwide. Unlike
they are second only to
waterfowl, where
pheasants in number of
management is defined
upland game birds taken
by four long-established,
by hunters. To better
continental flyways, there
understand the species
are only three dove
and improve future
management units –
management, biologists
Eastern, Central and
have directed considerable
Western. The Central and
attention to doves in
Mississippi flyways of
recent years.
waterfowl have been
During a mourning
merged into the Central
dove study conducted
Management Unit, as
from 2003 through 2005
migrating doves do not
in 29 states, including
sort in mid-continent, as
Nebraska, about 100,000
do ducks and geese.
birds were banded, and
An ancillary study
hunters returned about
within the larger survey
5,000 bands. Biologists
work is designed to
estimated 85 percent of
determine how to simplify
the banded doves shot by
Commission summer workers Joshua Schnitzler (left) and Travis Kenny
the
band reporting
hunters were reported.
band a dove trapped on George Syas Wildlife Management Area.
process. Traditionally, the
The object of the study
aluminum USFWS band asked hunters
Game and Parks Commission operated
was to determine harvest rates,
to report harvest information either by
seven dove trapping stations and 1,063
estimate annual survival and provide a
phone (1-800-327-2263) or by mail.
geographical distribution of the harvest. doves were banded.
Jeff Lusk, Nebraska Game and Parks This year, a second type of band will
A more ambitious mourning dove
be attached to every other banded dove,
Commission Upland Game Program
study has been underway since 2006
and hunters may report their recovery
Manager, said the goal of the study is
and will continue into the foreseeable
information either by mail or at the
to gather demographic data so a
future. Doves are again being liveinternet website reportband.gov. Like
computer model can be constructed
trapped in late summer. Spots of bare
to allow more precise management of
ground, where doves prefer to forage
waterfowl bands, hunters may keep the
for seeds, are baited with millet prior to the species and its harvest, similar to
bands from doves they shoot.
surveys and models used to manage
wire-mesh, walk-in traps being placed
Dove hunters are encouraged to
waterfowl. Additionally, some dove
on the feeding areas. Because of the
assist in the study by reporting bands
hunters are randomly selected and
traps’ funnel-entrance design, doves
found on birds they shoot, leaving
asked to return wings from doves
find it easy to follow the seed trail into
wings in collection boxes placed on
harvested during the first week of the
them, but nearly impossible to find
some public hunting areas, or sending
season and mail them to the USFWS,
their way out. Each trapped bird is
wings to the USFWS if asked to
just as waterfowl hunters have for
aged, sexed and fitted with an
participate in that survey. All are ways
many years. With the additional
aluminum U.S. Fish and Wildlife
that hunters can help ensure a thriving
information and population model,
Service (USFWS) leg band before
dove population and the opportunity to
wildlife managers will be better able
being released. Last year, the Nebraska
hunt them in the future. ■
itter. It’s a common sight. It seems
like everywhere you go, you see
it. Often it seems like you can
hike to the remotest part of a
pristine wilderness and still find
someone’s soda can or discarded plastic
water bottle.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Even
litterbugs will tell you that litter is
unsightly, but they try to justify their
actions by saying that others will pick
up their aluminum cans and that fishing
line makes “good nesting material for
birds,” when in actuality, it more often
becomes a death trap for various species.
Many of the worst litter offenders are
more absent-minded than devious –
boaters more concerned with finding a
good seat before gaining boat speed
instead of stowing away plastic wrappers
and pop bottles, families so excited
about being outside that they don’t
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
44 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
L
•
Time It Takes To Decompose
Banana peel ....................3-4 weeks
Paper bag ............................1 month
Cardboard ..........................2 months
Cotton rag ..........................5 months
Wool sock ..............................1 year
Cigarette butt ....................2-5 years
Leather boot ..................40-50 years
Rubber sole ..................50-80 years
Tin can ........................80-100 years
Plastic 6-pack ring ............450 years
Aluminum can ............200-500 years
Disposable diaper ............550 years
Plastic bag ................20-1,000 years
Plastic jug ..................1 million years
Glass ......................1-2 million years
Styrofoam ..................1 million years
remote spot where no trash cans are
available, pack it out with you. Don’t
leave trash in a fire ring.
Recycle trash – Take the
aluminum cans, plastic bottles and
paper home with you to recycle.
Recycle fishing line – Bins
specifically designated for these purposes
are located at many eastern Nebraska
lakes and sporting goods stores.
Reuse – Consider reloading
expired shotgun shells.
Pick it up – If you see trash,
properly dispose of it. Take a garbage
bag with you when you visit a park or
lake and clean up what you can. Then
teach a child how to do the same thing.
There is always going to be a
contingent of people who will throw
trash out car windows and refuse to
pick up after themselves. These people
don’t understand or care that litter is
unsightly, polluting and potentially
fatal to fish and wildlife that may
ingest it or become entangled with it.
However, there is also a long
(hopefully much longer) line of outdoor
enthusiasts who do care about the
environment and who could make
nature a much cleaner place if they just
slowed down a bit and remembered
why they want to be outside in the first
place. After all, I’m pretty sure it’s not
for the chance to view or photograph a
litter-marred landscape. ■
•
•
•
•
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER • NEBRASKALAND 45
NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
H
dispose of picnic trash before the wind
whisks it away and hunters who are
more excited about the next flush or fly
by than picking up the hulls from their
last volley (dove hunters are the perfect
example of these offenders – I don’t
know how many boxes of empty hulls I
picked up last year on opening day from
where just one hunter had sat and shot
at doves all morning!).
There’s not much that can be
done with the dregs of society that
intentionally litter at will, but the rest
of these offenders can be reached. It
often takes just a few seconds to assure
that you will not be the cause of litter.
Here are some suggestions from the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
for keeping land and water clean:
Leave only your footprints –
Properly discard of trash when camping,
fishing, hunting or hiking. If visiting a
Little Ducks – Big Rewards
early teal season, as they are the only
ducks that may be harvested at that time.
Teal hunting a great introduction for the novice waterfowler.
Why Teal?
By Aaron Hershberger
T
oftentimes beginning their trip south to
wintering grounds by mid-August,
although early to mid-September are
peak migration times in Nebraska.
The Three Teal
There are three different species of
teal in North America, which are the
smallest puddle ducks we have. Bluewinged and green-winged teal are the
most common and can be found
statewide. Cinnamon teal are seen less
often, with some seen each year in
western Nebraska. In September, all
three species are still in their summer
brown, which is called eclipse
plumage.
However, blue-winged and cinnamon
teal, which look almost identical at this
time, have a very noticeable light-blue
wing patch that can be seen in flight.
The smaller green-winged teal lack this
wing patch, but does have a beautiful,
iridescent green speculum. All three
species tend to be low flyers as they
move around the marsh – sometimes
being just high enough to clear the
wetland vegetation. Being able to
separate teal from the rest of the duck
world is very important during the
Blue-winged
Tips for New Teal
Hunters
Green-winged
Cinnamon
COURTESY OF DUCKS UNLIMITED
he sun was not yet up but the
September day had already
begun. In Nebraska, where there
is water, there is life – especially
in the fall. From my bucket in
the bulrushes I had already seen a
white-faced ibis, greater yellowlegs and
a smorgasbord of ducks, including
some northern shovelers, a few
mallards and blue-winged teal – lots
of teal. My intent that late summer
morning was to lure a few of those teal
within shotgun range through the use
of eight plastic decoys I had floating
20 yards downwind. I didn’t have to
wait long.
Nebraska is blessed to have some
pretty special waterfowl hunting
opportunities, one of which is the
September teal season that began in
2000 and takes place in about the
southern one-third of the state. Being a
waterfowl production state (which
simply means that ducks nest here),
Nebraska is very fortunate to offer such
a season – in fact, Nebraska is the
northernmost state in the Central
Flyway that is allowed an early teal
season. The reason for the September
season is that teal, especially the bluewinged variety, are early migrants,
Teal are fun to hunt and are darn
tasty when grilled. They almost always
seem open to the idea of at least
buzzing by your decoys and seem to
have an urge to move about the marsh
from time to time throughout the day –
which makes them great ducks for the
aspiring waterfowler. Their flying
abilities make them a challenging target
and the extended season gives seasoned
hunters the excuses needed to chase
them.
Because duck identification is
critical, teaming up with a seasoned
teal chaser for your first hunt or two is
not a bad idea. However, teal hunting
is also easily accomplished by the doit-yourselfer. Regardless of your
experience, it’s always a good idea to
put the sun behind you – this will help
you distinguish teal from other ducks.
In fact, afternoon hunts instead of early
morning outings make identification
easier as well. You may especially want
to learn to identify northern shovelers,
aka spoonies – these big-billed ducks
are common and have light-blue wing
patches similar to blue-winged and
cinnamon teal, but their much larger
body and bill size make them easy to
differentiate.
Thick cover makes a great place to
hide from ducks, but is terrible for
locating downed birds. Hunting the
edges of vegetation and only taking
shots at birds over open water will be
more productive and keep you from
spending a lot of time looking for your
harvest.
well) and a place with teal. I love to
decoy ducks, so I take a few decoys,
mostly hens, to help attract attention to
my end of the water. Something to sit
on will also make your hunt more
comfortable and enjoyable. I also wear
hip boots or waders to keep myself dry,
although during one teal season when
the water was warm and I didn’t have
waders, I just strapped on some old
boots and splashed right through the
knee-deep water to where I wanted to
hunt.
Where to Hunt
Teal rely on wetland areas for home
and groceries, so you must find water
to locate teal. All water, however, is not
equal. Being a small duck, teal prefer
shallow water areas with lots to eat,
such as smartweed, sedge and
pondweed seeds. Teal also seem to
have an affinity for the mud flats found
around very shallow waters. When wet,
the Rainwater Basin area in southcentral Nebraska is a great spot for teal,
and several of the area’s basins are
open to public hunting. Farm ponds can
hold good numbers of birds as well,
especially during dry years, and nearby
rivers should never be ruled out.
During really rainy years, teal can also
be found on large puddles in the middle
of crop fields and pastures. Just
remember that you must always obtain
permission to hunt private lands in
Nebraska, whether it is posted or not.
On a hunt last year, the graceful,
twisting flight of an approaching bluewinged teal quickly brought the bird
over the decoys and I instinctively
shouldered the shotgun as I stood.
Three empty shells floated on the water
as the teal winged its way to parts
unknown. Nebraska’s teal season was
underway. ■
Aaron
Hershberger
has been an
Outdoor Education
Specialist for the
Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission
since 2007.
What You Need
Though some of us like to use lots of
gear, the beauty of teal hunting is that
you don’t really need much – other
than your required permits and stamps
(see OutdoorNebraska.org for details)
all you need is a shotgun, some
non-toxic shotshells (No. 4 steel works
46 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER • NEBRASKALAND 47
ATTRACTIONS/EVENTS
GOT PRAIRIE? We do! Prairie Plains Resource Institute
is Nebraska born and dedicated to the people and
landscape of the Great Plains. Since 1980 we’ve been
planting prairies, getting kids outside and spending time
with people on the land. For beautiful photos, calendar
of events or to become a member, visit
www.prairieplains.org or call (402) 694-5535.
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL CLASS - Start a fire with
the bow-drill method, build a survival shelter,
be introduced to primitive traps, cordage, flint
knapping, edible and medicinal plants, water
location and purification, and much more! Go to
www.greatplainstracker.com.
DOGS
PLUM CREEK KENNEL. German shorthairs, stud
service, puppies and started dogs. Training for all pointing breeds. Specialize in training the handler as well as
the dog. Wayne Clark, Percival, Iowa (near Omaha) (712)
529-4238, clarks1@iowatelecom.net.
WILDERNESS KENNELS Since 1968 – over 90 years
combined professional experience. Gun dog training, all
sporting breeds – retrievers, flushing and pointing. All
dogs worked on pen-raised birds and wild game.
Obedience training includes heel, sit, stay, down and
come when called. Pups, started dogs and fully trained
dogs for sale. Hunting dogs trained by hunters. Henry
Sader, Roca, NE (402) 423-4212. www.wildernesskennels.com.
DUCKDAWG RETRIEVERS - Raising exceptional
hunting yellow and black Labradors. Puppies raised in
our home. 30 month health guarantee. Stud service:
GRHRCH UH DuckDawg's Eba Roll The Dice and
GRHRCH UH McMac Magic Eyes A'Smilin MH - the
first Grand Hunting Retriever Champions in Nebraska.
www.duckdawg.com Ron Green DVM and Libby
Milroy, North Platte NE (308) 534-3659.
AT STUD: GRHRCH UH Platte's TNT Duckdawg Dozer
MH. First yellow Labrador in the state of Kansas to earn
his Grand, Upland and Master titles. Seventy pounds of
muscle, exceptional marker and blind runner Dozer
is available for breeding to approved females. Natural
breeding requires a brucellosis test on females. Chilled
semen available. Stud Fee $600. Contact owner Tom
Phillips at (785) 635-5776 or trainer/handler - Chris
Jobman at (308) 249-0707, www.flatlanderkennels.com.
PREMIER GUNDOGS TRAINING KENNEL: Gundog
training for all pointing breeds and hunting retrievers.
Labrador retriever puppies with 30-month hip and eye
guarantees. References gladly given. Dale and Kris
Taylor: (402) 787-2048, www.premiergundogs.com.
FLATLANDER KENNELS INC. Bayard, NE
Full-time retriever training facility for the serious hunter
or AKC and HRC hunt tester. Trainer of Nebraska's first
and only GRHRCH's! Super Retriever Series competitor
and a member of Avery's Team Waterdog. Training
available for all levels of hunt tests and gundogs. Chris
Jobman: (308) 249-0707, www.flatlanderkennels.com.
AKC BRITISH LABRADOR PUPS for sale, Champion
pedigree, excellent hunters and pets, 26-month health
guarantee,
$400.
(402)
366-8055
or
ryan.ideus@gmail.com.
FISH/FISHING
GET YOUR FISHING PERMIT or Nebraska state
park permit online today! Don’t wait until tomorrow to
enjoy Nebraska’s great outdoors by going fishing or
camping with the family. To purchase a permit from
the comfort of your own home, go online to
www.OutdoorNebraska.org and click on Purchase a
Permit under Licenses and Fees.
FISH FOR SALE. Catfish, largemouth bass, smallmouth
bass, perch, crappie, bluegill, walleye, rainbow trout,
grass carp, minnows. Pleasant Valley Fish Farm, 27851
U.S. Highway 83, McCook, NE 69001. (308) 345-6599.
NEBRASKA LAKE MANAGEMENT. Biological lake
surveys, fish stocking, rough fish control, lake aeration,
algae control, aquatic weed control. Rob Hofpar, Aquatic
Biologist, licensed, insured and qualified. (402) 784-6005
Valparaiso - (888) 850-2460 www.nelakes.net.
48 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
FOOD/GIFTS/HOME
HOMEBREWING/BEER AND WINEMAKING.
Fermenter’s Supply, 8410 K Plaza, Suite #10, Omaha, NE
68127. Phone orders only, (888) 655-2739. Advice line
(402) 593-9171. www.fermenterssupply.com.
CABIN/BUILDING/HOME Design and Construction.
Full-line building materials. Schreier’s Lumber Company
- Verdigre, NE. “Over 100 years experience”
schrlmbr@gpcom.net (402) 668-2624.
GUIDES/OUTFITTERS
CANOE - KAYAK - TUBE RENTALS on the
beautiful Niobrara River with Dryland Aquatics at
Sparks, Nebraska. Your Niobrara River Specialist. (800)
337-3119. www.drylandaquatics.com, info@drylandaquatics.com.
NIOBRARA RIVER TRIPS. Let Little Outlaw in
Valentine outfit your river trip. Canoes-Tubes-KayaksStock Tanks (402) 376-1822 or www.outlawcanoe.com.
GUNS/SHOOTING/ARCHERY
GUNS – Browning, Benelli, Winchester, Ruger, etc. 1700
guns, buy-sell-trade (402) 729-6112, Bedlan’s, Fairbury,
NE 68352. www.bedlans.com.
OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT
IS PERFORMANCE IMPORTANT? For the finest
canoes and accessories look to Great Plains Canoe Co.,
205 Main, Springfield, NE 68059. Phone (402) 253-2000.
PHOTOGRAPHY
NEBRASKA WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS.
Matted. Go to inplainssight.homestead.com. "The more
you buy, the quicker my wife can retire!"
VACATIONS/RESORTS
FOR FISHING AND HUNTING accommodations.
Guided pheasant hunts. Jefco Inn, South Cornell St.,
Gordon, NE 69343 (308) 282-2935.
THE OLDE MAIN STREET INN. A historic bed and
breakfast listed in the National Register of Historic
Places. Beautiful dining room with fireplace. Featuring
prime rib, buffalo, seafood, homemade soups, chilis and
desserts. 115 Main Street, Chadron NE 69337 (308) 4323380. www.chadron.com/oldemain.
DIAMOND B TROUT RESORT, Orchard, Nebraska.
Lodge, cabins, spring-fed lakes, playground equipment,
paddleboats. Great for families, groups, hunters. Book
your cabin now! Call for brochure (800) 974-3002.
www.diamondbtroutresort.com.
MILL IRON V LODGING has modern cabins for your
vacation pleasure. We are located near Verdigre, NE
in turkey country. Each cabin offers privacy, view and a
birdwatcher’s paradise. Stay with us for a COUNTRY
EXPERIENCE. (402) 668-7488. www.milliron-vlodging.com, jpeinrem@gpcom.net.
BIG BLUE RANCH & LODGE - Enjoy fishing, hunting,
hiking, birdwatching and ranch adventures on 2000+ acre
cattle ranch in southeastern Nebraska. Beautiful log
cabin, with fireplaces, kitchens & big covered porches,
overlooks 20-acre lake. www.bigblueranch.com (402)
730-3643.
ASPINWALL LODGING: Rural farmhouse located near
Nemaha among the rolling hills of southeastern
Nebraska. Three bedrooms, full kitchen, washer & dryer,
TV. Situated close to Indian Cave State Park, historic
Brownville,
Game
and
Parks
wildlife
management areas, Missouri and Nemaha rivers, and
much more. Open all year, accepting reservations,
brochure available. (402) 883-2788.
COME ENJOY ALL the great outdoors has to offer under
starry skies at NEBRASKA’S PREMIER FISHERY,
Merritt Reservoir, in the heart of the scenic Sandhills.
Cabins, RV hookups, fuel, groceries, ice, bait, tackle,
rentals, restaurant & lounge and more. (402) 376-3437
www.merritttradingpost.com.
is slowly coming alive on the windswept prairie of
northwest Nebraska. Rejuvenate your spirit through a
wide variety of activities amongst the ruggedness and
beauty that is only limited by your imagination. Popular
activities include day family outings, bunkhouse cabin
overnight stays, hunting, birding, stargazing, fossil
hunting and the trails that are available for mountain
biking & horseback riding. Great cowboy cookin' at the
Cookshack. Visit: www.highplainshomestead.com,
Call: (888) 365-2592.
Classified Rates: 85¢ per word, minimum $15.
Closing: First business day six weeks before issue
date. Classified ads are accepted on a first-come,
first-served, space-available basis. Classified Ads,
NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370,
Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Telephone (402) 4715473. Fax: (402) 471-1984. E-mail: ngpc.classifieds
@nebraska.gov. Ads are posted online at
NebraskalandMagazine.com at no additional charge.
Got Too Many Deer?
Our mentored youth archery program can help.
Decrease your deer herd while helping young hunters develop their skills.
To learn more, contact Aaron at the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission at (402) 471-6144.
www.OutdoorNebraska.org
HIGH PLAINS HOMESTEAD, Home of the Drifter
Cookshack & Bunkhouse – An Old-West Cow-Town
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER • NEBRASKALAND 49
▲ This picture was taken in 1936 in Falls
City, Nebraska. My brother, Vern, was
four years old and I was six. By the 1936
season, all live decoy hunting had been
banned nationwide, so Dad called the
ducks in himself. These ducks were
bagged on the Missouri River by my
father, Glen L. Wachtel. Dad used an
L.C. Smith side-by-side 12-gauge
shotgun.
– Glen M. Wachtel, Yoncalla, Oregon
▲ This is a picture of my father, Herman C. Johnson (left), and my brother, Herbert Johnson, on
our farm north of Fairfield, Nebraska in 1925.
They were paid 10 cents for each of these crows they shot. They are each holding opossums
they had gotten also.
They both loved to hunt coyotes and go fishing often.
– Lois Dilky,
Big Springs, Nebraska
▲ This picture is of my then-fiance, now
wife, Maureen (Mo) of Omaha, taken in
the winter of 1962 near Union, Nebraska.
It was her first (and last) hunt. After
she shot this jackrabbit, we were near
some thickets and scared up a covey of
quail. She got so scared, she tripped in
the mud with the gun.
Yours is a great magazine, I look for it
each month.
– Dave Folda, Omaha, Nebraska
▲ I have been an avid hunter and fisherman all my life. I grew up as a close friend
with Tim Farrar, (NEBRASKAland Senior Editor) Jon Farrar’s nephew. And my father
was a close friend of Jon’s brother, Tom Farrar. They all were well mastered hunters
and fishermen. And with NEBRASKAland forever being in our home, I have always
been a loyal fan. With my father’s health in decline, I thought I would lift his spirits by
sending you one of his old-time hunting pictures. This is a late 1950s Sidles Auto
Parts Company pheasant hunting trip which took place in the Broken Bow area. In the
back row are (from left to right) Pepper Morris and Jack McGirr. In the front row are
Gary Kosbau, Rod (the Broken Bow Manager), Vern Bollish, Bill Hesson, Don Hinrichs
(my father), and Dale Mills. All were Sidles employees from throughout the state. It
appears like it was much more of a successful hunt than any I have ever been on!
– Hugh H. Hinrichs, Norfolk, Nebraska
Send contributions to: Portraits from the Past, NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Photos should show
people enjoying Nebraska outdoor activities, such as camping, boating, hunting or fishing, and must have been taken before 1970. We will
give priority to unusual photos or activities. When possible, please include a story about the photograph and identify the people, places and
approximate date it was taken. Photos will be returned.
50 NEBRASKALAND • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009
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