Friday, May 2, 1980
Time has altered natural reserve
By DAVID WEED Staff Reporter
By DAVID WEEL Staff Renorter
He is almost a trespasser against nature—the only intrusion, the only influence.
"My traps are a complication to a natural area," Henry Fitz, superintendent of the KU natural history reservation, said yesterday.
Fitch has supervised the reserve, a 500-acre tract of land about six miles northeast of Lawrence, since it began in 1948.
The reserve thrives almost completely without man's influence, except for Fitch and his wife, Elizabeth, who live on the reserve.
HE MEASURES the changes in plant and animal life on the reserve by identifying and estimating the populations of different species.
"This used to be tallgrass prairie," Fitch said, "and when I came here 32 years ago there were no deer. I saw one deer the next year.
"In a few years the deer population was
established. But three-fourths of the deer were killed off the first open hunting season, and their numbers have never been *bac*face," he said. "Almost one-fourth of all animal species are beetles."
"We used to see 10 to 12 deer crossing the yard, but now we just see a few deer, three or four, now and then."
Fitch is now trapping small mammals alive and marking them to see how the population of each species has changed.
Everyday for about one week a month,
Fitch and his wife or his graduate assistant
collected the mammals that were trapped
alive overnight in Fitch's homemade traps.
"We've been having a problem with raccoons getting in the traps and killing the animals," he said.
THE TIN can and wire mesh traps capture wood mice, prairie and pine voles and an occasional unwanted visitor.
"I put my hand into the trap and feel around the milkweed insulation carefully," Fitch said. "One time there was a copperhead inside."
Fitch has been bitten twice by copperheads.
"I's impossible to keep up with all the changes on the reserve," he said. "There are several thousand species on the land, and could take severe lifetimes to find them all."
Box turtles, broadwing hawks and American elm trees have all disappeared from the reserve.
"I used to see dozens of broadwing hawks a day," Fitch said.
"The dying off of the American elm trees makes the habitat completely different," he said. "It is now much more surrounded and shaded by big elm trees. But they all died, and the decaying logs are a waste."
FITCH AND his students have identified 33 species of mammals, 178 species of birds, 26 of reptiles and nine of amphibians on the reserve.
"We've identified about 200 species of beetles, but that barely scratches the surface," he said. "Almost one-fourth of all animal species are beetles."
The reserve has identified 26 species of chiggers.
University Daily Kansan
"There's a varied assemblage of plants and animals here," Fisch said. "Eastern plants and animals extend this far west, and we have a variety of great plants species are here."
Fitch said that after 32 years he still did not have a record as complete as he would like.
"I've been asked to go to other schools, but I've become involved in a long-term project," he said. "If I left, years of effort would be wasted."
Action 80...
From page one
Preservation Fund, a legal aid fund started in 2014 that is being used by city commission noted to allow the development of the Bluffs, could be used to resistance **80** plans if a legal issue requires action.
"But that's not our major point," Spear said.
He said he was more concerned about the city's process for developing the mail proposal because it was not democratic.
The commissioners and developers have formed a power base that excludes popular opinion because it's inconvenient," he said.
"Maybe the mail is in the best interest of the city," he said, "but the people should be involved in the decision of whether they want to move downtown and fear it to give them a mail."
HE SAID the commission had not considered the opinions of nearby residents when considering such issues as the Bluffs and the downtown mail.
'The tone of local politics now is, 'Oh well,
what the hell.' ''' he said.
TRAILRIDGE
"The commissioners seem to think that the people who become executives of the neighborhood groups are the radical fringe," he said.
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