Creation of a Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area Initiative will be the topic of upcoming public meetings set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Cottonwood Falls, Alma, and Wichita.
The federal agency has proposed buying up to one million acres of voluntary conservation easements within a 1.9 million-acre area of intact native tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills.
The purpose is to help maintain the integrity of tallgrass prairie wildlife habitat in the Flint Hills, according to information from U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
The area includes all or portions of 14 Kansas counties, including Lyon, Chase, Greenwood, Morris, Butler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Geary, Elk, Marion, Marshall, Pottawatomie, Riley and Wabaunsee counties.
According to information from the agency, parts of the Flint Hills are being lost to residential and commercial development, causing wildlife habitat to become fragmented.
Implementation of the program depends on input received during the three public meetings, as well as input from a formal environmental assessment. The initiative also must be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
The meetings to gather public opinions will be on Monday in the Alma Community Center, 244 E. 11th St.; on Dec. 1 in Wichita at the Great Plains Nature Center, 6236 E. 29th St. North, and on Dec. 2 in Cottonwood Falls in the community building in Swope Park.
All of the meetings run from 5:30 to 9 p.m.
In addition to the public meetings, individuals also may write their opinions and ideas and send them to Vic Elam, Legacy Project Coordinator, Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge, P.O. Box 128, Hartford KS 66854, or call him at (620) 392-5553, extension 102 or e-mail flinthills@fws.gov.
Fish and Wildlife ranks the project as a high priority for the multistate Region VI.
Among the project goals listed by the agency are:
• to prevent further loss of tallgrass prairie
• to raise public awareness of the benefits the tallgrass prairie provides, including water-quality benefits, watershed protection, economic benefits of the beef-and-grass industry economy, carbon sequestering, “viewshed” and open space vistas, and preservation of cultural and historic value.
• to develop and help implement specific federal farm bill policies benefiting the tallgrass prairie.
• to serve private landowners with agency assistance to manage remaining tallgrass prairie in a way that supports the ranching culture financially and does so in an ecologically sound manner.
The agency’s list of project partners includes: the Kansas Livestock Association, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Kansas Farm Bureau, State Conservation Commission, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Kansas Biological Survey, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Kanwsas Extension Service, the Kansas and Oklahoma chapters of The Nature Conservancy, State Association of Kansas RC&D Councils, Stream and Prairie Research, Wildlife Management Institute, and Westar.
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