We
will never know for sure what south-central Nebraska looked like
two centuries ago. No Karl Bodmer, who rendered the pristine Missouri
River so faithfully in watercolors, traveled through the land south
of the Platte. No government expedition with its scribes and sketchers
left a written or visual record of it. Most of the region's grasslands
were plowed and its wetlands were being drained before cameras came
into the hands of common people. Settlers who wrote anything at
all about the region made practical notes in their pocket diaries
- bushels of corn per acre from the region's rich soil or how much
the creamery paid for a crate of eggs. But we can imagine.
Before
settlement, the land lying south of the Platte River was horizon-to-horizon
grassland. Tallgrass prairie in the east blended imperceptibly into
mixed-grass prairie to the west. Except where rivers and streams
carved meandering trenches and lines of scrubby trees had grown
in their protection, the land was nearly flat, a uniform sweep of
grass and sky broken only by herds of shaggy buffalo and bands of
elk and pronghorns.
Shallow
marshes fringed with cattails, bulrushes and smartweeds filled the
lowest swales, and to them came swarms of ducks, geese and other
water birds. Today, we call this region the Rainwater Basin. The
buffalo, elk and pronghorns are gone, but water birds by the millions
still call it home.
MAGNET
FOR WILDLIFE
Late
winter is a slow time for grain farmers in south-central Nebraska.
Pivot irrigation systems stand idle over fall-plowed corn and soybean
stubble. Not even a barbed wire fence slows the wind as it sifts
snow over the grain-fields. Only blue silos and shimmering steel
grain bins break the endless line where sky meets earth. Here and
there an old two-story, frame farm house cowers in the protection
of leafless elms, their number dwindling each year as farms and
equipment grow larger and fewer families live on the land.
Near
the end of February, though, the region's population swells as 7
million ducks, geese, cranes and other water birds arrive from wintering
grounds in the southern United States and Mexico. During the next
two months, water birds in almost incredible numbers and varieties
pause in the Rainwater Basin to rest and feed.
Newly
arrived white-fronted geese drop eagerly to the first marsh they
encounter in the seemingly endless sea of tilled earth, side-slipping
down through the last 200 feet of atmosphere. Snow geese march down
rows of corn stubble gleaning what remains of the previous fall's
harvest. Gangs of sleek drake pintails careen over the marshes,
weaving and banking in tight formation behind unmated hens.
Since
the time when water first filled the shallow depressions of the
Rainwater Basin, water-loving birds have stopped there to rest and
feed during their twice-a-year journeys between northern nesting
grounds and southern wintering grounds. A string of wetlands once
extended across the mid-continent from the Gulf Coast to the Arctic,
a lifeline for migrating wildfowl. As agricultural practices intensified
and more wetlands were drained, that lifeline was fragmented, and
the few wetlands remaining became increasingly critical stopovers.
OF
INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE
The
northern boundary of the Rainwater Basin region parallels the central
Platte River. During the early weeks of spring migration, waterfowl
move freely between the Platte and marshes to the south. Many biologists
consider the Platte a "release valve" that migrating birds can rely
on when the shallow basins are dry or locked in ice. But, while
the Platte's sandbars and shallow waters provide for some of the
needs of ducks and geese, the river cannot meet all the nutritional
demands of waterfowl staging in Nebraska during spring.
The
Platte River and the Rainwater Basin marshes are complimentary and
inseparable components of a wetland complex. Waterfowl biologists
believe no other midway stopover between wintering grounds and nesting
grounds can replace the combination of wetlands and grain fields
in close proximity found in south-central Nebraska. The importance
of the complex, particularly to waterfowl, is incalculable.
When
the mid-continental spring migration routes of ducks, geese and
cranes are plotted on a map, a distinctive hourglass shape emerges
with a broad expanse of breeding grounds at the top, a broad expanse
of wintering grounds at the bottom and a narrow constriction at
the center -- a 150-mile-wide band across the central Platte
River Valley and the heart of the Rainwater Basin. Where birds go
tells us what habitat they require and where they find it. Where
they concentrate tells us what habitat is in shortest supply.
Most
of the mid-continent population of about 300,000 white-fronted geese
pause in south-central Nebraska each spring, as do half a million
Canada geese. In recent years, as snow goose breeding grounds have
expanded westward in the Arctic, the number of snow geese using
Rainwater Basin wetlands during spring migration has increased dramatically,
rising from about 15,000 in 1974 to 353,000 in 1985 and to more
than 2 million in recent years. About half the mid-continental mallard
population and a third of the continental population of northern
pintails use the Rainwater Basin-Platte River complex each spring.
The
importance of the Rainwater Basin to other water birds is not as
well documented, but recent studies suggest those wetlands are crucial
spring migration habitat for shorebirds and other water birds as
well. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 shorebirds of 30 species use
Rainwater Basin wetlands during spring migration. Wetlands in the
central United States are especially important to white-rumped,
Baird's, buff-breasted and pectoral sandpipers.
Early
migrants- Canada geese, snow geese, white-fronted geese, mallards
and pintails- begin arriving in mid-to late February and early March.
Through April there is a steady turnover as migrating birds pass
through the Rainwater Basin wetlands. Some birds pause only briefly,
others remain for several weeks. For migrating waterfowl it is not
just a stopover of convenience. How they fare in south-central Nebraska
presages their success or failure on the breeding grounds and, ultimately,
the size of the fall flight.
Migrating
water birds, particularly ducks and geese, leave their wintering
grounds in the poorest physical condition of the year. Ahead of
them is an exhausting flight of thousands of miles to their nesting
grounds. The breeding season is brief for birds nesting in the far
north, and nesting is usually initiated before there is an adequate
food supply. Fat reserves acquired during the layover in the Rainwater
Basin are often the thin margin between successful nesting and failure,
and they influence the size and vigor of the clutches and broods
produced. Fat reserves are built principally by feeding on weed
seeds and waste grain, primarily corn, left in fields. But without
nearby marshes where the birds can safely rest and feed, all the
grain in the world will not produce a crop of pintails or white-fronted
geese.
Seasonal
and temporary wetlands that some years hold water only for a few
weeks in spring are just as important as larger basins. Their shallow
waters provide water birds with a rich supply of invertebrates and
weed seeds, which are high in proteins, calcium and other nutrients.
Later in spring, seasonal wetlands are preferred by duck broods.
Even the most transient wetlands, such as sheet-water in grain fields,
provide important feeding and loafing areas during migration and
lessen the threat and severity of disease outbreaks. In pristine
condition, south-central Nebraska provided each wetland type in
abundance and in close proximity.
Rainwater
Basin marshes are crucial to water birds in other ways as well.
Pintails and green-winged teal are still forming pairs during their
northward migration. Most other species of ducks have found mates
before they arrive in Nebraska, but during their time in the Rainwater
Basin they strengthen pair-bonds, allowing them to initiate nesting
as soon as they reach their breeding grounds, thus ensuring that
their young will be able to fly before winter sweeps south.
When
wetlands were more abundant, when they held water later into the
summer and in more years, and when they were surrounded by grasslands
where birds such as dabbling ducks nest, a significant number of
water birds nested in the Rainwater Basin. In recent years, only
about 10,000 ducks have been reared to flight stage annually in
the region, principally on state and federal wetlands.
When
the marshes were pools of clear water in a sea of grass, ruddy ducks,
northern harriers, black-crowned night herons, least bitterns, eared
grebes, black terns and several species of shorebirds nested in
the Rainwater Basin marshes. Today, their nests are seldom if ever
found there. Today, the most significant contribution south-central
Nebraska wetlands make to North American water bird populations
is sending breeding birds to more northerly nesting grounds in good
physical condition.
ORIGIN
OF THE WETLANDS
Most
wetlands in the 17-county Rainwater Basin range in size from less
than one acre up to 40 acres. A few are larger than 1,000 acres.
Once there were nearly 4,000 major wetlands totaling nearly 100,000
acres. Some residents remember basins holding enough water for swimming,
ice skating, boating and fishing.
Rainwater
Basin wetlands are characteristically shallow, with flat bottoms
and gently sloping sides. Similar wetlands are found elsewhere on
the Great Plains, particularly in Texas. Such wetlands are classified
as "play lakes," but in some regions they are more commonly known
as "weather lakes," since they hold water principally during seasons
of high precipitation.
The
larger wetlands are true marshes filled with native aquatic vegetation-
bulrushes, cattails, pondweeds and smartweeds- that provide food,
nest sites and protection from storms and predators. Few hold more
than five feet of water even when full. The larger basins are usually
elliptical; smaller depressions can be elliptical, circular or irregular
in shape. Groups of basins are often aligned northwest to southeast
and occur in clusters where a natural drainage system of creeks
and streams is poorly developed.
The
origin of the wetlands has been the subject of speculation for a
hundred years. Most of the obvious, spectacular agents known to
create similar basins elsewhere in the world have been discounted
in south-central Nebraska. The wetlands were not formed in meteor
craters, they are not sinkholes created when subterranean deposits
of carbonate or salt rocks dissolved, and the depressions were not
left when glaciers retreated north and giant blocks of ice melted,
leaving potholes in the earth.
Most
researchers now agree that the most obvious land-shaping agent on
the Great Plains, incessant and often strong winds, probably carved
the depressions. Topographic maps reveal crescent-shaped ridges
on the southern or southeastern margins of the larger basins. The
orientation of the ridges and analysis of their soils strongly suggest
that during arid periods when vegetation lost its grip and the soil
surface was broken by disturbances such as the wallowing of buffalo,
the wind scoured out fine soil particles, depositing them on the
lee side of the enlarging basin.
When
the basins held water, wave action continued the deposition of silt
on the growing ridges. Prevailing winds from the northwest resulted
in the present alignment of the basins in chains oriented northwest
to southeast.
Soil
analysis of the ridges reveals an exceptionally high proportion
of clay, typical of deposits associated with shallow saline wetlands.
Radiocarbon dating indicates the basins were created during an arid
or semi-arid period near the end of the Ice Age, 20,000 to 25,000
years ago. Those basins may have been enlarged and new ones created
during similar climatic conditions 5,000 to 7,000 years ago and
again 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.
Over
thousands of years, minute clay particles accumulated in the bottoms
of the basins, effectively sealing them off and preventing standing
water from seeping away into the subsoil. Today, these impervious
clay pans are six to 72 inches thick.
Unlike
wetlands fed by groundwater, wetlands in the Rainwater Basin have
always been dependent on precipitation. In their natural state,
the larger basins collected snow melt and rain runoff from several
square miles and, if precipitation was adequate, probably held water
throughout most years. Even in their pristine state, smaller wetlands
probably held water only during early spring.
Some
ancient basins were naturally breached and drained as the headwaters
of streams advanced into the poorly drained regions, or an outlet
formed and effectively drained a basin. The forms of those basins
can still be identified on topographic maps. More frequently, topographic
and soil maps reveal the hundreds of basins that have been intentionally
drained during the past hundred years.
VANISHING
WETLANDS
Before
the turn of the century, land in south-central Nebraska was cheap
or even free for the settling. Marshes could be tolerated and farmed
around. The methodical destruction of wetlands in south-central
Nebraska began in the early 1900, but proceeded slowly. As early
as 1900, local drainage districts were formed to assist landowners
in converting those "wastelands" to productive farmland. Small wetlands
could be drained by ditches dug by hand or with horse-drawn scrapers,
but large basins defied small-scale efforts. Networks of tile drains
were laid beneath the surface of some basins to carry the unwanted
water away. A few determined landowners laid huge drains more than
a mile long that passed through ridges to carry standing water to
creeks or streams. Often, though, there was no place to drain the
water; the basin was the lowest tract of land for miles around.
Manpower
and horsepower could only accomplish so much, and during the early
20th century value gained was closely weighed against effort and
cost expended. After World War II, large earth-moving equipment
became readily available and agriculture intensified. Deep-well
irrigation proliferated, increasing the value of flat land and the
crops that could be raised on it. Changing agriculture, the principal
agent of wetland destruction, was often aided and abetted by local
government.
Raising
county road grades and deepening roadside ditches drained many wetlands,
and, more significantly, provided an outlet for water from wetlands
on adjoining private land. A grid of "on-the-mile" county roads
ensured that few wetlands in south-central Nebraska would escape
drainage. After decades of road improvement, many small wetlands
vanished, and larger wetlands were either drained or dissected by
roads and ditches.
Drainage
ditches on private land carrying water to roadsides accounted for
more than half the wetlands destroyed in the Rainwater Basin. The
rest were filled with soil from higher ground or their water was
concentrated in dugouts or reuse pits excavated in the deepest parts
of the basins. Today, particularly in dry years, the most reliable
place to find surface water in south-central Nebraska is in the
steep-walled reuse pits. Although the pits hold water when the natural
wetlands are dry, they are too deep to support the community of
plant and animal life that sustains water birds and other wildlife.
During
the first half of the century, unsound agricultural practices caused
heavy erosion of topsoils on uplands surrounding wetlands and contributed
to the silting-in of many basins. In the Dust Bowl years of the
1930s, some landowners estimated that as much as three feet of wind-blown
soil was deposited in some basins.
Water
quality declined in surviving wetlands under a constant wash of
silt that muddied the water and discouraged the growth of aquatic
plants that provide food and nesting habitat for water birds. Grasslands
surrounding the basins vanished as row-crop production expanded,
eliminating a critical wildlife habitat component that also filtered
runoff. Small diversified farms with a patchwork of crops and pastures
were replaced by monoculture corn and soybean fields.
With
the introduction of center-pivot irrigation in the early 1960s,
south-central Nebraska became one of the most intensely irrigated
regions in the world. In 1946, there were only 50 irrigation wells
in Clay County, the heart of the Rainwater Basin region. By 1995,
the number of irrigation wells had mushroomed to 2,197. Land that
formerly could not be farmed was planted to grain. Gently rolling
uplands surrounding basins, land traditionally used for hay crops
or pasture, were particularly well suited to center-pivot irrigation.
Wetlands
on the semi-arid Great Plains have always led a tenuous existence.
Most are not fed by groundwater, and whether they hold water or
are dry depends on the amount of precipitation and loss through
evaporation or seepage. Seemingly modest changes in this intricate
natural system have had enormous effects in the Rainwater Basin.
The intentional draining of wetlands, the alteration of watersheds,
siltation and the destruction of surrounding grasslands has transformed
the landscape of south-central Nebraska, and its value to wildlife
has diminished proportionately.
GOVERNMENT'S
ROLE
It
would be simplistic and unfair to blame only farmers for the destruction
of wetlands and grasslands in the Rainwater Basin. In most respects,
they were only the instrument of the values, agricultural economics
and federal farm programs that characterized the nation through
most of the 20th century.
Since
colonial times, draining wetlands to increase land for crop production
has been public policy. As early as 1763, George Washington surveyed
the Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina so it could be drained
and made productive. The image of wetlands as dark swamps where
diseases and evil creatures lurk was passed from generation to generation,
and government policies and programs, from the federal to the county
level, have long played an integral role in encouraging and financing
the draining of wetlands.
Under
the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936, drainage
was designated an eligible conservation practice. The federal government
began providing free technical assistance through the Soil Conservation
Service and cost sharing through the Agricultural Conservation Program.
Payments under federal farm programs were based on the amount of
land in production, encouraging farmers to expand their acreages
by draining wetlands. Often, those marginal acres were then "retired"
to meet set-aside requirements. Until 1986, the full cost of draining
and filling wetlands was an allowable tax deduction.
Not
until 1962 did federal legislation restrict the use of Department
of Agriculture funds for wetland drainage in the prairie-pothole
country of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Several years later, Nebraska
and other states were included. For most of the wetlands in the
Rainwater Basin it was too late. Nine of every 10 wetlands, 80 percent
of the original wetland acres, had already been destroyed.
Today,
only about 21,000 acres of Rainwater Basin wetlands remain, and
the quality of many of those is so poor they are of little value
to wildlife. Ironically, for 50 years several branches of the federal
government provided technical advice and financial support to landowners
destroying wetlands, while other agencies cajoled, counseled and
paid farmers to preserve them.
PROTECTING
THE REMNANTS
Efforts
to protect wetlands were long in coming, and initially focused on
public ownership rather than discouraging the destruction of private
wetlands. The first significant governmental measure to preserve
wetlands came in 1929 with passage of the Migratory Bird Conservation
Act authorizing the purchase or lease of wetland areas. The precipitous
decline in waterfowl populations during the drought years of the
1930s prompted the passage of the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act
of 1934 requiring all migratory waterfowl hunters to purchase a
stamp. Proceeds are used to acquire migratory bird refuges. Amendments
to the act in 1958 authorized the purchase of waterfowl production
areas and set the stage for the purchase by the federal government
of wetlands for wildlife in the Rainwater Basin.
In
1962, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began acquiring waterfowl
production areas in the Rainwater Basin on a willing-seller basis.
By 1995, the USFWS owned and managed 55 areas ranging in size from
38 to 1,989 acres and totaling 21,742 acres of Rainwater Basin wetlands
and adjoining uplands.
The
first meaningful legislation to slow the destruction of wetlands
on private land came in 1973 with passage of the Water Bank Act,
authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to provide payments on
10-year renewable contracts to landowners preserving wetlands important
to migratory waterfowl. While it did not ensure the long-term protection
of Rainwater Basin wetlands, the Water Bank postponed their destruction.
Under
1977 amendments to the Clean Water Act, landowners were required
to obtain a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before
filling wetlands on private land. That legislation finally acknowledged
the value of wetlands in flood control and the protection of groundwater
quality and made it more difficult for landowners to fill wetlands,
but it remained legal for private landowners to drain them.
The
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission acquired its first wetland in
the Rainwater Basin in 1940. Only after passage of the Habitat Bill
by the Nebraska Legislature in 1976, though, were funds available
to accelerate the purchase of land for wildlife management areas
in the region. That bill required all hunters and fur harvesters
in the state to purchase a stamp, and the proceeds were earmarked
for the acquisition and preservation of wildlife habitat.
A priority
of the program has been the preservation of wetlands in the Rainwater
Basin. In dry years, Habitat Stamp funds are used to pump water
into enough state and federally owned basins to accommodate migrating
waterfowl. Habitat Program funds are also available through Natural
Resources Districts to landowners who set aside and preserve wetlands.
This
year (1996), the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission owns and manages
29 areas in the Rainwater Basin encompassing about 6,900 acres,
of which about 3,900 acres are wetlands and 3,000 acres are associated
uplands. The Game and Parks Commission and the Fish and Wildlife
Service both make payments to counties in lieu of property taxes.
Wildlife
management areas and waterfowl production areas are open to hunting
and other public use unless otherwise posted. The areas are managed
to raise a different product than surrounding private lands. Their
yield is not measured in bushels per acre, but in preserving natural
communities and providing recreational, economic and environmental
benefits.
Acquisition
and easement programs protect wetlands in perpetuity. Other programs
are designed to preserve and enhance wetlands on private land, at
least for the short term. Both the Game and Parks Commission's Wetland
Initiative Program and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Partners
for Wildlife program provide technical and financial assistance
to landowners who want to manage or restore wetlands for wildlife.
Because
south-central Nebraska is so intensively farmed, it is not surprising
that the fate of wetlands there is closely linked to federal farm
programs, and one of the most significant wetland protection measures
in recent years was a side benefit of federal farm policy. Changes
in the 1985 farm program recognized the many valuable functions
wetlands provide and the role that conversion of wetlands to croplands
had played in generating chronic and expensive crop commodity surpluses.
Popularly
known as "Swampbuster" a 1985 provision of the Food Security Act
required the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service,
the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation and other related federal
agencies to withhold subsidy payments, loans and insurance from
landowners who drain wetlands to plant crops.
Although
the legislation was designed principally to reduce crop surpluses,
it has accomplished much in slowing the destruction of the remaining
wetlands in areas like the Rainwater Basin. As with all farm programs,
the longevity of Swamphuster is uncertain.
The
benefits of wetlands were further recognized in the 1990 Farm Bill
which authorized the USDA to protect wetlands by paying landowners
for permanent easements and the cost of restoring wetlands that
had been converted to cropland. This Wetland Reserve Program is
administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly
the Soil Conservation Service) and emphasizes the restoration of
wetlands in the Rainwater Basin.
THE
COST OF PROGRESS
The
arrival of white-fronted geese marked winter's passing in the usual
way in the Rainwater Basin in 1975. The summer of 1974 had been
abnormally dry, and winter snows were inadequate to refill the wetlands.
Most marshes were dry. Others had only small pools surrounded by
mudflats, and there was no sheet-water standing in the fields.
Most
years there is a constant turnover of waterfowl in south-central
Nebraska; birds arrive, rest, feed and then move north, but 1975
was different. Late-season blizzards pounded the Dakotas, keeping
grain fields snow-covered and wetlands frozen. Waterfowl piled into
the Rainwater Basin, waiting for wetlands to the north to open.
In a two-week period, wildlife workers picked up more than 13,000
duck and goose carcasses. Two to three times that many are thought
to have died. Nebraska had experienced its first major outbreak
of avian cholera.
Avian
cholera, caused by an infectious bacterium that flourishes in shallow,
standing water, does not affect humans but kills birds quickly.
Avian cholera has been known for more than 200 years, but major
die-offs of wild birds were not attributed to it until the 1940s.
Wildlife disease specialists think the cholera-causing bacterium
will now always be present in Rainwater Basin wetlands, waiting
for the right conditions to infect and kill migrating birds.
The
"right conditions" include birds stressed by crowding on too few
wetlands. In effect, cholera outbreaks are a symptom of wetland
loss. Adverse weather, such as late-winter snowstorms, that stresses
crowded birds, often triggers the die-offs.
From
1975 through the 1994 spring migration season, an estimated 200,000
to 237,000 ducks and geese died from avian cholera in the Rainwater
Basin. As wetlands along traditional snow goose migration routes
dwindle and their breeding grounds expand westward, the number using
the Rainwater Basin each March swells, compounding the crowding
and potential for disease outbreak.
Avian
cholera mortality has been highest among white-fronted geese, Canada
geese, snow geese, mallards and pintails. Other birds are susceptible,
including at least one threatened species and one endangered species.
Bald eagles and whooping cranes are known to have died from cholera
elsewhere in the United States. Bald eagles are present on many
of the larger basins during spring migration. After the Platte River,
the wetlands of south-central Nebraska are the most frequently used
stopover for whooping cranes during spring migration, and family
groups often pause for several days during the fall migration. So
clear is the threat to whooping cranes that in recent years they
have been hazed from wetlands where cholera outbreaks were occurring.
Relatively
few sandhill cranes use the Rainwater Basin marshes, usually only
for short periods of time. As roosting conditions for cranes continue
to deteriorate on the Platte River, however, it is likely that more
will be forced to adopt the wetlands to the south. Sandhill cranes
are susceptible to avian cholera, and the stage is set for a catastrophe
of devastating proportions.
The
death of thousands of ducks and geese from cholera is the most visible
manifestation of wetland destruction in the Rainwater Basin. In
the larger context of steadily declining waterfowl populations during
the past century, however, it is insignificant. The United States
has been losing wetlands at the rate of nearly 500,000 acres a year.
Waterfowl populations have been on a roller-coaster ride, increasing
for a year or two when water and habitat conditions are good on
the breeding grounds, then plummeting when they are poor. But the
long-term trend has been downward for most species.
Compared
to the number of ducks and geese not produced because of habitat
lost during the past century, and ducks and geese lost indirectly
to habitat-related mortality, such as increased predation, cholera
die-offs are important only in forcing a recognition of what a century
of progress and prosperity has wrought.
THE
JOINT VENTURE
For
many years various government agencies worked at cross purposes
in the Rainwater Basin some promoted wetland drainage while others
tried to preserve what remained. In recent years, conservation agencies
and organizations often worked toward common goals, but independently.
That changed in 1991 when the North American Waterfowl Management
Plan designated the Rainwater Basin as critical migration habitat
for waterfowl, one of 15 such areas on the continent. The Rainwater
Basin was no longer just Nebraska's Rainwater Basin; it became North
America's Rainwater Basin.
The
North American Waterfowl Management Plan of 1986 identified habitat
of exceptional importance and concern in Canada, the United States
and Mexico. The plan's scope is more comprehensive than any preceding
it, and it was based on an obvious premise migratory birds acknowledge
no man-made boundaries, and agencies and organizations dedicated
to their welfare should not do so either. Wintering grounds in Mexico,
wetlands used during migration in Nebraska and nesting grounds in
the Arctic are parts of a larger, year-around habitat structure.
What
treaties among the three countries did to protect migratory birds
from unregulated hunting in the early 1900s, the North American
Plan does to protect the habitat required to sustain the continent's
waterfowl populations.
The
North American Plan's primary goal is clearly defined: to restore
waterfowl populations to 1970s levels. The plan recognizes that
government alone cannot implement all the programs required to accomplish
that goal, and from its conception, conservation organizations,
private citizens, business and industry have been equal partners
with state and federal wildlife agencies in a joint venture. While
the plan approaches wetland preservation and enhancement from many
directions, the key to its success is providing incentives for landowners
to manage their land for waterfowl.
Following
public meetings, specific goals of the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture
were developed, calling for the protection, restoration and creation
of an additional 25,000 wetland acres and 25,000 acres of adjoining
uplands. The 17-county Rainwater Basin region encompasses 2.69 million
acres, and the 50,000 acres targeted as a goal of the Joint Venture
represents less than 2 percent of the land in the region. Furthermore,
those 50,000 acres are the region's least valuable agriculture land.
If
the Joint Venture goal of protecting an additional 25,000 wetland
acres is reached, and added to the acreage of wetlands already under
the management of state and federal agencies, only about 40 percent
of the original 100,000 acres of wetlands in the region would be
protected.
Equally
important is managing the wetlands and ensuring that at least a
third of the wetland acres have water during critical migration
periods. Under the Joint Venture, landowners are provided technical
assistance and payments for the management and restoration of wetlands.
Threats to wetlands are constantly changing, so Joint Venture programs
are continuing to evolve.
Although
the Joint Venture's primary emphasis is working with private landowners,
it recognizes that agricultural economies are volatile, and short-term
programs on private lands alone will not ensure the future of Rainwater
Basin wetlands. Perpetual conservation easements and acquisition
of wetlands on a willing-seller basis with payments in lieu of property
taxes by state and federal conservation agencies are also an integral
component of the program.
Waterfowl
are the plan's primary beneficiary, but all wildlife migratory and
resident, game and non-game species benefits from the acquisition,
restoration and preservation of wetlands, and society as a whole
profits from expanded recreation, flood control and the filtration
of agricultural chemicals before they contaminate groundwater supplies.
Rainwater Basin landowners also benefit from these improvements
in their environment, but they are no longer expected to bear the
burden of ensuring them alone.
Innovative
programs such as the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture, cooperative
programs involving landowners, industry, governments and the public,
are the first steps toward reversing the history of wetland loss
in the Rainwater Basin. A century of effort and millions of dollars
have been spent trying to erase wetlands from south-central Nebraska.
The cost in time and money to preserve and restore the best of those
that remain will pale in comparison, and the gift left to future
generations will be priceless.
