Dust Bowl (NO SIGHTINGS)

[Sebastian Patti]

The Dust Bowl, Ken Burns' new series, premieres tonite (at least here in Chicago) on PBS . . . it contains a fair amount of material about SW Kansas, SE Colorado and the OK/TX Panhandles, as you might imagine . . .  

sebasti...@hotmail.com
Sebastian T. Patti
(Lincoln Park)
Chicago, ILLINOIS 60614-3354
PHONE: 312/325-9555 (o) 773/248-0570 (h) 
CELL: 773/304-7488
FAX: 312/325-9017(o)

[Charles Bell]

The program, which was excellent, made me wonder what the Dust Bowl's impact was on the Lesser Prairie Chicken.  The program indicated that the epicenter of the Dust Bowl was in what currently is the small range left for this species.  Was its range much larger in the 1930s so it managed to survive?  Did it move elsewhere?   Or is its present tiny population a vestige of the devastation it suffered back then?

 

Charles Bell
612 Manhead Mountain Drive
Livermore, CO 80536
970-484-8791

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From: Sebastian Patti <sebasti...@hotmail.com>
To: Ks bird KS bird <ksbi...@listserv.ksu.edu>; Oklahoma Bird List OK BIRDS <okb...@lists.ou.edu>; cob...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 3:46 PM
Subject: [cobirds] Dust Bowl (NO SIGHTINGS)

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[Joe Roller]

Here is a link to the historic range of Tympanuchus pallidicinctus, the beloved Lesser Prairie Chicken.

http://www.pljv.org/documents/gis/LEPC_current_range.jpg

When you look at this map, which shows the far diminished 2011 range too, it is "read it and weep."

One can also look at Bob and Bob (Robert Andrews and Robert RIghter, Colorado Birds, A reference

to their distribution and habitat), which shows just the CO segment of their historic and present ranges.

At least that was the map Bob/Bob showed on page 93 in their 1992 handy-dandy tome, and I suspect that after the chicken killing

blizzard of about 6 years ago, the range is smaller. While on that page, look at the Sharp-tailed Grouse historic and 

1992 range. Is there a theme to this?

Although the Dust Bowl was not a chicken-positive event, loss of habitat to cultivation before during and after those sad

times was probably a big downer too. I know not much of what I speak, so experts, please weigh in. I can, however, read these maps. Kelly

Corman, an RMBO field biologist working out of Lamar, is the go-to guy on the lesser of our two prairie chickens,

and I hope that he will add to his information.

The whole sad story reminds me of the poem from New Zealand, which goes in part, 

"No Moa, No Moa,

They're Gone and There Ain't No Moa."

Joe Roller, 

Denver