Our prescribed burning program has been in full swing as our fire crews have burned over 4800 acres, in order to improve the grasslands, control trees and brushy species, and thin out the thick cattail stands in the wetlands. On May 1st, the grazing program will start, with local ranchers bringing cattle onto the Refuge. This grazing is the second tool we use to duplicate the way nature historically managed the grasslands, with fire and grazing herbivores. Historically, lightening caused huge range fires and large herds of buffalo roamed over the Kansas grasslands, grazing as they went, and we try to duplicate these factors that shaped the prairie. Ducks and geese passed through the Refuge early this Spring and the few remaining species we have will likely be nesters.
Shorebird numbers are good and new species can be seen almost daily.
This is a good time to get out and enjoy the Refuge before that most famous of residents, the mosquito, makes his presence known.