Volume 90, Issue 2, 2012
March 2012
- Identifier:
- nela.2012_090_02
- Title:
- Volume 90, Issue 2, 2012
- Issue Name:
- March 2012
- Date Issued:
- 2012-03-01
- year:
- 2012
- month:
- March
- Season:
- Winter
- PDF filename:
- NL_90.02_2012_Mar_Spreads_Entire.pdf
- Publisher:
- Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
- Format:
- Periodical
- volume:
- 090
- issue:
- 02
- number:
- 090.02
- Decade:
- 2010s
- Type:
- Rights Holder:
- Copyright Nebraskaland Magazine/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, all rights reserved.
- Extracted Text:
-
On a warm, mid-winter afternoon along the Platte River in Colfax County, a fox squirrel takes a siesta
with only its tail sticking out of a hole in a cottonwood tree. Photo by Bill Hager.
Volume 90, Number 2, March 2012
12 Black and White – the enduring beauty in the digital age
No time like the present to use this classic technique.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY BOB GRIER
18 Northern Pintails
Each spring, one-third of the continent’s pintail population
arrives in Nebraska. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY MICHAEL FORSBERG
20 Plum Creek Valley – Wildlife Management Area
Wildlife management areas belong to the public, but every
one has a previous history. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JON FARRAR
28 Shed Hunting Dogs
Doniphan man finds a partner for his late-winter passion.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC FOWLER
30 A History of Prairie Fire
Time-tested conservation practice being touted once again.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY GERRY STEINAUER
34 Wildflower Field Guide
Out of print for more than 20 years, this popular guide book
is now available as a second edition.
30
●
36 The Luckiest Person on Earth
A photographer recounts her few brief days with whooping
cranes in Nebraska. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ABBY JENSEN
Comment ................................................................... 4
Mixed Bag................................................................. 6
Nature Notes ............................................................42
Parks & Places .........................................................43
In the Field ...............................................................44
Junior Journal...........................................................45
Classifieds ................................................................46
Portraits from the Past ............................................ 48
Page 49.....................................................................49
The Last Stop .......................................................... 50
36
●
20
●
Cover: This photo composite of a full moon and sandhill cranes was shot
south of Grand Island near the Platte River by Rick Rasmussen.
Opposite: A dead cottonwood stands alone after years of wet conditions and
standing water in this Thomas County meadow. Photo by Bill Hager.
NEBRASKAland (VOL. 90 / NO. 2, 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.
2 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
12
●
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 3
Road Pups
I found these little guys last spring
while I was doing some culvert
inspections north of Tecumseh. I enjoy
reading NEBRASKAland and always
had the intentions of sending in some
of the pictures I’ve taken of wildlife
found along the state right of way.
Here is an image of the pups.
I believe
the fox pups
are from two
different
litters – the
mother ran
off as I was
looking at
a culvert,
which is what
drew me
to the den.
There were
about five pups but two of them were
very curious and looked to be of
different ages due to size and the way
one’s ears were folded and the other’s
were straight.
I was able to get within four feet
with my camera.
Jason Moore
Highway Maintenance Supervisor,
Nebraska Dept. of Roads
Tecumseh, Nebraska
4 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
Trout for New Year’s Dinner
I thought I would share this photo
of a rainbow trout I caught in the East
Verdigre Creek at Grove Lake WMA.
It was a special day – January 1,
2012. The wind was howling, and I
wanted to ice fish, but there wasn’t
any ice, so I grabbed my fly rod and
headed to Royal to go trout fishing.
I caught this 13.5-inch rainbow on
a black wooly bugger with a gold
beadhead. Nice way to start a new
year!
Paul Kolterman
Norfolk, Nebraska
Snowy Owl Rescue
Timing is everything sometimes,
for this weary traveler and those
knowing (now) how to help.
Thanks for the awareness of a great
nonprofit organization, Raptor
Recovery Nebraska in the Jan-Feb
2012 NEBRASKAland.
While closing out the duck season
with my father, Doug Page, and my
son Justin, we were trying to eat up
some midday time with some coyote
hunting. Between sets and out in the
middle of nowhere, we noticed this guy
along a corn field, too tired and worn
down to hunt.
Knowing immediately he would
have little chance of surviving any
nighttime elements, with due diligence
my dad was on the phone back and
forth between available officers and
we were soon put in contact with one
of these fine teams of raptor volunteers
canvassing your wonderful state.
Three hours and 80 miles later, on
their third recovery of the day, two
“been there, done that’s” show up just
before dusk and with ease rescue this
tired, hungry traveler. The bird was
emasculated with hunger, and we were
told this has been a common occurence
the last couple of falls as these
normally far north birds travel south
seeking food down under.
As the bird and volunteers drove
away heading into a beautiful sunset,
the three of us found ourselves with
grins not easily wiped away and the
peace-of-mind knowing this regal
creature would live to fly again under
the skies of yet another 1,000 miles
or so. Can anyone else say they’ve
lovingly patted a snowy owl ‘farewell
my friend’?
Your fine magazine and state’s
hospitality are unmatched by any other.
Thanks again from the X6 boys.
Steven Page
Eagan, Minnesota
NEBRASKAland Visitor Letters
We want to thank all 48 readers
that sent e-mails and letters for last
issue’s visitor, a nymph katydid that
was on page 43 (see page 11 for the
winner, rules and this issue’s hint).
Here are some of the responses we
received:
Many years ago I won a boat motor
at a federal surplus auction. Turned
out that it was located at Cresent
Lake Refuge, so off I went to pick it
up. The drive north from Oshkosh was
the first time I had encountered cattle
crossings, cattle in the middle of the
road, and single track roads. I didn’t
even know places like that existed in
Nebraska! I have been “out of the big
city” many times since then and look
forward to a Cresent Lake duck hunt or
ice fishing trip soon! Oh, the visitor is
on page 43 and looks to be some sort
of grasshopper. Thanks!
Ralph Martin
Ceresco, Nebraska
Here’s a rule of thumb for amateur
bugologists attempting to identify
a member of the “grassevious
hoppervye” family: If it is GREEN, it
most likely is a katydid.
While it is POSSIBLE that some
exist today in the “meadows” of
Crescent Lake WMA (see page 43,
above Crane Lake), I only remember
catching one in the grass near the tube
where the NPPD canal comes back up
near Paxton “last century”!
Shortly after her capture, she met
her demise from an encounter with a
22-inch rainbow trout!
Ken Fankhauser
Kearney, Nebraska
Katydids are members of the
Orthoptera family, which also
includes grasshoppers and crickets.
This particular specimen is a nymph,
which is the immature stage, and will
molt several times before reaching
adulthood. Katydids are generally a
leafy-green color, though some species
may have brown marking on wings.
They are notable for their very long
antennae – as long or longer than
their bodies. Female katydids have a
prominent, sword-shaped ovipositor,
extending back behind their abdomen,
which is used for depositing eggs.
Male katydids lack an ovipositor, and
instead have a pair of “spurs” called
cerci. The male katydid calls, or sings,
to females as part of their mating
ritual. They make these noises by
rubbing one wing against the other,
creating a chirping or buzzing
sound. These sounds are unique
to species, making it possible
to identify the type of
katydid heard by
their calls.
Special thanks to Julie Van Meter, State
Entomologist, Nebraska Department of
Agriculture. Visitor image by Chris Helzer.
www.bugguide.net is a good site for identification
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.
COMMISSION
CONSERVATION OFFICERS
Director Rex Amack
Deputy Director Jim Douglas
Commissioners
Chairman - Ron Stave, Waterloo
Vice Chairman - Norris Marshall, Kearney
2nd Vice Chairman - Jerrod Burke, Curtis
Dr. Mark Pinkerton, Wilber
Dr. Kent Forney, Lincoln
Lynn Berggren, Broken Bow
Rex Fisher, Omaha
Mark Spurgin, Paxton
Mick Jensen, Blair
NORTHWEST
Officer
City
Jim Zimmerman (S) Gering
MAGAZINE STAFF
Editor Doug Carroll
Associate Editor Jeff Kurrus
Art Director Tim Reigert
Senior Editor Jon Farrar
Regional Editor Eric Fowler
Contributing Editor Michael Forsberg
Regular Contributors Bill Hager, Chris Helzer,
Lisa Knopp
Photo Librarian Sarah Johnson
Circulation Donna Robinson
For address changes and questions about
your subscription, e-mail Donna.Robinson@
Nebraska.gov
or call (800) 632-5263
Marketing/Advertising
For advertising information contact
Larson Enterprises
e-mail dave@larsonent.com
or call (515) 440-2810
NEBRASKAland Magazine Copyright 2012, 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.
COMMISSION OFFICES
Headquarters/Southeast District Office
2200 N. 33rd Street Lincoln, NE 68503
Phone (402) 471-0641
Northeast District Office
2201 N. 13th St. Norfolk, NE 68701
Phone (402) 370-3374
Southwest District Office
301 E. State Farm Rd. North Platte, NE 69101
Phone (308) 535-8025
Northwest District Office
East Hwy. 2, Box 725 Alliance, NE 69301
Phone (308) 763-2940
Bassett Office
524 Panzer St., Box 508 Bassett, NE 68714
Phone (402) 684-2921
Kearney Office
1617 First Ave. Kearney, NE 68847
Phone (308) 865-5310
Omaha Office
1212 Bob Gibson Blvd. Omaha, NE 68108
Phone (402) 595-2144
Greg Hesse
Scott Brandt
Heath Packett
Frank Miller
Dan Kling
Phone (308)
(office) 763-2940
(cell) 641-6138
Alliance
760-3647
Gering
631-0663
Gordon
360-0682
Valentine (402) 389-0444
Harrison
430-0572
SOUTHWEST
Officer
City
Phone (308)
Roger Thompson (S) N. Platte (office) 535-8025
(cell) 530-3097
Ray Dierking
Brkn. Bow
870-0322
George Sund
Cambridge
655-0028
Michael Thome
Cozad
529-8146
Terry Brentzel
Doniphan (402) 469-5795
Matt Andrews
Elwood
746-2418
Dirk Greene
Imperial
882-0015
Jerry Pecha (Sup.) Kearney (office) 865-5327
(cell) 293-3551
Dale Johnson
Kearney
440-3847
Dudley Sorensen
N. Platte
530-0016
Nicholas Fix
Ogallala
289-0427
Dennis Thompson
Ogallala
289-0755
Rich Routh
Rep. City
920-0367
NORTHEAST
Officer
City
Tom Zimmer (Sup.) Norfolk
Dale Davis
Steve Oberg
Daniel Roberts
Randy Pomplun
Jeff Jones
Jon Reeves
Pat George
Doug Pollard
Tim Williams
Cory Krause
Phone (402)
(office) 370-3374
(cell) 649-8053
Bassett
760-0712
Columbus
910-3366
Fremont
719-1108
Fullerton
550-0489
Hartington
762-5022
Kennard
889-8508
O’Neill
340-0787
Ord
778-7101
Neligh
929-0051
West Point
380-6410
SOUTHEAST
Officer
Duane Arp (Sup.)
City
Gretna
Sean McKeehan
William Krause
Mike Luben
Dan Zuehlke
Darin Gress
Douglas Kramer
Dina Barta
Stacey Lewton
Levi Krause
Robert Finke
Russell Mort
Dan Evasco
Jeff Clauson
Phone (402)
(office) 332-2965
(cell) 521-0194
Ashland
521-0159
Auburn
274-8063
Colon
443-6392
Cortland
806-9084
Hebron
768-8665
Lincoln
890-6465
Lincoln
890-6463
Lincoln
890-7140
Louisville
949-0593
Milford
947-1363
Nebr. City
209-1506
Papillion
616-5961
Waterloo
658-7057
ADMINISTRATION
Officer
City
Craig Stover (Adm.) Lincoln
Phone (402)
471-5532
Nebraska Wildlife Crimestoppers 1-800-742-7627
Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium
21502 W. Highway 31 Gretna, NE 68028
Phone (402) 332-3901
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).
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 5
Land for Outdoor People
Dan Bryant of Lincoln will hunt
anything, but prefers upland game
(especially quail) behind a good
pointer – a fact he has advertised
on his message plates since the
early 1990s.
If you have a unique outdoor
message plate you would like
to share or know someone who
does, e-mail a photo (highresolution, JPEG 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.
6 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
PHOTO BY DEWAYNE MAGNUSON
Jon Farrar
Wildlife Management Areas had their
beginning under the name of “state recreation
areas” back in 1926 when the Nebraska
Bureau of Game and Fish (then under the state
Department of Agriculture) acquired Goose
Lake in Holt County, Walgren Lake in Sheridan
County, land adjoining Rat and Beaver Lakes in
Cherry County, and Fremont sandpits in Dodge
County “to provide fishing and hunting for the
thousands of Nebraska citizens who desire such
outdoor recreation.” By the end of 1933, the
Game, Forestation and Parks Commission, then
an independent state agency, had established 26
state recreation areas.
By the mid-1930s, the names of public-access
recreational areas were sorted by the type of
recreational opportunities they provided, and
With more autos and better roads
those primarily for hunting and fishing were
in the 1920s, the Commission
designated State Special-Use Areas. With
began acquiring public lands for
passage of the Wildlife Habitat Program by the hunting and fishing.
State Legislature in 1976, the $1 Upland Bird
Stamp all hunters had been required to buy was replaced with a $7.50 Habitat
Stamp to both increase the rate of acquisition and protection of vanishing wildlife
habit, and to provide more public outdoor recreation lands. With that program
came a change in names – State Special-Use Areas were renamed Wildlife
Management Areas.
Today there are 271 Wildlife Management Areas in Nebraska totaling 160,295
acres – land owned by the public and managed by the Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission as wildlife habitat and for outdoor recreation such as hunting and
fishing. They are open to everyone – hunters, anglers, birdwatchers, mushroom
hunters, wildflower enthusiasts or anyone else wanting a bit of quiet time out
in nature. You do not need to find a landowner and hope to get permission to
trespass because you own the land. Just park your car and roam. Most have names
related to the area – a topographical feature, its fauna or flora or its place in
history.
For a glimpse of one of Nebraska’s Wildlife Management Areas, see the article
on the Plum Creek Valley area in Brown County on page 20.
Here is a list of
upcoming outdoor
events across Nebraska.
For more information about these and
other events, visit the calendar page at
www.OutdoorNebraska.org.
March 3
BOW Bird Watching
Becoming an Outdoors Woman will
be hosting a bird watching event at
the AK-SAR-BEN Aquarium.
Contact Julia Plugge
402-471-6009
julia.plugge@nebraska.gov
March 9
Board of Commissioners Meeting
8:00 am - 11:00 am
3rd Floor Conference Room
2200 N. 33rd St.
Lincoln NE 68503
Contact Katrinka Dicke
402-471-5539
katrinka.dicke@nebraska.gov
.
March 9-11, 16-18 and 23-25
Marsh Madness at Ponca State Park
Celebrating Ponca State Park’s
richly abundant and inherently
beautiful natural areas, the
centerpiece of which will be the
spring migration of waterfowl
through the area. Interpretive
programs, educational materials,
guided tours and reservable
observation blind uses are just a
few of the weekend highlights.
Special lodging packages are
available for these three weekends.
A park entry permit is required.
Contact Ponca State Park
402-755-2284
ngpc.ponca@nebraska.gov
March 25
Spring Turkey Archery Season
March 25 through May 31.
For more information on turkey
hunting in Nebraska, check out the
2012 Turkey Guide or visit
www.OutdoorNebraska.org.
April 1
Archery Paddlefish Application
The application period for archery
paddlefish permits runs April 1-30.
Bauer on In-Fisherman TV
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DARYL BAUER
Daryl Bauer, fisheries biologist
for the Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission, was recently featured on
In-Fisherman TV on the Sportsman’s
Channel in Lincoln with host Doug
Stange while they fished for trout at
Lake Ogallala. There will be repeats
of this broadcast on the Sportsman’s
Channel on March 5 and 19.
2012 Fishing Forecast Now Available
After reading Gerry Steinauer’s
fire history, I stumbled upon the
March 1961 edition of Outdoor
Nebraska, the predecessor to
NEBRASKAland Magazine.
Doing so, I immediately saw an
article by then-Nebraska Game
Commission Director M.O. Steen
entitled “A Better Road.” In this
piece, Steen argues for the
conservation of soil, stating that
“...man can not reduce soil fertility
without all life suffering the
consequences.” His arguments,
while at times misguided to what
we now know about techniques
such as prairie burnings, are still
beneficial today in how we choose
to work with the land.
Other features focused on
Nebraska’s furbearers, a
“Boone and Crockett” buck,
and sure-fire flies for bluegill.
To read these articles, visit
NebraskalandMagazine.com and
click on “A Look Back.”
The 2012 Nebraska Fishing Forecast, with text by
fisheries biologist Daryl Bauer and published by the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, is an angler’s best
source for fish-surveying information regarding public
waters throughout the state. With sampling charts for
bluegills, channel catfish, crappies, largemouth bass,
walleyes, white bass and wipers, a person looking to
put a hook in the water need look no further regarding
where that water should be.
Easy to understand and featuring information on
more than 100 lakes and reservoirs across the state,
this is a must have resource for anyone wanting to
know where to fish this year. Copies can be obtained
for free from outdoor retailers throughout the state.
See You Out There ... But Where?
h
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
Do you know where this Nebraska photograph was taken?
See answer at the bottom of page 11.
8 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
Jeff Kurrus
With turkey season beginning
statewide for archers on March
25, youth shotgun on April 7
and all shotgunners on April 14,
try answering these true or false
questions about one of Nebraska’s
most exciting game animals before
you step into the field this season.
1) On average, a turkey has
10,000 feathers on its body.
2) An estimated 10 to 20
percent of female turkeys have
beards.
3) Turkeys are herbivorous, only
eating plant-related materials.
4) Turkeys can run faster than
they can fly.
5) Incubation of turkey eggs
lasts about one month.
6) To aid with attracting a mate,
a male turkey has more feathers
on his head.
7) Turkeys have three toes on
each foot.
8) Turkeys are North America’s
largest game bird.
9) A tom’s beard is made up of
cartilage, not unlike a person’s
nose.
10) In Nebraska, there is no
minimum age to hunt turkeys.
ANSWERS:
1) False: On average, a turkey
has between 5,000 and 6,000
feathers.
2) True
3) False: Turkeys are omnivorous, eating acorns, berries, insects
and even small reptiles.
4) False: Turkeys can run up to
25 mph, but they can fly up to 55
mph.
5) True
6) False: To aid in camouflage
while on the nest, a hen turkey
has more feathers on her head.
7) False: Turkeys have 4 toes on
each foot, 3 pointing forward and
1 pointing backward.
8) True
9) False: A tom’s beard is actually made up of hairlike feathers.
10) True
Jeff Kurrus
True/False Turkeys
Thanks to the National Wild
Turkey Federation for factual
assistance with this quiz. Visit
nwtf.org for more information.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 9
Jeff Kurrus
Every hour during the ice skating
season at Eugene T. Mahoney
State Park in eastern Nebraska, a
large machine known as a zamboni
moves over the rink like an iceshaving lawnmower.
Before Frank Zamboni patented
his machine in 1949, it would take
considerably more time to redo a
rink’s icy surface, polishing scrape
marks from skates and watering
the surface to make it smooth
again. Zamboni’s machine did
it all, and in a lot less time. He
“modified a tractor adding a blade
that shaved the ice smooth; a
device that swept up the shavings
into a tank; and an apparatus that
rinses the ice and left a very thin top later of water that
would freeze within a minute,” commented writer Mary
Bellis.
Steve Zechmann
I live on the north edge of Lincoln
Nebraska where I find many
opportunities for wildlife photography.
On this particular day my eye caught
movement between two deer that
grabbed my attention. Having taken so
many pictures, I can get lazy at times
and hesitate jumping up and getting my
camera. Something about the
possibility of this
scene, however,
enticed me to get
off my duff and
see what I could
make happen.
There’s a saying in
photography –
“F8 and be there.”
F8 is a reliable
camera setting for
Kearney’s Crane Watch Festival
From Friday, March 23rd through
Sunday, April 1st, the Kearney area
will launch the inaugural Crane Watch
Festival with 10 days of education,
family activities, and entertainment in
Kearney, Minden and Gibbon.
This festival, sponsored by community organizations, attractions, businesses, and local professionals, will begin
So when you’re visiting our most popular state park this
late-winter and forced to leave the ice for a few minutes,
know your break would be much longer without a zamboni.
with its “Lift-Off Luncheon” on Friday,
March 23rd with NEBRASKAland
contributing editor and speaker Michael
Forsberg, and continue throughout the
week with events for the entire family.
For more information, contact Jan
Rodehorst with the Kearney Area
Chamber of Commerce at 308-2373101 or jrodehorst@kearneycoc.org.
Or for a complete list of events, visit
www.cranewatchfestival.com.
good depth of field
and being there is a must if
you’re to even have a chance
at a good photo. I have a
sunroom that I take many of
my pictures out of. As deer
move about I will either whistle
tle
or rap on the window to get
their attention when I notice
a unique pose developing. As
these two deer were walking I
noticed that they were lining up
one behind the other. I began
shooting and was getting many
ny
different poses. I rapped on my
10 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
window to freeze them for a shot but
it wasn’t quite right. I noticed their
eyes lining up so I waited for the
deer to take one more step. The pose
was perfect. Because deer are always
moving their ears back and forth
listening to different sounds, I had to
rap a couple of more times to get all
four ears pointing in my direction. I
snapped the picture and yelled “YES”
after viewing my camera display. I
knew I had captured
something special.
somet
shooting
I continue
cont
pictures knowing that
pictur
there are many more
great shots just waiting
to be captured.
For those that are
interested in learning
inte
more about outdoor
mo
photography,
pho
come join us at
co
Schramm Park.
Sc
We have a nature
W
pphotography club
that meets there
th
tthe first Tuesday
oof each month at
7 p.m. It is called
Schramm Park
Nature Photography
Nat
Club. Our club displays pictures at
Schramm for the public to see.
Marsh Madness at Ponca SP
March is the peak month for viewing
mass migrations of waterfowl along the
Missouri River, and Ponca State Park
(SP) is now offering special lodging
packages to help bird enthusiasts enjoy
the spectacle that is spring migration in
Nebraska.
These special getaway packages
include 30 percent off lodging rates,
free guided sunrise and sunset
waterfowl blind tours, unguided
bald eagle blind tours and special
programming and activities. They are
available March 9-11, 16-18 and 23-25.
For more information or to make
reservations, call (402) 755-2284 or
e-mail ngpc.ponca@Nebraska.gov.
Situated on the beautiful Missouri
River bluffs in northeastern Nebraska,
Ponca SP is the eastern gateway to
the 59-mile section of the Missouri
National Recreational River, one of
two unchannelized stretches of the river
bordering Nebraska.
NEBRASKAland Visitor
Winner and Hint
Last issue’s winner of
the NEBRASKAland
Visitor drawing was
Jackie Nunnenkamp of
Henderson, Nebraska, who
found the katydid on page 43.
Readers are encouraged to contact
NEBRASKAland within 10 days
after this issue’s publication with the
correct page number and name of
this issue’s “Visitor” – a bug found
in Nebraska that just happened to
find its way onto one of the pages of
our publication.
We will then gather the correct
entries and draw one to win a
NEBRASKAland Magazine mug.
To enter each month, write:
NEBRASKAland Visitor
2200 North 33rd Street,
Lincoln, NE 68503.
Or e-mail:
Tim.Reigert@Nebraska.gov
with “Visitor” in the subject line of
the message.
HINT: This issue’s visitor is not
on page 4, 5, 7 or 8.
Warbonnet Battlefield Monument, Sioux County
Seeing Deer in Double
PHOTO BY JEFF KURRUS
The Great Zamboni
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 11
Black and White
The Enduring Beauty in the Digital Age
Photos and text by Bob Grier
E
Above: The tremendous range of tones within a storm cloud near Branched Oak Lake near Lincoln are well represented in black and
white. Today’s digital photographers have a wide variety of inkjet printers, high quality archival papers and long-lasting inks available
to make their own prints. Numerous custom printers across the United States are also available on the Internet. This image was originally captured on b&w film and was then printed digitally using a modest-priced flatbed scanner to produce the digital file.
Opposite: A few cottonwood leaves on a burned log along West Ash Creek in the Pine Ridge make an ideal subject for a b&w print.
12 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
ven
vve
e though millions of full-color photoggraphs
gr
r
are created every day around the
w
o
world,
the popularity of the plain-old
bbl
la and white image remains strong
black
nd gr
grow
owiing
ow
ing Photographers and viewers alike apin
and
growing.
preciate the luminous beauty of a well-done black
and white photograph – wedding photographers
offer black and white albums and much of the socalled fine-art photography done today is still made
in black and white. Almost entirely gone, however,
are the silver-based, wet darkrooms of yester year –
they’ve been replaced by computers, monitors and
inkjet printers. The digital revolution has made
black and white imagery easy, economical and
rewarding.
Along with the arrival of small, relatively
inexpensive digital cameras has come a wealth of
tutorials, tips and how-to information available for
free on the Internet. Most of the early masters of
photography were quick to understand that “there
are no secrets” and freely shared their methods
and tools to create their unforgettable imagery. For
example, Ansel Adams, known to millions for his
epic black and white translations of the American
landscape, was committed to sharing his expertise
through the publication of his books and his photography workshops.
Today that willingness to share their working
procedures in black and white, as well as all
other photographic techniques in general, is
well represented on the Internet by hundreds of
photographers of all skill levels (see a listing of
popular photography web sites on page 17).
Nearly all of the new and popular “point-andshoot” digital cameras offer easy to use defaults
to produce black and white in camera, and often
include options such as brown-toned sepia, blue
tones, and other interesting and dramatic stylistic
effects such as giving images the high contrast,
film-like grainy look of photos shot with high-speed
Kodak Tri-X and numerous other films that used to
be the mainstay of photographers everywhere.
For artists that have worked with black and
white film in the past, there are both flat-bed and
dedicated 35mm film size and larger scanners
that can be used to digitize existing black and
white negatives as well as color slides and color
negatives. Scanning produces a digital file that can
be easily printed using any of the available printers
or uploaded to digital labs across the country that
produce beautiful black and white prints using
their proprietary all-carbon inks and other black
and white reproduction options.
For anyone that has a digital camera, from the
do-everything “point and shoot” camera with
built-in zoom lens, flash and numerous other
features to the full-fledged digital single lens reflex
cameras with several interchangeable lenses, here
is a selection of tips to getting started in black and
white photography.
Many digital cameras have the ability to
produce in the so-called “RAW” mode as well as
in smaller, compressed “JPEG” file formats. The
RAW format generally captures everything that
the camera’s sensor can record without in-camera
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 13
processing. Photographers interested in getting the most out
of their digital file usually work in the RAW format, relying
on post-processing to “develop” the file into a photograph that
matches their vision.
JPEG is a so-called “lossey” format, using the in-camera
processing done automatically according to settings that the
photographer selects before taking the photograph. “Lossey”
is a technical term for the compression that the in-camera
computer applies to the file, “baking in” the selected JPEG
settings and compressing the size of the file by removing a
substantial amount of the sensor’s digital record.
JPEG settings offered in nearly all digital cameras usually
include sharpening, contrast and color balance, as well as
different “styles” – including black and white, sepia toning
and too often, expansive and confusing file-size options.
It’s possible to shoot a full color JPEG and easily convert
the image to black and white using the software that usually
is packaged with the digital camera. Adobe’s Photoshop is
another RAW development and image management software
that can be used, although the entire software package is
expensive and full of features that most photographers will
never need to learn. Each camera manufacturer usually
supplies a software solution for their camera’s file formats and
capabilities that’s much easier to use and is a good place to
start.
While post-processing software gives you the ability to
Above: Fantasy and imagation – wildly toned
in dark selenium and then inverted, this ice
detail on Lake Carter P. Johnson on Fort
Robinson State Park is a realist’s nightmare.
Left: Backlit cottonwood tree and barn near
Verdigre, reportedly Old Jules’ original
homestead site in Nebraska.
Opposite: “Bullfight at the T” has a dark
sepia tone, similar to the sepia tones offered
as a default on many point-and-shoot digital
cameras.
14 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
shoot in full color and convert a selected image to
black and white later, the camera’s JPEG settings can
usually be set (carefully read that camera’s instruction
booklet) to produce black and white in-camera images,
among other options. The best advice is to set the
sharpening, contrast and other settings to a personal
preference. Too much sharpening, for example, will
make the final image appear “crunchy” or otherwise
unnatural. Color defaults range from soft pastels to
vibrant, deeper colors. Remember, however, – that JPEG
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 15
snow clouds and the shadows are rendered in
light grays, no deep black accents are needed.
Other black and white subjects could include a
darkened, abandoned farmhouse interior with a
brighter white door illuminated by shade light
through one of the windows. How about a craggy
cowboy’s portrait, the face’s weather-worn lines
rendered in sharp detail with glistening highlights
and luminous shadows without any deep and dark
tones?
Free shareware and commercial black and white
software that can be used to further refine black
and white images is available on some of the web
sites listed at the end of this article. Utilizing these
sites can help lead you on a personal journey that
can take your photography back to the era of the
plain-old black and white as well as the leading
edge of today’s fine art photography. ■
www.quadtonerip.com -- low-priced b&w
printing shareware for Epson printers.
www.dpreview.com -- reviews of a wide range of
digital cameras.
www.silverfast.com -- support and tutorials for
scanner use, including information on film and flat
bed scanners.
www.luminous-landscape.com -- Tutorials and
great information.
www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/colorblack-white.htm -- great tutorials.
www.epaperpress.com -- shareware actions,
including b&w converters, framing and toning
actions, free but requires photoshop.
www.masteringdigitalbwbook.com -- “…
supporting content for this book and a discussion
forum for photographers and printmakers who
share a passion for black and white…” ■
Crow Butte in a frost-covered landscape is an image that works effectively in both b&w and color. Open shade and overhead cloud
cover often produce monochromatic color and soft, enveloping light suitable for b&w.
settings selected for one type of subject may not
work under different lighting or subject conditions.
By recording a set of JPEG defaults for landscapes,
another possibly for sports and maybe one for
indoor performances and events, it is possible to
generate JPEGS that capture the desired scene
without any post-processing tweaks – the camera’s
storage media card or memory stick can simply
be removed and the files printed at one of the
popular one-hour photo processing departments or
uploaded on the Internet to a lab for printing.
For a black and white JPEG, select the camera’s
black and white settings and the resulting image
file will bake-in those defaults, leaving little
opportunity to change the photograph later. If
you’re not sure whether a full color or black and
white image would best express how you envision
the scene, set the JPEG default to full color and
convert the file later in post processing.
The ability to recognize images or subjects that
might appear best in black and white is a learned
16 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
talent that takes practice. Study good examples of
black and white photography, especially the artist’s
original prints in museums and photography
galleries where possible, or on a well-crafted web
site.
A full color subject rendered in tones of black
and white often appears drab and dull. Usually a
scene that is a good candidate for black and white
includes a range of tones from nearly pure white
to deep black, but often a good black and white
subject includes a majority of either end of the
spectrum – a luminous field of nearly white subject
matter accented by only a few pure black accents,
for example, or something like the dark interior of a
coal bin with a white cat as a subject.
Weather conditions often create excellent
opportunities for black and white, such as a foggy
landscape, perhaps with a nearby subject rendered
dark in the white surround. Light snowfall usually
provides black and white potential – the contrast
of direct sunlight is softened by the overhead
One of the oldest film developers, pyro, and b&w film recorded a foggy afternoon landscape at Toadstool Park north of Crawford. Pyro
is renowned for its ability of capture very bright highlights – shown by the sun’s disc on the western horizon. Digital print from the
scanned negative.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 17
Northern
Pintails
Text and photos by Michael Forsberg
T
here are many no-name spots
in the eastern Rainwater Basins
of south-central Nebraska
where you can view migrating
pintail ducks each spring. If
you go, try to arrive in the wee
hours before dawn when, if you do it
just right, you can crest the hill, shut
off the lights and coast to a stop along
the dirt road that borders a wetland
without disturbing the roost.
With the dog quiet and the window
cracked open you will hear the mass
murmurings of ducks and geese
shuffling in the darkness and, if your
ear is tuned, you can make out the
pintails and their high-pitched, clear
notes that sound like a drum major’s
whistle marking out four-four time
marching in a parade.
As the light gathers, you can see the
birds begin to stir with their arrow-
like silhouettes as they tip bottoms up,
searching for breakfast in the water
below. Then as the sun rises, you
can watch the spectacle that is their
amazing courtship flights – squadrons
of drakes flying in tight formations,
escorting females in big cursive loops
around the wetland as long as the latewinter sun arcs across the sky.
The northern pintail (Anas acuta) is
a large, beautifully elegant bird that
is sometimes called the “greyhound
of ducks” with its streamlined profile,
slender wings and neck, and long,
distinctive, black pin-shaped tail. The
males are tuxedo-gray with black
accents, a chocolate brown head,
long white foreneck, bluish-gray bill
and a flash of iridescent green on the
wing. The females give up fashion for
function, with subtle mottled brown
plumage to better blend into their
Migrating northern pintail drakes escort a female during a courtship flight over Hultine Waterfowl Production Area in Clay County.
A nesting female pintail duck incubates eggs in a prairie along the Missouri Coteau in
western North Dakota.
18 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
grassland nesting grounds.
Northern pintails range over a larger
portion of the earth than any other
waterfowl species, with a breeding
range that circles the northern
hemisphere from North America to
northern Europe and Asia. A pintail
skeleton was even found at 16,400 feet
on the Khumbo Glacier during a 1952
expedition to Mount Everest.
On this continent, they breed from
Alaska and the Canadian arctic south
to the northern Great Plains, and
winter along the Atlantic, Gulf and
Pacific coasts, the playa basins of
Texas and Mexico, and as far south
as Central America. In Nebraska, they
can be found almost statewide during
migration and are considered a regular,
but uncommon, resident during the
breeding season, nesting primarily in
the Sandhills.
Between mid-February and March,
roughly one-third of the continent’s
pintail population arrives at the
Rainwater Basin and adjacent Platte
River Valley to rest and refuel along
with 10 to 15 million other springmigrating waterfowl. Here they build
the critical fat and nutrient reserves
they will need to finish migration
and begin the nesting cycle. Pintails
are omnivorous – their diet consists
largely of native wetland and aquatic
plant seeds, plant parts and aquatic
invertebrates, but they will also feed on
waste grain such as corn and wheat left
over from the year’s fall harvest.
Once the pintails move north, many
head to the Prairie Pothole Region
that stretches from the Dakotas into
southern Canada. Pintails are true
grassland ducks that prefer shallow
pothole wetlands that form and warm
quickly in the spring. They nest in open
country, primarily on native grassland
hillsides with a view of the surrounding
landscape. They will nest up to a mile
away from the nearest water, farther
than any other duck.
At the nest, hens lay 7-10 eggs and
incubate 22-24 days. Ducklings are led
to water within 24 hours after hatching
and can feed on their own immediately.
Those that survive will reach flight
stage at about 50 days and join the fall
flight of roughly 100 million waterfowl
down the Central Flyway.
Pintail numbers have declined
dramatically over the last few decades
due to continued losses of habitat to
agricultural conversion. Pintails need
large intact grasslands with shallow
wetlands to survive. Protecting the
integrity of the last strongholds of
grass such as the Nebraska Sandhills
and the Missouri Coteau in the Prairie
Pothole Region, along with migration
stopovers such as the Rainwater Basin,
is paramount. As goes the grass, so
goes the future of the northern pintail
here on the plains. ■
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 19
Plum Creek Valley
Wildlife Management Area
Text and photos by Jon Farrar
P
lum Creek Valley Wildlife Management Area (WMA)
southwest of Johnstown in Brown County, acquired
in 1999, is a relatively recent addition to the state’s
outdoor recreation grounds. It was named, obviously, for the
creek that flows through it, which is particularly interesting
to me because I have spent time where Plum Creek has its
beginning. Knowing the creek where it begins and about
halfway down its length is something like knowing a person
when they were a baby and then middle-aged.
Plum Creek’s south fork is relatively short, rising up
from groundwater under sand dunes south and southwest
of the WMA, and is probably no more than nine miles long
if you ignore its meandering course. However, it is the
Grasslands are being restored by timely cattle grazing and
prescribed burns to set back invasive exotic species and kill
cedars spreading from the valley. In the spring, grasshopper
sparrows sing their territorial songs from the highest perches.
20 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
headwaters of the larger and longer north fork I know. At
least twice the length of the south fork, most maps show
the north fork beginning at Red Deer Lake, just northeast
of Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Cherry
County, but because Red Deer is fed water from Ballards
Marsh, which in turn receives water from Trout Lake even
farther to the west, and sometimes Big Alkali Lake to the
northwest; the true headwaters of the north Fork remain
delightfully obscure. I like to think that when I hunt ducks
on Ballards Marsh, the water under my boat will eventually
course through Plum Creek Valley WMA. It is conceivable
I have seen the very same water miles apart but in strikingly
different settings. After leaving the WMA, the creek’s water
races north, turns east just north of Johnstown, and finally
northeast in its rush to the Niobrara River near the old town
site of Meadville, north of Ainsworth.
Because I came to know Plum Creek Valley WMA when
it was brand new, I saw it in a different light than other
WMAs. Most have existed for decades, and so it is easy to
not think there was a history of the land before it became
public. People lived on all these recreation lands, made a
living off the land, babies were born and old people died on
the land. Floods washed away cornfields on riverbottoms,
droughts blew away topsoil, wildfires scorched the earth,
milk cows were struck by lightening, and Fourth of July
celebrations were built around homegrown chickens and
watermelons.
It was the bright orange poppies and dame’s rockets in
blossom around a small slab of concrete that once was the
foundation for a small building that started me thinking of
Plum Creek Valley WMA’s life before it was owned by the
people of the Nebraska. It was early-June at a spot where
grassland meets woodland, where there had been a small,
wood-frame house, a stucco-covered washhouse, an ample
barn with tongue-and-groove siding that once housed horses
and cows and prairie hay to feed them, and a chicken coop,
no doubt with south-facing windows to keep hens warm and
laying in winter. The concrete slab and runaway domestic
flowers were the only signs of what had been.
Whenever I was close to that piece of land, I stopped for
a few hours and walked the grasslands and the woodlands
that bound meandering Plum Creek. I made field notes of
the plants and animals I found there through the seasons and,
when they allowed it, I made photographs. I seldom was
there without trying to imagine who had sat around a big oak
table for supper, talking of what they had done that day or
would do the next. How many days was a family stranded
there during the Blizzard of 1949? That sort of thinking led
me to the Brown County Clerk’s office and the Ainsworth
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 21
ORF
BOYD MUND
OF SHIRLEY
TESY
PHOTO COUR
Grant Boyd was described
as “a colorful figure of the early west.” His
first love seemed to be raising horses, but
during his lifetime he wore many hats.
city library. I wanted to know who had
the land before we all did.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHIRLEY BOYD MUNDORF
In 1905, Grant Boyd and his two
sisters, Carrie and Maude, moved
to Brown County from Richardson
County in southeastern Nebraska. The
sisters purchased a quarter section
of grassland on the east side of Plum
Creek; 80 acres adjoining that, which
included a half-mile of Plum Creek;
another 80 acres with the creek flowing
through it and 240 acres to the north
that included both creekbottom and
upland pasture. Grant did not purchase
land when his sisters did, but in 1911
he filed a claim on a quarter section of
tableland pasture adjoining his sisters’
land under the Kinkaid Act, a federal
program to move government-owned
land into public ownership. In 1912,
Grant bought his sisters’ land, bringing
his total land holdings to just less than
two sections. And that is about all of
the history of Boyd’s land told in the
thick ledger books of the courthouse.
The more interesting history of
the Boyd family is found in Pioneer
Stories of Brown, Keya Paha and Rock
Counties in Nebraska, published in
1980. The probable reason Grant did
not buy land when he and his sisters
first moved to Brown County was
that he was engaged in other ventures.
He was, apparently, something of an
entrepreneur, preferred raising and
selling horses to farming, and perhaps
was inflicted with a dose of wanderlust.
He was described in the book as “a
colorful figure of the early west,” and
the photograph of him suggests the
description was true. During his early
years in Brown County, Grant owned
and operated a livery barn and was also
a rural mail carrier. In the early-1930s
he owned the hotel in Johnstown. In
1911, he married a schoolteacher who
lived about three miles north of his
ranch. Twin boys were born the next
year, Warren and Allan, and three years
later a baby girl died at birth. In 1917,
Grant’s wife, Ada, died after a long
illness. In those years it is likely the
births and deaths came on the banks
of Plum Creek, not in a city hospital.
Twin brothers Warren, left, and Allan with a stringer of trout caught in Plum Creek.
Perhaps Allan’s best fish was a 21-inch brown trout he caught in 1953.
22 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
Most of the uplands on Plum Creek Wildlife Management area are unplowed native grass. Small tracts were farmed
in the early-1900s but later reseeded to grass. Here and there, lone cottonwoods rise up above the horizon.
Grant stayed on his Plum Creek land
and raised his two sons.
A satisfying connection between the
Boyd family and their land eventually
becoming a wildlife management area
is that Grant was an outdoorsman, as
were his sons. Grant trapped beaver
on Plum Creek, and as the Pioneer
Stories book recounts: “He had a coat
made out of the skins for his wife, Ada.
Approximately forty years later, Allan
trapped beaver on Plum Creek and, like
his father, had a coat made for his wife.
Allan also presented a beaver coat to
daughter, Shirley, for her high school
graduation in 1954.”
In 1935, when Warren and Allan
were in their early-20s, Grant was said
to have owned more than 100 head of
horses. He sold 45, and with the profit
left Nebraska to find Spanish-American
War veterans he had served with from
1897 into 1899. That journey took
Grant to southern states, and as the
climate there seemed more agreeable
than Nebraska’s, he purchased a citrus
fruit orchard and vegetable farm at
McAllen, Texas. Warren moved to
Texas to join in the venture. That same
year, Allan, who stayed on the Plum
Creek land, married Opal Welke of
Wood Lake. And it is with Allan and
Opal that the connection between the
Boyd family and Plum Creek Valley
WMA was made.
Allan shared many of his father’s
interests, particularly raising horses. He
raised cattle, but that could not support
a family on less than two sections of
rangeland. He tried farming some of
the tableland, as had Grant, but it was
not suitable cropland without irrigation
and eventually the plowed land was
reseeded to grassland.
“....in the early years of their
marriage, they had to endure the hard
times of Depression,” Shirley Boyd
Mundorf, Alan and Opal’s daughter,
wrote in Tales of Brown County,
Nebraska – History of Brown County
and Its Families, published by the
Brown County Historical Society.
“They milked cows and fed calves,
selling milk and cream in order to buy
groceries. They raised chickens, sold
eggs and produced most of their own
food.” Allan was an auctioneer and
rural mail carrier, cut fence posts to
sell, and trapped beaver, muskrats and
mink. In later years, Allan became well
known for the quality black Angus
cattle he raised, particularly his bulls.
In June 1996, Allan and Opal Boyd
began talking with representatives of
the Nebraska Game Parks Commission
about selling their land. There were
public hearings for citizens to comment
on the possible acquisition. Merlin
“Turk” Beebout of Ainsworth attended
one of the hearings and in March 1998
wrote the Commission encouraging
the purchase. He had grown up in
Johnstown, and Plum Creek was within
walking distance when he was a boy.
He wrote: “I fully am in favor of this
purchase. As a youngster growing
up I enjoyed the use of this property,
also after I returned from World War
II. I hunted that land as did my sons
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 23
Dense stands of red cedar may seem like good wildlife habitat,
but even the more open stands, above, are virtual biological
deserts providing little in the way of food plants or cover.
and now my grandsons. The Boyds are special people.
They have controlled their land well, and they know the
enjoyment people get out of hunting and fishing. Allan Boyd
has been a fisherman as long as I can recall. He’s one of
a few that used nothing but artificial lures, and he catches
fish.”
In December of last year, I sat at Beebout’s kitchen table
and we talked. We talked about how hunting and fishing was
in the old days. Beebout is now 87 years old and entitled to
claim some wisdom in assessing the long view. He was a
lifelong friend of Allan Boyd. Before World War II, there
were no deer or turkey on Plum Creek. The hunting season
on grouse had been closed since 1928 and would not open
again until 1952. There were a few pheasants. So what was
there to hunt?
“When I was a kid I hunted a lot. Jackrabbits especially,
and we ate them,” Beebout said. “I was born at the time
when everybody was a saver, to some degree. If you didn’t
have a milk cow and a bunch of chickens and a garden in
Johnstown, you probably wouldn’t have survived.”
During the 1920s, gravel was mined on the east side
of Plum Creek near the southern end of the Boyd’s land
to build the road between Johnstown and Wood Lake. In
Beebout’s youth, the sandpit was a place to jump-shoot
mallards in the autumn and fish for bass in the summer.
Since the Commission has managed the area, the old sandpit
has been periodically stocked with trout. But Beebout said
he also walked the creek and jump-shot ducks. There were
trout in Plum Creek in the early-1900s as the Commission
regularly stocked every stream in the state that might support
trout. Plum Creek also had another value in the days before
air-conditioning and swimming pools.
“We used to go down, as a family,” Beebout recalled.
“I was pretty young. We didn’t have electricity until I was
five years old. We had a Model A then, in the thirties when
it was so hot in the summers. We’d go down there in the
evening, usually pretty late, and splash around in the crick,
Nesting upland sandpipers are
good indicators that Plum Creek
Valley’s grasslands are being
brought back to what they were
through careful managment.
Enough red cedar trees have been mechanically removed that prescribed burns can now be used to economically remove more.
24 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 25
Hunters such as Brad Brei, left, or Boyd Corliss are not surprised to flush either prairie chickens or sharptails from the grasslands.
and just kill a little time in the water,
and get cooled off, but by the time we
got back home we were hot again.”
Plum Creek, and the valley it flows
through, has changed since the days
when Beebout and the young Boyd
brothers hunted and fished there.
One of the biggest changes has been
the invasion of eastern red cedars.
Wildfires once kept the cedars confined
to protected valleys and canyons along
the central Niobrara and the lower
reaches of its tributary streams, such as
Plum Creek.
“There were trees where it left
Boyd’s [land] on the north end,”
Beebout said when asked what Plum
Creek looked like when he was young.
“There was a lot of cedars there, but
from there upstream was kind of,
well, you might say it was just kind of
wide-open, pretty much open. Maybe
some willows here and there along the
banks.”
Beebout said when he was young the
valley sides were grassed, and in some
places sandy, probably where cattle and
26 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
horses regularly came to water.
Since the end of the drought years of
the 1930s, and the virtual elimination
of wildfires, cedars have advanced
ever farther up the Niobrara’s feeder
streams, and spread into once treeless
rangeland. The lower half of the Boyd
land became a dense cedar forest with
nothing growing among them or under
them. Cedars had grown so thick they
filled openings around native deciduous
trees such as bur oak, hackberry and
green ash. Young bur oaks and other
deciduous trees were not replacing the
older trees because there was no place
for them to grow.
And Plum Creek itself had changed.
Beebout recalled there being rock
bottoms in Plum Creek when he was
young. Over time they vanished under
sand. Vanishing with the rock bottoms
were gravel beds, important trout
spawning sites. There is little question
the creek is carrying a heavier load of
silt and sand than it did historically.
Increased erosion in the watershed,
particular bordering the creek, is the
reason. Satellite images show a cluster
of center-pivot irrigation systems along
the south fork of Plum Creek just to
the south of the wildlife management
area. Overgrazing of pastureland on
the valley walls also contributed to the
heavier sand load the creek carries.
The result has been that stretches of
the creek once narrow and deep with
cool water were transformed into
streambeds 20 to 30 feet wide and only
three or four inches of warm water.
Restoration of Plum Creek, its valley
and the grasslands bording it began as
soon as the Commission acquired the
land, but it will take years to turn back
the clock. It is a particularly difficult
endeavor because management can
only be done on a relatively short
stretch of the valley. To a large degree,
restoration of the land and water on
Plum Creek Valley WMA will continue
to be determined by what happens on
privately owned land upstream.
In recent years, the WMA’s
grasslands have been periodically
grazed by cattle and burned to set back
invasive and undesirable cool-season
exotic grasses such as bluegrass and
brome, at times of the year favoring the
recovery of native grasses and forbs.
Both sharp-tailed grouse and greater
prairie chickens now use the area –
evidence the grassland management is
working. Male grasshopper sparrows
sing their territorial songs from dried
goldenrod stalks in the spring, and
upland sandpipers hide their nests deep
in the grass.
With reduced and controlled grazing,
stream banks are again cloaked in
vegetation and no longer contributing
to the deposition of sand in the creek.
Cedar trees have been cut and anchored
to shorelines to narrow the stream,
resulting in deeper, cooler, troutfriendly waters. The increased velocity
of the stream is already scouring sand
from the creek bottom and restoring
gravel beds where trout can spawn.
The middle and lower reaches of
Plum Creek, downstream from the
wildlife management area, have long
supported trout populations. Beginning
in the late-1800s, when there was only
a Nebraska Fish Commission, until a
few years ago, both brown and rainbow
trout were stocked in Plum Creek.
Stocking was discontinued when
fisheries biologists discovered both
species were naturally reproducing.
Fisheries biologists do not expect the
reach of Plum Creek passing through
the wildlife management area to
become a high-class trout fishery, not
the equal of Long Pine Creek to the
east, but it can support trout.
Perhaps the prickliest problem
facing wildlife managers is the dense
infestation of eastern red cedars. To the
untrained eye, the extensive stands of
cedar may look like wonderful wildlife
habitat, but it is a virtual biological
desert. While they may provide cover
for deer and turkey during severe
weather, 95-percent fewer cedar trees
would provide as much. What is lost
in the expansive cedar monoculture
is wildlife habitat diversity. There
are no shrubs for deer to browse, no
weedy and grassy spots in woodland
openings producing seeds or insects
for birds. The National Wild Turkey
Federation has aided the Commission’s
work by providing grant money for
the mechanical removal of cedars trees
on Plum Creek Valley WMA. About
130 acres of dense cedar woods have
been cleared in the creekbottom. The
openings have provided fire breaks that
now allow the use of prescribed burns
to economically set back the invasion
of cedars, probably beginning as soon
as this spring. Additionally, young
cedars invading grasslands already
have been destroyed using prescribed
fires on about 105 acres.
Perhaps in 20 years, or 50, Plum
Creek Valley WMA will more
resemble what it was when Grant,
Carrie and Maude Boyd settled there in
1905. Likely it will be an even better
refuge for native fauna and flora, as
the land will no longer need to support
a family. Allan Boyd would no doubt
be pleased to see hunters walking the
grasslands and fishermen trying their
luck for trout in his creek.
Both Grant and Warren eventually
returned to the home place. Warren
died while hunting along Plum Creek.
Grant lived there until he died in 1951
at the age of 83. Opal was known for
her flower gardens. Even though they
are not native plants, one hopes the
poppies and dame’s rockets she planted
continue to flourish around the old
homestead – they are a memorial of
sorts to Opal. Allan was a sportsman
and Plum Creek was his paradise.
That the family ranch is now open
for hunting and fishing, as he always
allowed, is his legacy.
“I fully appreciate the fact that the
Intermingled with the grasses are
showy, native wildflowers such as plains
gayfeather. Plants that had only been
barely surviving are now flourishing.
Game and Parks Commission invests
in land and streams so that future
generation will have a place to hunt
and fish,” Beebout wrote in his 1998
letter in support of the Boyd land
becoming a wildlife management area.
“In my lifetime, I’ve had my share of
hunting and fishing. We need to make
it available for future generations.
That is what America is all about, and
I’m sure the Boyds have the same
feelings.” ■
Domestic poppies still flower at the old Boyd homestead, a reminder that the land had
a life before it became a wildlife management area owned by the public.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 27
Text
T
ext aand
nd P
Ph
Photos
hotos b
byy E
Eric
ric F
Fowler
owler
or eons, man has been finding
wa to put that cold wet thing
ways
on the end of his best friend’s
w
face to work.
He uses dogs and their
amazing noses to hunt and track game,
for search and rescue, and to sniff out
drugs, bombs – even bedbugs in homes
and invasive quagga mussels on boats.
Now hunters have found yet another
way to utilize Fido’s powerful sense of
smell: finding shed antlers.
Don Leeding of Doniphan and his
two-year-old black Lab Jackie are part
of that new segment of a hobby that
28 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
was already experiencing significant
popularity growth among hunters
wanting to see what bucks made it
through the season, artists who turn
antlers into lamps or other items, and
families who treat it like a big Easter
egg hunt.
Leeding has only been shed hunting
for five years, but has hunted waterfowl
and upland game with Labrador
retrievers for most of his life. He likes
to take his dogs for walks in the woods
in the off-season, but he’d never thought
about teaching his dogs to find sheds
until he saw a television feature
on Roger Sigler,
Sigler a Smithville,
Smithville Mo.,
Mo dog
trainer who was doing just that. When
he got Jackie, he decided to give Sigler
a call and before he knew it the dog
was in Missouri enrolled in his Antler
Dog training program.
Jackie was a natural and “she just
keeps getting better each time she goes
out,” said Leeding, whose new hobby
has gone from hunts in the woods and
fields along the Platte River to trips
to other states. “We walk the deer
trails and stuff like that because that’s
normally where they’re going to be,
but if we find one drop on the trail, she
might find the match [in thicker cover]
when we’re out scrounging around.”
While sheds are sometimes easy to
spot in the winter deer woods, bucks
don’t always cooperate and drop them
there. They may shed in cornfields,
where everything looks like an antler,
or waist-high CRP or a cedar thicket,
where they become the proverbial
needle in a haystack. That’s where a
dog’s nose comes in handy.
For scenting dogs, size is everything.
Not the size of the dog, but the size of
its nose, which is lined with millions
of scent receptor cells. Bloodhounds
are the champ, with about 300 million
cells, but the much smaller beagle also
has a big nose, with 225 million scent
receptor cells. The human nose, by
comparison, has just five million.
Sigler has trained dogs professionally
for more than 40 years, teaching
sporting dogs to hunt and German
shepherds to bite or find drugs or
bombs. He has found Labradors to
be the best breed for shed hunting,
but says others might be trainable,
especially retrievers. Not every Lab,
however, will be good at shed hunting,
Sigler said, just like not every person
is good at math. “It’s harder to get an
antler dog than a drug dog,” he said.
“[Drug dogs] all work in a controlled
environment.”
Sigler practices the science of
participative training, the basics of
which are traced to Pavlov and his
dogs. He uses only
positive reinforcement: no force fetch
training, choke chains or shock collars.
“If you’ve got the right dog,” said
Sigler, “then it’s simply a matter of
using that dog’s natural talents to
perform the behaviors that you want
it to do, whether you’re training bomb
dogs, drug dogs, search and rescue
dogs, or antler dogs. A bomb dog or
drug dog doesn’t go looking for bombs
or drugs until they’re taught what it is
they’re looking for. With antler dogs,
you are doing exactly the same thing –
you’re taking their natural prey drive,
their desire for that antler, and you’re
creating a series of games which allows
the dog to go out and hunt all day long
for that antler just exactly the same
way bomb dogs and drug dogs do.”
Those games start when the dog is
a puppy, fetching a ball impaled with
a small piece of antler. The dogs are
soon retrieving antlers, and by the time
they are five to nine months old, they
are hunting for and retrieving antlers
hidden in the grass or woods. From
there, they are ready for real shed hunts
in the deer woods.
Sigler said some dogs are naturally
better at some things than others, so
he focuses the training on where it is
needed most. A common problem is
a dog hunting for the trainer’s scent
rather than the antler’s. “In that case, you
have to work on scent discrimination,
teaching the dog exactly what he’s
looking for,” he said. “You have to
continually use different antlers. If you
use one antler and that’s what you train
on, that dog will look for that one and
walk right past another.”
Washing the antlers and using rubber
gloves when hiding them, or even
having someone else hide them, may
be required in this process.
Dogs can be cross trained to hunt
birds and sheds, Sigler said. “These
dogs are really intuitive,” he said. “It’s
the commands you set up, much like
when I’m training bite dogs – there’s
a certain command I can give and that
dog’s going to bite you.”
He
H prefers completing the shed
Jackie.”
hunting
training before moving on to
hu
Shed hunting season is short, starting
birds,
but even then, if pheasants are
bi
when bucks drop in January and ending
around,
a dog is likely to choose
a
when farmers begin working their
those
over antlers. “They have more
th
fields, spring growth starts concealing
value,”
Sigler said. That’s why
va
the sheds, or nature washes enough of
beagles,
while they have great noses,
bea
the scent away that even dogs have a
don’t
don make good shed dogs – there
hard time finding them. So Leeding
are too many rabbit tracks in the deer
plants antlers in the woods year-round
woods.
for his dogs to find on their walks. “It’s
The right dog, with the right training, still a game,” he said. “They still like
however, will hunt all day for a shed,
going out and finding them.”
ignoring everything else. In his sport
And they can be very good at it.
show seminars, Sigler will send his
“If you’ve got a dog, try it,” Sigler
Lab after an antler he’s hidden in the
said. “When they’re right, they’re
arena, some big enough to hold 80,000
extraordinary.” ■
people. “The only thing she can think
about is finding that antler,” he said.
For more on training dogs to hunt
“She goes between people’s legs and
sheds, visit Roger Sigler’s web site at
up over counters and whatever she’s
AntlerDogs.com. You might also want
got to do to get to it.”
to check out ShedDogTrainer.com or
When he started training dogs to
ShedAntlers.org.
find sheds, Sigler thought a dog might
be able to double a handler’s
haul. “But they find five to
your one,” said Sigler, who
takes shed hunting to a new
level by traveling to Canada
almost every spring to hunt
sheds in areas where hundreds
of deer yard up in the winter.
One day last spring, one of his
dogs found 27 of the 35 sheds
they picked up.
Like most shed hunters, the
hunt is what attracts Leeding,
especially the hunt for big
antlers. “You can really get
hooked on that stuff,” he said,
but Leeding also enjoys the
exercise, being outside, and
watching his dogs work. His
other Labs, six-year-old Kate
and four-year-old Billie, have
even learned a trick or two
from Jackie, and will now find
sheds on their own, although
Kate refuses to retrieve them.
While some shed hunters
are in it for the money that can
come with finding a matched
set from a trophy buck,
Leeding just keeps his sheds,
some of which serve as chew
toys for the dogs in the house.
“I even tell landowners that if
I find one and it’s quite nice,
(Left) Don Leeding’s black Lab, Jackie, retrieves
I’ll bring it back to them,” he
a shed antler in a Platte River Valley woodland.
said. “I’m still looking at it as (Above) Leeding and Jackie with the sheds and
getting more antlers in front of skulls they found in 2011.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 29
A History of
Prairie Fire
A natural grassland
process that was
controlled for many
years, the benefits of
prairie fire are once
again being touted.
By Gerry Steinauer, Botanist, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
F
or eons, lightning strikes have set
fire to Great Plains prairies. Such
fires occurred mainly in summer
and were more frequent in the arid
western Plains, where “dry storms”
were common. In the humid eastern
Plains, rain usually accompanied
storms and doused most fledgling
fires before they spread. If the grass
was dry and the wind brisk, however,
prairie fires could race for miles until
encountering larger streams or heavily
grazed areas with little grass fuel. Fire
and climate shaped and maintained
Great Plains prairies, promoting grass
and limiting trees and shrubs to fireprotected sites.
Plains Indians, who migrated into
the region about 13,000 years ago,
likely observed the benefits to the
landscape of lightning fires and
adopted fire for their own use. They
often set the prairie ablaze in autumn
through early spring when grasses were
dry and extremely flammable. These
fires burned with intensity over large
areas and were likely responsible for
expanding Great Plains grasslands,
displacing bordering shrublands and
woodlands.
Some Native American fires, such
as escaped campfires, were accidental,
but most were purposely set. While
traveling along the Platte River near
the mouth of the Loup River in 1823,
Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wuerttemberg,
noted that “the Indians know how to
fire the prairie with great skill. They
take advantage of a favorable wind.
In spite of the fact that all around the
village the grass was burned, the corn
fields near the village were unharmed.”
For tribe members, as with later
European settlers, careless or untimely
fires could be dangerous and destroy
30 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
forage, crops or villages, and those
who set such fires were often punished.
Plains Indians used fire to force
game from thick cover or drive bison
off cliffs and embankments, and smoke
was craftily used to herd bison to
favorable hunting locations. They also
used fire to influence the location of
game and improve hunting opportunity:
The prairie near villages was often
burned in early spring to entice
migrating bison herds to stop and
graze the nutritious and palatable grass
resprouts which they favored. In spring,
grass sprouts a few weeks earlier on
the blackened and sun-warmed soils
of burned prairies compared to thatchshaded, unburned areas. In late summer
or fall, tribe members would burn grass
off traditional bison wintering grounds,
often far from villages, while leaving
prairies near their villages unburned,
forcing bison to winter within easy
hunting distance of their lodges.
In warfare, Plains Indians set prairie
fires to force enemies from thick cover,
surround them with flame or burn their
villages and encampments. In battle,
well-placed fires and smoke could
confuse the enemy; hide the movement,
number and location of warriors; and
hinder pursuers by covering trails after
an unsuccessful attack. In the 1878
book The Hunting Grounds of the Great
West, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge
stated: “setting fire to the grass in the
vicinity of the camp at night is one of
the Indian modes of annoying a party
too strong for attack and too vigilant
for a successful attempt at theft.”
Native Americans also burned
off dense grass to ease travel and
to prevent potential wildfires near
villages. Fires and smoke were used
as signals to warn other bands of the
presence of enemies in the region,
to proclaim the safe return of a war
party, and other events. Prairies and
woodlands were burned to enhance
berry and seed crops and their harvest,
and to clear land for farming. Fire
historian Stephen J. Pyne has gone so
far as to write that “fire use among
Native peoples was an economic
necessity … and without fire most
Indian economies would have
collapsed.”
The arrival of Europeans on the
Great Plains greatly impacted Native
American cultures, economies and use
of fire. One major change, beginning
about 1700, was the American Indians’
adoption of the horse, brought to
the continent by Europeans, as their
primary mode of travel. Prior to this,
many Plains tribes, such as the Sioux
and Cheyenne, lived as hunters,
gatherers and farmers on the more
fertile and wooded Plains periphery
and along major river valleys, traveling
by foot into the Great Plains interior
only for summer bison hunts. For these
tribes, the horse and other factors led
to a nomadic, bison hunting-based
lifestyle and a permanent move into
the Plains interior. “The chase” became
their primary method of bison hunting
for the mounted hunters and fire was
used less in hunting. Tribes, however,
begin to frequently attack other tribes’
villages to steal horses and fire’s use
in warfare likely increased. In general,
after 1700 more Indians living and
traveling on the Plains led to more
frequent prairie fires.
For the Plains Indians, the era of the
mounted bison hunter was short-lived.
By the late-1800s, bison herds were in
precipitous decline from unscrupulous
commercial hunting and tribes were
Long before Euroamerican settlement, Plains Indians set prairie fires for many reasons, as illustrated in this 1908 artwork
“The Grass Fire,” painted by the renowned American artist, Frederic Remington.
being ravaged by foreign diseases
and forced onto reservations. Their
culture was in turmoil and decline.
Simultaneously, the Euroamerican
culture, one unfamiliar with prairie fire,
was advancing onto the Plains.
Europeans and Fire
Early Euroamerican plains explorers
and travelers were awed by the scope,
beauty and terror of prairie fires. “It
was truly horrifying but at the same
time a magnificent sight … as it
appeared for miles a sea of flame,”
wrote Paul Wilhelm of an 1823 Kansas
prairie fire. An insightful few readily
adopted the traditional Indian methods
and motives for firing the prairie. Some
set the prairie ablaze as entertainment.
By the mid-19th century, settlement
of the Plains was well underway.
Westward advancing settlers and
railroads – whose trains were
spark-spewing machines – brought
a magnitude of ignition sources
never before seen on the Plains.
Compounding this, between 1870 and
1900 there were far fewer bison and
yet relatively few cattle grazing the
prairies, leading to excessive grass
fuels. More fuel, ignition sources and
people led to a period of frequent,
severe and occasionally deadly prairie
fires. Fire scars in tree rings indicate
that during this period fires burned
through areas of the densely-fueled
eastern tallgrass prairies about every
two to five years, and every decade or
two in the western short-grass prairies.
Prairie fires threatened settlers’
crops, livestock, homes, families
and even towns. A 1904 Oklahoma
prairie fire left “more than a thousand
people…homeless and penniless
and many … in need of medical
assistance.” Settlers expended
considerable effort plowing fire
breaks and fighting wildfires. By the
late-19th century, a fervent anti-fire
sentiment was sweeping the plains.
Local newspaper editors raged against
fire starters and vigilantes threatened
lynching. Faced with such opposition,
only a few ranchers, such as those
in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas,
continued to burn rangelands to
improve forage and keep trees and
shrubs at bay. Not by coincidence,
fire has remained a commonly used
grassland management tool in the Flint
Hills to this day.
The droughts of the 1930s and 1950s
only intensified the anti-fire campaigns
as misinformed government and
research agencies promoted the belief
that fire damaged prairie grasses and
exposed soils to erosion. Furthermore,
in the 1940s the U.S. Forest Service
and other agencies created the highly
successful anti-fire, Smoky Bear
program. Appealing to the strong
religious sentiment of the time, its
promotional materials went so far as
to quote Bible passages deemed to
be anti-fire. In one critic’s view this
was “the most intensive – and most
ludicrous – educational campaign
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 31
“The best thing about fire is that it forces landowners to think differently about
grazing. Instead of grazing pastures the same way each year, they must include
periods of rest from grazing to build fuel for burning.”
— Kent Pfeiffer, Northern Prairies Land Trust Ecologist
that ever insulted the intelligence of
American audiences. It was carried
on by well-meaning but utterly
misinformed persons.”
Condemned by critics, by the mid20th century prairie fire’s image and
use were at all-time lows. In the 2011
book Prairie Fire, Julie Courtwright
wrote: “In many ways the elimination
of prairie fire was more about the
cultural baggage that Euroamericans
brought with them onto the Plains than
it was about the fires themselves. The
campaign against prairie fire was part
of larger campaign to make the Plains
into a ‘civilized’ place … If a ‘savage’
people created this foreign, hostile
environment [the prairie] with fire, then
a more ‘civilized’ could correct the
savagery by suppressing fire.”
Fire Returns to
Nebraska Prairies
In February of 1966, Carl Wolfe
and Gary Schlichtemeier, now-retired
Game Commission biologists, led
the agency’s first prescribed fire at
Ballard’s Marsh Wildlife Management
Area in Cherry County. Their intent
was to thin dense wetland vegetation.
The term “prescribed fire” was coined
by foresters in the 1940s for planned
fires to achieve specific goals under
particular fuel and weather conditions.
Wildfires, conversely, are unplanned
burns set by lightning or human
mishap/malice.
“Nobody was burning in Nebraska
then except a few farmers burning
weeds to prepare fields for planting
and roadsides to ‘tidy up,’” said Wolfe.
“From an ecological perspective, fire
was thought to destroy wildlife habitat.
Mel Steen’s (Commission director at
the time) favorite stump speech was
‘the things that destroy wildlife habitat
are the match, the plow and the cow.’
Steen made it clear that if the Ballard’s
Marsh fire escaped, I could kiss my job
goodbye.”
Wolfe explained that in the 1960s,
prescribed fire was being used in only
Prairie fires, such as this spring prescribed fire on the Platte River bluffs in Hamilton County, can burn with intensity, limiting
shrubs and trees to fire-protected sites.
32 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
a few areas of the
United States to manage
native vegetation
and wildlife habitat.
For example, in the
southeastern U.S.,
pine plantations were
regularly burned to
reduce shrubs and
promote grasses and
forbs (nongrasslike
herbaceous plants) to
improve quail habitat.
In the late-60s,
Wolfe traveled the
state with Herbert L.
Stoddard, legendary
quail and prescribedfire researcher in the
southeast. “Stoddard saw
the need for prescribed
fire in Nebraska to
improve pheasant and
Native grasses and wildflowers increasted in abundance in the southeastern South Dakota tallgrass
other wildlife habitat,”
said Wolfe. Fortunately, prairie after cessation of annual haying and one prescribed fire.
Stoddard and Steen were
old friends and after
encroachment into the latter regions’
talking with Stoddard, Steen’s views on now realize that tree encroachment
grasslands, however, may soon make
is due to lack of fire and once they
fire softened.
prescribed fire a necessity as it is the
By the mid-70s, the Commission was start burning to control trees they
only economically viable solution to
regularly burning wildlife management soon realize the benefits of fire to
woody invasion and maintenance of the
forage production,” said Pfeiffer. In
areas (WMAs), principally in
state’s rangelands.
prairies, fire removes dead vegetation
southeastern Nebraska, to improve
Pfeiffer believes landowners in
that impedes grazing, reduces low
wildlife habitat. Wolfe believes the
southeastern Nebraska are burning
Commission was the only conservation forage value nonnative grasses and
safely: “One thing that has helped
promotes high-value native grasses
organization in the state using
and forbs. In addition cattle, like bison, is that neighbors are starting to burn
prescribed fire at that time. In the latetogether and are designing larger but
prefer grazing (and have increased
1970s, research conducted principally
safer burn units with good firebreaks,
weight gains) on recently burned
in the Flint Hills expounding the
such as roads, streams or crop fields.
grasslands.
benefits of prescribed fire to prairie
“The best thing about fire is that it
There is a learning curve with fire
vegetation prompted the Commission
and they still make mistakes, but
to begin burning tallgrass prairies on its forces landowners to think differently
even highly-trained burn crews make
about grazing,” said Pfeiffer. “Instead
eastern Nebraska WMAs. By the midmistakes,” said Pfeiffer.
of grazing pastures the same way each
1980s, a few farmers and ranchers in
Keys to safe prescribed burning,
eastern Nebraska were burning pastures year, they must include periods of rest
in addition to establishing good fire
from grazing to build fuel for burning.
and Conservation Reserve Program
breaks, include among other things
Rested and burned pastures generally
(CRP) fields to promote forage and
using the wind to your advantage,
have increased native plant diversity
reduce woody encroachment.
setting fire at the right pace and
and more cover for wildlife compared
“We now have a few dozen
conserving water supplies. Prescribed
landowners burning upwards of 10,000 to annually grazed pastures.” As if
fire training workshops and landowner
by magic, Pfeiffer has seen prairie
acres of grassland each year in just
cooperatives are available in areas of
chickens and other grassland wildlife
Jefferson, Gage and Pawnee counties,”
the state to help landowners burn more
quickly return to pastures cleared of
said Kent Pfeiffer, Northern Prairies
safely.
trees and burned.
Land Trust (NPLT) ecologist in
Prescribed fire’s revival on the
Although it is an increasingly
southeastern Nebraska. Since 2003, the
Great Plains and in Nebraska is little
common and accepted practice
NPLT and Commission have provided
more than relearning an ancient Native
in eastern and central Nebraska
cost-share to landowners to clear
American tradition, one that provides
grasslands, prescribed fire is still little
eastern red cedars and other invasive
benefits to prairie, wildlife and our
used and fairly controversial in the
trees from prairies and conduct followeconomy. ■
Sandhills and western Nebraska. Tree
up prescribed fires. “Many landowners
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 33
Wildflower Field Guide
Out of print for 20-plus years, this popular field guide is now back – better than ever.
T
here is a poem called “The
Mouse’s Tale” in Lewis
Carroll’s novel, Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland, in which
the mouse says: “Mine is a long and
a sad tale!” That line comes to mind
when considering the life of the first
edition of Field Guide to Wildflowers
of Nebraska and the Great Plains,
published by the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission in 1990.
The book was well received, as
there was a need for a visual and word
guide to some of the showiest and most
commonly encountered wildflowers in
the region. The 10,000 copies that were
printed sold within a year-and-a-half.
Before it went to press, the plan was
to reprint the book if it proved
successful, perhaps
even expand
it
Line art in this field guide helps illustrate
interesting details or identification aids
for various flowers.
to include even more species, and so
all the negatives from which
the press
w
plates had been made were
w left with
the Iowa printing company.
This was
comp
in the days before digital
photograph
dig
scans and such things,
thing back in the
dark ages of book printing,
one or
pr
two steps up from rubbing
colored
r
rock on cave walls.
walls
Several years passed
and the
pa
book was not reprinted.
More
rep
years passed. During
all that
Du
time requests for
fo the book
continued to pour
po in, so it was
finally decided to do a second
printing. It was
w assumed,
foolishly, the printer still had
the negatives
negative from which
new press plates
could be
p
made. Alas,
Ala the printer
had gone out of business
and all press-ready
p
materials
material it had been
holding were either
recycled
recycle or sent to the
landfill.
landfi To reprint the
book would mean
starting
from scratch
start
– all
al that existed of
the final text was a
digital
version of
di
34 NEBRASKALAND
NEBRASKALA
• MARCH 2012
the first draft, so the text would have to
be redone, new color separations would
have
ha to be made from all the photo
transparencies,
the book would have
tra
to be designed a second time, and all
pre-press
production costs paid again.
pre
Lacking
money and time, the project
La
was
wa shelved again.
More
years passed, and the demand
M
for copies of the book grew. Letters
and
an phone calls continued to arrive
asking
for the book to be reprinted.
ask
There
Th were several proposals from
publishers
to reprint it, but none were
pu
financially
attractive except to the
fin
publishers. Botanical and conservation
organizations formally requested that
the book be reprinted. Dog-eared
copies of the book were selling on
online auctions for $40 a copy and
up. More years passed. And then one
day, 20 years after the first edition
was published, an e-mail arrived
from Holly Carver, editor of the Bur
Oak Guide series for University of
Iowa Press, asking about the book:
“Is there any possibility of bringing
it back into print? If so, we would be
very interested in partnering with you
to make this happen.” E-mails were
exchanged, and eventually a contract
drafted and signed by both parties.
In the year that followed, firstdraft electronic text was meshed
with the final text of the first edition.
Commission botanist Gerry Steinauer
updated all the changes that had been
made in botanical nomenclature over
the last 20 years (which were legion),
and refined descriptions of some
plants as needed. Transparencies used
in the first edition were scanned by
University of Iowa Press and where
possible, newer and better photographs
replaced photographs from the first
edition. In some cases plants included
in the first edition were replaced with
plants considered of more interest to
users of the guide. A better map of the
vegetation zones of Nebraska, done
by botanists Robert Kaul and Steven
Rolfsmeier, replaced an older, less
detailed map. Introductive text was
updated. In January, the second edition
was released.
All the features that made the first
edition useful and popular are retained
in the second. Flowers are organized
by color, the quickest way for amateur
botanists to match a live plant with
its description in the book, and plants
within each color category are arranged
from earliest of spring to last of fall.
Closely related flowers, and flowers
similar in appearance, are grouped
for comparison as much as possible.
Text describing a plant appears with a
photograph of it. The text organization
is consistent for the user’s convenience,
a uniform order and style for each
species so information is easy to find.
Common names, family name, time
of flowering, distribution, habitat, a
detailed description of the plant and,
in most cases, addition information
such as folklore and medicinal uses
are included. For convenience,
measurements are not in metric;
and technical, botanical language is
minimized so the text is understandable
for those without botanical training.
The book’s photographs were selected
to show important identification
characteristics but without sacrificing
the flower’s natural beauty. Line art
by NEBRASKAland designer and
illustrator Tim Reigert, 83 pieces in
all, are used to illustrate interesting
details or identification aids, and are
in an illustrated glossary of botanical
terminology.
What else is new about the second
edition? The first edition was 216
pages – text and photographs were
squeezed so as many species could
be included as possible. The second
edition is 284 pages, so flower photos
are often reproduced larger and the text
is more airy for easier reading. The
photographic reproduction, particularly
color accuracy, is outstanding,
ass it needs to be to aid in flower
identification. Color sections are coded
id
with margin tabs to quickly get the
w
user into the right section. Overall,
us
the design is more contemporary and
th
appealing than the first edition, as
ap
would be expected by the University of
w
Iowa Press, one of the top publishers in
Io
the country.
th
Robert B. Kaul, curator of botany
for the University of Nebraska State
fo
M
Museum and coauthor of The Flora
of Nebraska, the botanical bible for
N
Nebraska and neighboring states,
wrote: “The clear, natural photographs
wr
in Jon Farrar’s Field Guide to
Wildflowers of Nebraska and the Great
W
Plains show colors and details seldom
Pl
seen and set a standard for books of
se
this sort. Many of the plants illustrated
are rarely photographed with such care,
and they grow in a region that’s often
neglected by similar manuals. Farrar’s
text is accurate and detailed enough to
suit a wide variety of users, without
overwhelming them with technical
terms. Its accuracy is assured because
many local experts have reviewed it for
both editions.” ■
Selling for $29.95 – $10 of cover
price – this book can be ordered by
going to NebraskalandGifts.com or by
calling 1-800-742-9956. It can also be
purchased at many Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission district offices and
state parks or nature centers.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 35
The
Luckiest
Person
on Earth
Text and photos by Abby Jensen
Good timing, good light and great luck led
to the photo adventure of a lifetime for a
photographer looking for whooping cranes
on the central Platte River last spring.
I
t was dark when I pulled into
the campground at Fort Kearny
State Recreation Area (SRA)
near Kearney. The excitement
for my upcoming whooping
crane adventure was thick in the air. I
had been researching the endangered
whooping crane for months and was
hoping I would get the chance to see
a couple of whoopers during my trip
to the Kearney area in early April. The
Big Bend portion of the Platte River in
central Nebraska is a common stopover
location for the cranes during their
annual spring migration to their nesting
grounds in Wood Buffalo National
Park, located in northeastern Alberta
and the southern Northwest Territories
in Canada.
I had no idea what lay ahead of me.
My first day was spent with Gene
Hunt, superintendent of the SRA and
adjacent Fort Kearny State Historical
Park. Gene is an informed and
knowledgeable tour guide, as well as
36 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
an expert historian for Kearney County.
We toured some of the conservation
efforts being done in the area,
including numerous wetlands scattered
among corn fields and grasslands. It
was amazing to see the work being
done to bring these lands back to their
prairie beginnings.
Because there were still a number
of migrating sandhill cranes in the
area, I spent some time photographing
these intriguing birds. A close relative
of whooping cranes, sandhill cranes
typically begin their northbound
migration much earlier than whoopers,
often arriving in Nebraska by lateFebruary, and typically staying here
for up to six weeks as they put on
the valuable fat reserves they will
need when they arrive at their nesting
grounds in northern Canada. While
driving around, I was fortunate to see
a leucistic, or white, sandhill crane.
Occasionally the feathers on a sandhill
crane don’t develop their usual color
Six endangered whooping cranes fly to a nearby field for breakfast in beautiful morning light near Kearney last spring.
pigments and the feathers remain white
instead of the typical gray. Leucustic
sandhill cranes are frequently mistaken
for their much larger cousins, the
whoopers.
After an afternoon of driving, bird
watching and photographing, it was
time to head back to the campground.
That evening, listening to sounds of the
sandhill cranes as they gathered along
the Platte, was magical and something I
will never forget.
The next day I was out and about
surveying my surroundings when I got
the call – eight whoopers were roosting
in the south channel of the Platte River
right in front of a blind nearby at the
Audubon Society’s Rowe Sanctuary.
Whooping crane spotters were looking
for a photographer with a long lens to
get some pictures of them and I fit the
bill!
Gary Lingle is an ornithologist and
conservationist who has been studying
cranes and other birds of the Platte
River Valley for more than 30 years.
I met up with him on a county road
near the blind as soon as I could. Gary
is one of numerous people who serve
as an aforementioned “whooping
crane spotter” during their migration.
These spotters help keep track of these
endangered birds and help protect them
from intentional or unintentional harm.
After making our introductions, Gary
and I slowly walked out to the blind,
taking care not to disturb the majestic
birds. Once inside I was breathless:
The most amazing sight was right in
front of me – eight whoopers with
their heads tucked under a wing and
a strong north wind fluttering their
feathers, were taking a much needed
rest on a sandbar. We were there for
some time before even one of them
peeked out from under its plumage.
The strong north wind continued to
blow throughout the next few days
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 37
which, as I later learned, worked to my
advantage.
Gary told me I was the luckiest
person he had ever known – in all
his years of studying and tracking
whooping cranes, this was the first
time he had ever seen a group this
large on their stopover while migrating
north. We stayed for about 90 minutes
watching and waiting. It was almost
time for Gary to turn his watch over to
another spotter when the birds begin
to move around. Playing with sticks,
tugging on the radio transmitters they’d
been fitted with as chicks in order to
track their movements, and cleaning
their feathers, Gary thought the birds
might be getting ready to make a move.
Lifting off into a brisk north wind, five whoopers leave their roost in front of a blind at Audubon Nebraska’s Rowe Sanctuary.
38 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
The flock had been there overnight
and whooping cranes don’t normally
like to stay around in one area too
long while migrating. We waited
patiently for another 10 minutes or
so until the flock crouched into their
pre-flight stance and whoosh – the
group was up fighting against the north
wind. All while I was snapping away
with my camera. I could not believe
I was actually there experiencing the
moment.
The cranes lifted off straight into
the north wind and with a sharp turn
glided back south. We ran out of the
blind to watch. Gary kept the flock in
sight as best he could. We were excited
about the sharp turn back south the
birds made, hoping that we would get
a chance to see them again. I couldn’t
wait to get back to my camper to
download the digital images from that
breathtaking experience.
The next day, with a strong north
wind still blowing, the group was
spotted hunkered down in a wetland
southwest of Kearney. So I headed
over and started waiting and watching
again. The wind was so strong that they
stayed hunkered down the entire four
hours I was parked along the roadside.
They seemed quite content to simply
mill about the wetland, enjoying the
Rainwater Basin.
The following morning, back at
that same wetland, I was treated to a
“Dancing” and tossing sticks into the air, two whoopers interact as the trio around them look on.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 39
After spending the night in a wetland southwest of Kearney, a flock of whooping cranes fly to a nearby cornfield for a
late-morning snack before continuing their migration north last spring.
beautiful sunrise. The winds had died
down considerably, and it wasn’t long
before a flock of sandhills joined what
was now a group of nine whooping
cranes. The two crane groups seemed
comfortable with one another,
although neither took too kindly to the
woodducks that wanted to stop for a
visit.
40 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
After about an hour, the whoopers
began dancing, playing and preening
their feathers, which I took as a sign
that they might be getting ready to fly
again. Camera ready, I watched in the
beautiful, perfect morning light.
Sure enough, just as Gary had
taught me, they crouched into preflight
postures and took off. To my surprise
and delight they flew right over my
head and landed in a cornfield behind
me. The flock spent about 30 minutes
in the field looking for a late morning
snack before returning to the wetland.
After a short rest, the nine cranes
continued their migration – giant white
wings with black tips carrying them
skyward in the morning sun to the
warm thermals above that would carry
them north. That was the last time I
saw this amazing group of whooping
cranes.
After spending time with the spotters
and the locals of the area, I realize that,
as Gary said, I might have been the
luckiest person on earth for those three
days ... it was definitely an experience
that I will treasure and remember
forever. ■
Abby Jensen is a native Nebraskan
who recently moved to Steamboat
Springs, Colorado, to expand her
wildlife photography business.
To see more of her work, visit
www.jensen-photography.com.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 41
Keeping Your Toes Warm
Park Aspens
Smith Falls aspens declining.
Survival in the wild is often a matter of small, but beneficial, details.
By Jon Farrar
By Mike Groenwald
W
S
Because the range of sharp-tailed grouse, above, is principally
north of Nebraska, it has evolved adaptations benefitting it in a
snowy environment, more so that the greater prairie chicken.
the southern edge of the sharp-tailed grouse range, a range
that encompasses much of Canada and into Alaska. The
greater prairie chicken was a bird of tallgrass prairie, and
so its historical range lies to the south and east of Nebraska
where winters are shorter and milder. For
the same reasons polar bears are white, and
northern weasels and snowshoe hares molt
into white plumages in winter (to better blend
with their environment), sharptails have a
more white plumage than do prairie chickens.
Two of the most interesting contrasts
between sharptails and prairie chickens are
seen on their nostrils and feet. The nostrils
of sharptails are feather-covered to keep
wind-blown snow from entering, and to
ameliorate the effect of cold winds. Even
more interesting is that the toes of sharptails
are lined with feathery scales and those of
prairie chickens are not. The feathering is
sparse and probably more useful functioning
as snowshoes, allowing the birds to walk on
snow without breaking through. Other North
American grouse species of higher latitudes
Unlike the naked toes of a prairie chicken, left, the sharptail’s toes are lined with
feathery scales, probably functioning somewhat like snowshoes.
have even heavier feathering on their feet. ■
42 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
PHOTO BY MIKE GROENWALD
ILLUSTRATION BY C.G. PRITCHARD
mith Falls State Park near Valentine not only has
the highest waterfall in the state, it also contains a
number of aspen trees – a species not found in a lot
of Nebraska locales, and one which helps make Smith
Falls SP one of the prettiest places in the state.
Unfortunately, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
staff and others are concerned because these small, remnant
stands of aspens are declining. A biologist could write a
book on the theory of their decline, but a host of factors
seem to be at work: Climate change, disease and insects, as
well as land use changes since settlement are some possible
causes. Most agree this landscape looked far different now
than prior to settlement 130 years ago – the pine-covered
uplands were much more open and were interspersed with
bur oak and red cedar. The aspens probably flourished in
moist spring seep canyons. Occasional wildfires started by
lightning or Native Americans, as well as grazing by wildlife
such as bison, once maintained the open woodlands. As the
region was settled, however, homesteaders began protecting
their property by suppressing wildfires and the landscape
changed dramatically. An open forest became a densely
crowded forest.
Fortunately, a management program is now in place to
hopefully restore and maintain the park’s aspens by thinning
red cedar and excess
ponderosa pine from
the park forest.
Officials hope to
introduce prescribed
fire to further restore
and maintain the
native grasslands
and woodlands.
This project is
partially funded
through a grant from
the Nebraska
Environmental Trust,
which is funded by proceeds
from the Nebraska Lottery and
has awarded more than $157 million
to conservation projects in Nebraska since 1994.
At this time there are four aspen groves containing four
to six mature trees, and two aspen groves composed of one
to two mature trees, remaining in the park’s forest. Most
competing red cedar trees have been thinned beneath the
mature and declining aspens, and numerous sprouts are
developing from the roots of mature trees – definitely a good
sign for the restoration efforts.
Aspens will reproduce from
seed, but new trees develop
more readily from root
sprouts.
Work on the project
continues – a host of
organisms, including insects,
fungi and viruses, attack
aspen, and deer browse the
young sprouts and have
become the next obstacle to
encouraging the development
of sprouts into trees that can
perpetuate the groves. As
a result, workers recently
protected a number of sprouts
in the four largest aspen
groves by using wooden
stakes and plastic netting
to discourage browsing by
deer. Hopefully the young
sprouts will survive and begin
replacing the mature trees. ■
Jon Morgenson, park horticulturist, helps erect fencing to protect young aspens at Smith Falls.
Mike Groenwald is a park
horticulturist for the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 43
PHOTO BY ERIC FOWLER
inter months test the mettle of birds not migrating
south to warmer climates. Year-round Nebraska
residents and species breeding north but wintering
here have evolved ways of coping with frigid
temperatures and snow-covered feeding grounds.
Bird’s feathers are remarkable insulation, and the number
of feathers on some species increases with the fall molt.
American goldfinches and black-capped chickadees are
said to be covered with about 1,000 feathers in the summer
months, but more than 2,000 during the winter. Oil from
preen glands improves waterproofing. Fluffing feathers
creates air pockets, increasing the thickness of the insulating
covering. Birds put on white fat, a high-energy fuel that
when burned warms the body. Some species, bobwhites,
roost in tight clusters overnight to decrease exposure and
heat loss. Many birds shiver to warm themselves, producing
body heat at five times the normal rate.
But how do birds keep their featherless feet warm? When
you see a wintering mallard standing on ice with one leg
tucked up into its breast feathers, you can almost be sure it
will periodically alternate which leg is being warmed; and
when you see an apparently legless sandhill crane flying on a
particularly cold March day, it no doubt has both legs tucked
up into belly feathers. Birds also have a unique circulatory
system in their feet so warm blood passes through a network
of small arteries lying close to small veins, warming blood
returning to the heart. Rather than heat being lost, it is
transferred within the feet, and the featherless appendages
are warmed like a radiator.
The two species of prairie grouse that are year-round
residents in Nebraska provide an interesting comparison of
how bird species have adapted to the climate. Nebraska is on
from NEBRASKAland‛s Trail Tales magazine for kids
Meet the Spadefoot
One of Nebraska’s more unusual amphibians, spadefoots need torrentail rains to reproduce.
By Dan Fogell, Herpetologist, Southeast Community College
I
44 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
PHOTO BY DAN FOGELL
t’s spring, it’s night time, and it’s
raining. Not a quiet drizzle either,
but a cloudburst complete with
thunder and lightning. It is one
of those nights where you’re glad
you’re not traveling anywhere. Not me,
though – I’m trying to find any excuse
to get out and go on a search for what I
consider Nebraska’s cutest amphibian –
the plains spadefoot. I say cute because
if any frog has “Bambi eyes” it’s the
spadefoot. Often called spadefoot
toads, the two- to three-inch long plains
spadefoots are not really true toads.
They have smooth moist skin, whereas
toads have warty, dry skin. They also
they lack those giant glands on their
head (called parotoid glands) that toads
use to secrete poison.
Spadefoots have several features that
make them unique among Nebraska’s
amphibian fauna. For instance, they
have spades on their back feet. Well,
not real spades but dark, shovel-like
projections
made of
keratin – the
same protein
that makes up
human hair
and fingernails. They use them to
bury themselves deep (often several
feet) underground where they spend
weeks or even months waiting for rain.
Another feature is a
vertically elliptical
pupil. All frogs
and toads have
elliptical pupils, but
most are horizontal.
Spadefoots are the
only Nebraska frogs with vertically
elliptical pupils and at night, with a
light shining on them, they look like
big, wide “Bambi eyes.”
What probably makes them
most interesting, however, is their
reproductive strategy. Warm torrential
rains trigger their emergence from
underground refugia. Why? To breed,
of course. They breed opportunistically
and explosively when the conditions
With its “Bambi eyes,” spadefoots may be Nebraska’s cutest amphibian.
are right. Heavy rains leave behind
many small, temporary pools … perfect
breeding habitat for spadefoots. In
fact, I once saw hundreds of spadefoot
tadpoles in a rain-filled tire rut on a
dirt road! Females lay thousands of
eggs that hatch in about a day, and
tadpoles metamorphose from egg to
froglet in a month – faster than any
other Nebraska frog or toad. Frog
and toad tadpoles breathe using gills
and feed on vegetation and algae.
Temporary pools don’t stay around
long enough for those resources to be
abundant, making it difficult to support
thousands of rapidly growing tadpoles.
Therefore, growing legs and lungs
and getting out of the water is a top
priority. So consider this: thousands of
tadpoles in a rapidly disappearing pool
of water means extreme competition
for food and oxygen. How, then, do
enough tadpoles survive to keep the
population thriving? Spadefoots have
a contingency plan. They produce two
kinds of tadpoles: small ones that eat
algae and vegetation, and large ones
that eat other tadpoles. That’s right …
cannibalism. If pools remain productive
and vegetation and algae can keep
the herbivores fed, then great. But if
not, at least some of the tadpoles will
eat their fellow tadpoles (as well as
those of other species), grow faster
than the herbivores, and get out of
the pool before it dries out. Once they
metamorphose there is no way to tell if
they were carnivorous or herbivorous
as tadpoles.
Just like other Nebraska wildlife,
plains spadefoots have evolved a
strategy that ensures survival in the
harsh plains environment. And while it
may seem unpleasant and brutal to eat
your siblings and cousins, it is simply
a means to an end that has proven
successful for this cute, wide-eyed
amphibian. ■
Dan Fogell teaches biology and
zoology at Southeast Community
College in Lincoln. He has appeared in
NEBRASKAland Magazine since 2000.
Special thanks to Adam Meser’s image
of the foot and Colorado Division of
Wildlife’s image of the eye.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 45
BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS/VIDEOS
guarantee. www.duckdawg.com North Platte, NE (308)
534-3659.
NEBRASKA WILDFLOWERS. It’s baaack ... ! Out of
print for 21 years, the second edition of NEBRASKAland
senior editor Jon Farrar’s Field Guide to Wildflowers
of Nebraska and the Great Plains is now available.
This 6 by 91/8-inch paperback is a must have for anyone
interested in learning more about Nebraska’s wildflowers. To order, visit NebraskalandGifts.com or call (800)
742-0056.
PREMIER GUNDOGS TRAINING KENNEL, Inc:
Nebraska state licensed gundog training kennel specializing
in training programs for waterfowl and upland hunting
retrievers, spaniels, pointing Labradors and all gundog
pointing breeds. Dale-Kris Taylor (402) 787-2048, www.
premiergundogs.com.
EXPLORE NEBRASKA art, history, culture and the
great outdoors with a subscription to Nebraska Life
Magazine. One year (six issues) for $21 or two years
(12 issues) just $38. Phone (800) 777-6159, write us at
206 W Norfolk Ave, Norfolk NE 68702-0819 or visit
www.NebraskaLife.com. Makes a great gift.
MAKES A WONDERFUL GIFT! – Published
since 1926, NEBRASKAland Magazine is a nationally recognized, award-winning magazine of choice.
For those loved ones here and away, give the gift that
keeps giving year-round. Order a gift subscription today –
only $18 for one year (10 issues). Call 1-800-632-5263 or
subscribe online at NebraskalandMagazine.com.
“BECOMING AN OUTDOORS-WOMAN” Cookbook.
150 pages containing a variety of recipes, including traditional home cooking along with Dutch oven and wild
game. $9.75 plus $2.50 shipping. Proceeds will help fund
future projects sponsored by BO-W. Call (402) 471-5482,
or go online to www.NebraskaBOW.com.
“A Day at the Lake.” Photography book by Wayne
Hathaway. Holmes Lake wildlife and scenery. Order
your copy today at www.inplainssight.com, or e-mail
wayneh924@gmail.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 IA 51648 (402) 304-1074,
712-529-4309, clarks1@iowatelecom.net
DUCKDAWG RETRIEVERS - Raising exceptional
yellow and black Labradors. 30 month written health
46 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
FLATLANDER KENNELS INC, Scottsbluff, Ne.
Nebraska’s premier full-time retriever training facility for
the serious hunter or AKC and HRC hunt tester. Trainer
of NE, CO, KS and SD’s first and only GRHRCH’s!
Training, puppies and stud dogs available for all levels of
hunt tests and gun dogs. Chris Jobman (308) 249-0707,
www.Flatlanderkennels.com.
DUBLEM HUNTING DOG TRAINING. All breed
training. World Class British Labrador Retriever, English
Springer Spaniel and English Cocker Spaniel puppies.
https://sites.google.com/site/dublemgundogs/ (402) 5700598
FISH/FISHING
FISH FOR SALE. Catfish, largemouth bass, smallmouth
bass, perch, crappie, bluegill, walleye, rainbow trout,
grass carp, minnows. Pleasant Valley Fish Farm, 72645
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.
GET YOUR FISHING PERMIT online today! Don’t
wait until tomorrow to enjoy Nebraska’s great outdoors
by going fishing 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.
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.
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.
TURKEY HUNT: 2-3 PERSON, three day hunt, lots
of options, near O’Neill NE, Eagle Creek Area. 402
336 2395
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
FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHS & IMAGES: Two
Rooster Images, a different view of everyday images of
landscapes and still-life photos. Steve O’Hare: http://
tworoosterimages.com/ or steveo48@gmail.com.
VACATIONS/RESORTS
THE OLDE MAIN STREET INN. A historic bed and
breakfast listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Beautiful dining room with fireplace. Headquarters for
General Nelson Miles, Wounded Knee Incident, 189091. 115 Main Street, Chadron NE 69337 (308) 432-3380.
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.
BIG BLUE RANCH & LODGE - Enjoy fishing, hunting,
hiking, birdwatching and ranch adventures on 2,000+
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.
PLANNING A VACATION? Why not spend it at a
Nebraska state park? With more than 80 state park and
recreation areas across Nebraska to choose from, you
can enjoy a campground or cabin and enjoy activities
such as fishing, swimming, camping and hiking. Call
(402) 471-1414 for reservations or go online at www.
OutdoorNebraska.org and follow the Parks link.
HUNTER & FISHERMAN PARADISE: Located on
Elwood Reservoir. 1,300+ acres of wildlife, trophy-size
fish – wipers, walleye, muskies, perch, catfish and crappie. Nebraska’s best kept secret for hunting – duck, turkey, deer and quail. Cabins, rooms, tent and camper-spot
campgrounds with full hook ups (30 amp, 50 amp). Call
(308) 440-4993 or visit www.elwoodcampground.com
WANTED
WANTED – VOLUNTEER INSTRUCTORS. Interested
in making a difference? Get involved in teaching the
next generation of hunters. Call Mike Streeter at (402)
471-6134, or e-mail mike.streeter@nebraska.gov.
NEBRASKA STATE PUBLICATIONS and history
magazines from 1885-1958. Archival Books, 335 N
William Ave, Fremont NE 68025. (402) 721-9438 or
tretrove@yahoo.com
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.
Give the Gift of a Lifetime
a Nebraska Lifetime Permit
1-800-742-0056
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 47
▲
This is my great-grandfather, James
Hocking, after a rabbit hunt. He
settled north of Denton in 1876 and
died in 1912. My mother told us he
moved from New England out here to
the prairie for the sake of my infant
grandmother’s health. Once she could
walk, they tied her to the corner of the
barn so she would not get lost in the
tall grass. She grew up to be a petite
but strong woman, cheery, energetic,
and especially quick, which my
grandfather attributed to her early diet
of rabbit and squirrel.
– Jane Reinkordt, Denton, Nebraska
▲
Pictured is my father, Lee M. Clark,
my brother, Marvin Clark, and my uncle,
Frank Clark, in the 1930s. The location
was four miles east of Chappell on Uncle
Frank’s farm. There were five brothers
and they all farmed in Nebraska. The Ford
truck has a home-made wooden box that
the whitetailed jackrabbits were nailed
to the side of. They hunted rabbits for a
bounty at that time. One of the shotguns,
identified by my son, Dwight Montgomery,
is a Winchester 1897 round knob.
– Virginia Montgomery,
North Platte, Nebraska
▲
Send contributions to: Portraits from the Past, NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Or e-mail to tim.
reigert@nebraska.gov. Photos should show people enjoying Nebraska outdoor activities, such as camping, boating, hunting or fishing, and
must have been taken before 1980. 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.
48 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
Unmistakable when seen (but ya gotta see it first), chicory blue catches your eye.
By Roger Welsch
L
inda has this theory that you can tell where her
kinsmen (Bohemians) live by the flashes of that
gorgeous blue you catch from the corner of your eye
as you pass by their farms and towns. It’s chicory.
Blue is one of my favorite colors anyway but there’s
no mistaking the blue of chicory. There is, however, a
possibility of missing it altogether.
When I first started my passion for wild edibles back in
the 1960s I wanted to find this “chicory” stuff because it is
a legendary fresh salad green and, of course, provides the
chocolaty, bitterness of chicory coffee. I was talking with
my friend Mike Cowan, a biology teacher and fellow faculty
member at Nebraska Wesleyan, and he said, “Oh, there are
tons of it in the highway ditch up toward Wahoo. Tons of it.
You can’t miss that blue.” You know – Bohemian country.
So that afternoon after classes I head up Highway 77 with
a shovel and a bucket. And I found … nothing. I stopped
near a railroad trestle Mike had specifically mentioned and
walked around in the weeds. Nothing. Not a hint of blue.
I drove back home disappointed and confronted Mike in
the faculty lounge the next day. He was flabbergasted that I
could have missed it. “Chicory everywhere!” he sputtered.
“You can’t miss it. That blue is unmistakable!” So I tried
again that afternoon. Nothing. Not one blue flower.
The next day I was getting just a touch miffed about being
jerked around by a friend. Then he remembered. “Uh, Rog
… chicory only blooms in the morning.” That was Friday
so the next morning, bright and early, I headed up the same
road again and this time I recorded in my eye and my eye’s
mind that spectacular blue that I have never forgotten since
… the blue of Linda’s eyes and Bohemian ditches.
We have often speculated, Linda and I, how something
like this phenomenon happens: Did some Czech settler,
liking the blue of the flowers, the tang of the greens or the
rich taste of the roasted roots, plant some chicory and then
wound up spreading it up and down the roads the next time
he or the roads department mowed? Luckily, chicory likes
being mowed, so it prospers with abuse. Or is it a purposeful
signpost in Bohemian-dense areas like Butler County,
Nebraska? Is it like this in Czechoslovakia?
My yard when I lived on Mohawk Street in Lincoln was
in large part chicory. I once dug a mess of those roots up
toward Wahoo and cleaned them on my front stoop so I
could roast them for coffee. The next spring it was clear that
while chicory coffee was my intent, the chicory had its own
notions about what was going on: it was establishing itself in
advance in soil that would eventually be a Bohemian home
when I married Linda. It knew better then than I did.
It doesn’t matter, I guess, when all is said and done.
That glorious blue is there and Linda and I never fail to
appreciate it as a Nebraska glory and one of Linda’s true
kinsmen. Once you learn to recognize that specific hue, you
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
This photo was taken on a pheasant
hunt north of Alliance in November 1971.
From left are: Ron Brumbaugh; Ben
Urzendowski; and myself, Pat McWilliams,
all of Omaha.
The dog’s name was Lady –
NEBRASKAland Magazine did an article
regarding her hunting skills in a 1970 or
1971 issue.
– Pat McWilliams, Omaha, Nebraska
True Blue
won’t need to look for it or think about it. You’ll be driving
along thinking about something entirely apart from weeds
in general or in particular and suddenly, far back in your
peripheral vision, you’ll see it. Chicory. In fact, the next
time you come through Dannebrog … a Danish town set in
a German-Polish geography … watch the ditches and when
you see that glorious blue, you’ll know that you are close to
our place. At least if you pass through in the morning. ■
Roger Welsch is an author, humorist and
folklorist. For years he was a regular guest
on CBS’s Sunday Morning with Charles
Kuralt. Welsch resides in Dannebrog,
Nebraska, with his wife, Linda. He has
appeared in NEBRASKAland Magazine
since 1977.
MARCH 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 49
I
’ve only seen a Carolina anemone flower twice in the prairies I manage along the Central
Platte River. Each time, it was in the same hill prairie, and each time, I found it in the spring
following a summer prescribed burn. Sometimes, breaking out of traditional management
patterns, such as spring burning, can bring pleasant surprises. In this case, a small flower
found an opportunity to bloom while surrounding grasses were still reeling from the shock
of the previous summer’s burn (and subsequent grazing). How many years had it waited for that
chance? How many other plant and animal species are out there, hunkered down and waiting for
an unexpected opportunity – a chance to grab a temporary edge over their
competition? How many disappear before their chance comes?
It’s a complex world out there, but sometimes we are pretty unimaginative
in our stewardship of it. Every land management decision is an opportunity to
learn. It’s up to us to grab those opportunities when we can. The anemone, and
other species like it, are both the reward and reason for taking chances.
Chris Helzer
April 14, 2010
50 NEBRASKALAND • MARCH 2012
Position: 853 (10 views)