4A
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Marla Keown/KANSAN
Sam Funk, Holcomb senior, was raised on a farm that has been in his family for four generations. Funk is finishing his fourth year at the University of Kansas and hopes to become an optometrist. Funk said his family has been very conscious about saving water and growing mostly crops that don't need to be watered, like wheat, sorghum and hay. Funk balances his free time between interning for an optometrist and helping out back home at the farm.
Mindy Ricketts/KANSAN
Richard Bean, a beekeeper, helps a customer at the Farmer's market on Saturday, on New Hampshire Street between Eighth and Ninth streets. Bean owns Blossom Trail Bee Ranch where he breeds bees and harvests their honey.
Thursday, April 24
vs. Wichita State @ 5 PM (DH) Block Party: 4 PM-5 PM Free hot dogs (limit 2 for first 100 fans) Pregame DJ and Free Raffle during the game
Saturday, April 26
increase prices of basic foods like bread and pasta.
Corn, the second-most revenue producing crop in Kansas, brought in $1.1 billion in 2006. Since corn is used to feed livestock and also to produce ethanol, higher corn prices means hamburgers, steak and ethanol-based fuel would become more expensive. Corn cannot grow in much of Kansas without being irrigated, and Rice said farmers, like Sam Funk's family, may not want to pay the costs of digging deeper wells.
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Nebel
Cornhuskers
anymore."
Funk said.
"It will be the
South Dakota
Cornhuskers."
Funk said his family members already dug their wells 100 feet deeper than they used to and get only half the water. He predicted other farmers would soon give up corn, as his family did, because changing growing seasons might require even more water.
"Nebraska won't be the
Rice said some crops could deal with the increasing temperatures, such as sorghum, a grain that can feed
Sunday, April 27
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Sharon Billings, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said even a slight change in water availability would make it difficult for some hardwood trees to grow in Kansas.
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She said Lawrence was on the western edge of the Eastern Deciduous Forest, so many trees already won't grow west of the area. The sugar maple, which inspires the Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin City with its flaming orange colors, grows only on high-quality land with lots of moisture and good soil. They grow more readily north and east of Kansas, and Billings said even a slight change in the amount of rain would make them unable to
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animals and also be made into gluten-free flour. With temperatures warming in Kansas, could the Kansas Jayhawks become the Kansas Sooners?
She said that many trees in western Kansas already grew only near creeks and reservoirs. She said these trees, like the bur oak, would die out if the water disan-
"Now we're facing what is the worst period of Kansas history. It's not a matter of belief. It's a matter of scientific research."
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Taylor said virtually all insects were dependent on plants and vice versa. He said 90 Kansas crops were dependent on honeybees for pollination, including almonds, plums, apples, cherries, pears and various berries. When bees disappear, the efficiency of producing these products goes down and their prices go up.
to die, animals
Fruit trees, like the ones on Ott's farm, are introduced species which farmers must water because they don't naturally grow in Kansas. Billings said the fruit buds had a better chance of freezing because the seasons were so unpredictable.
that depend on the trees' acorns would suffer, such as turkeys, deer and squirrels.
Taylor said bees and other insects had a difficult time adjust-
"The trees are being lured into thinking it's OK to flower earlier," she said.
Last April, a harsh freeze caught Ott by surprise. Trees budded early in a mild March then temperatures dropped below freezing at night during the first weeks of April. The thaw and freeze also resulted in poor crop conditions for 41 percent of the state's winter wheat.
Orley "Chip" Taylor, professor of insect ecology, said warmer winters were a big problem for bees because there was less snow cover and predators could find the wintering bees more easily. He said a warmer winter would also keep the bees' metabolic rates high and they wouldn't have enough food or energy to live through the entire winter.
Ott said he lost at least $9,000 worth of fruit sales and his loyal customers at the Lawrence Farmers' Market were unable to buy his usual bounty of homegrown apples, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries and plums.
Craig Freeman, curator in charge of botany at the Natural History Museum, said that when populations of plants like snapdragons lost one year of producing seeds, a whole generation of plants was lost and there was a chance the whole population eventually would decline.
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