As a lifelong resident of the Lawrence area and a lifelong observer of nature in Douglas County, I feel it is important in the current conversations about developments along the South Lawrence Trafficway and areas outside its perimeter to have a better appreciation of what the Wakarusa Valley represents to the larger community of wildlife in Douglas County and beyond. 

Douglas County recently held a Wakarusa Valley Vision Plan Open House in order to provide the public an opportunity to give input in developing a “guiding framework that balances conservation values within the Wakarusa River corridor with the needs of a growing community.” In it, they provided a map of a section of the valley they were interested in, which goes from the Clinton Reservoir dam to the west of Lawrence, and follows the river all the way to where it joins the Kansas/Kaw River to the east near Eudora.

After the open house, I took the same boundaries provided and used them to create an area in a free nature identification software program called iNaturalist and named it the Wakarusa Valley Vision Area . iNaturalist is a kind of citizen science program where anyone can go into a landscape and use their smart phone to take a photo of a plant or animal, and based on where you are, the app will use other observations in your area along with AI that analyzes millions of other identifications to help you identify what you are looking at. 

iNaturalist goes an extra step and allows you to upload your photo and your best guess of the plant or animal’s identity and have another person, often a credentialed expert, look at your photo and see if they agree with your species identification. If they do, they will post their agreement and the observation becomes what iNaturalist calls “research grade,” separating it from an observation with only one person’s best guess at identifying it. 

You might be surprised that the part of the Wakarusa River Valley area identified in the open house has quite a few observations in iNaturalist: 11,883 and counting, to be exact! That has been accomplished by 684 observers, with an additional 1,675 identifiers helping raise the quality of many of those observations to research grade. The breadth of life along this stretch of land is rather breathtaking: more than 1,700 species of plants, animals and fungi! Let me break this down further:

• There have been 233 different species of birds observed along the river, in the fields, in the trees, on the river and wetlands in the valley, including those managed by Haskell and Baker Universities. 213 of these species are research grade. Some are species flying through the area, some are here for the breeding and nesting season, some are year-round residents.

• There were 236 observations that identified 11 species of amphibians: frogs, toads, salamanders and the like, 10 of which are research grade. 412 observations identified 31 species of snakes and turtles, 28 at the research grade level. This ranged from aquatic turtles and snakes to land-loving species. 

• 164 observations of mammals turned up 25 species (20 research grade), including mink, bobcats and armadillos, in addition to the usual deer, wood rats, mice and shrews. Additional animals include 50 species of fish (36 research grade), 22 species of mollusks (13 research grade), 94 species of arachnids/spiders (53 research grade), and 777 species of insects (359 research grade).

• Moving on to plants, there have been 5,579 observations detecting 776 species of plants (408 research grade), and 289 observations of fungi that have identified 149 species (27 research grade). This is by no means a comprehensive list of species present, and there is an ongoing process to review the existing observations so they can be upgraded to research grade. New species are continuing to be found and there is no reason to think that this will not continue. Looking at this impressive dataset, several things emerge:

1. The Wakarusa River Valley, from the Clinton Reservoir dam to its confluence with the Kaw River is high in biodiversity, with a high percentage presence of regionally identified bird, amphibian, mammal, fish, mollusk, spider, insect, plant and fungal species. There is a more diverse, complex web of life in the Wakarusa valley than most people are aware of. 
   
2. There are a lot of people in our community who have used the iNaturalist app to identify this biodiversity: 694 people making almost 12,000 observations and more than 1,600 folks who have checked their work, with more every day. This does not include the thousands of additional observers and observations who have not uploaded their observations using iNaturalist, or used the “instant identification” app sponsored by iNaturalist called Seek, or any of the other identification apps that are available. This to me is one of the most important conclusions: our community loves the presence of diverse and healthy native landscapes in our community, and it is safe to say that they want to ensure that this is an important feature to nurture and protect into the future. This is corroborated in surveys completed by Lawrence Parks and Recreation and the county’s Open Space initiative: it’s central to what makes Lawrence a livable city and integral to its identity.

So how can that be done? When you are wanting to go to Topeka to the west or the Kansas City metro to the east, you count on good, safe roads to be able to get there and back, right? We have developed such a system of east-west roads equipped with shoulders, lighting and turning lanes/entrance/exit ramps to efficiently deliver us to the areas we want/need to go, right? The community of wildlife species who have made Douglas County their home for much longer than our human community has been here require the same protections for safe passage in order to provide them what they need to exist into the future. 

Green corridors do not look like our transportation corridors: in many ways, they are the opposite, providing hiding places and safe habitat, providing ample native food sources and freedom from intrusive lights or pollution, allowance for safe passage, and so on. Green corridors are essential parts of a Wakarusa Valley that ensures a future for wildlife in the area. Some specific areas for study and design include safe passage to and from the Clinton Wildlife areas to the Wakarusa wetlands, providing a corridor going from the Wakarusa south via Coal Creek to the biodiverse Baldwin Woods, and making room from the wetlands east to the Kaw River. These are all potential areas for both public and private green corridor development if we want the biodiversity of the Wakarusa valley to remain healthy into the future. 

Commercial encroachments into the Wakarusa floodplain as some recent proposals like the New Boston Crossing and sports complexes are potentially proposing are direct threats that can negatively impact such a future. Light and noise pollution, effluent runoff and lack of safe passage both within green corridors and in areas where busy roads are built are all direct threats that can negatively impact the well-being of thousands of species living adjacent to such developments, both in their habitat and also in the significant movement patterns that wildlife require in order to remain healthy and vital. 

Many citizens understand this in principle, just as they understand the importance of a healthy economy with well paying jobs, affordable housing and reliable essential services. Our community has the imagination, intelligence and commitment to ensure that a both/and outcome, not an either/or situation, can be hammered out with sound, well thought out policy decisions by the city and county. As details and potential plans for developing our commercial and residential plans are being fleshed out in more detail, it is essential to include with them the details for making sure that the more-than-human community has a bright future, not only for our more-than-human relations, but also for our own children and grandchildren’s future with a legacy that is worth paying forward to us all.

— Ken Lassman is a fifth-generation resident of Douglas County and writes the Kaw Valley Almanac, a weekly guide to nature in the area.

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