For the unlearned, old age is winter, for the learned, it is the season of harvest.
--Hasidic saying
Today's topic is the most important wetlands you've never heard of: Playa lakes and oxbow lakes. Playa lakes are usually saucer shaped natural low places with clay bottoms located in dry landscapes. Many of these playas are intermittently wet or dry according to the rains received. Why are they so important? Their dry/wet cycle support a diverse plant community such as specialized plankton and aquatic insects as well as a unique set of wildlife specimens.
Oxbow and playa lakes are the only natural bodies of water in Oklahoma until the Army Core of Engineers began damming up the rivers and streams for flood control, irrigation water and water for the growing Oklahoma population.
Several years ago Pat Folley and I visited Optima Playa Lake, located in Texas County on Hwy 3 near Hardesty as you go west toward Guymon. On the southern edge of the very shallow lake dam, is a captivating view of the water and the many birds that use the lake as a stopover to refuel on their migration flight. Depending on the time of year you visit you might see long-billed curlews, greater yellowlegs, black-necked stilts and American avocets as well as mallards and other types of water birds.
According to an article in the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation newsletter "The Wildside," 2007 Winter Newsletter, "When you travel the Playa Lake Loop you will be experiencing a type of wetland that is very unique; approximately 95 percent of the world's playa lakes are found in the western Great Plains."
There are many regional names for playas, two of which are hay lakes and swales. A couple of generations ago there was a small Texas panhandle town named Haylake. During drought conditions the playas grew the only "hay" foraging cattle and wildlife had to graze in the otherwise barren landscape. There was even a famous fight known as the Texas County Hay Meadow massacre of July 1888; no-man's-land at the time. Today that playa is known as Wild Horse Playa Lake.
One faction of the shoot-out for the county seat originated in Stevens County, Kansas and killed four members of the opposing group. Since the killing took place in no-man's land no court had jurisdiction. I assume the Kansas faction went unpunished for the murders since I wasn't able to find out more.
Keep your eye out in the area for a chance to spot prairie dog towns, burrowing owls, badgers, swift foxes, ferruginous hawks, orioles, woodpeckers, red-tailed hawks, horned lizards, white-tailed deer, coyotes, Rio Grande turkeys, peregrine falcons, black-tailed jackrabbits and porcupines, just to name a few.
As rainfall occurs infrequently in this area of the panhandle, you should contact the Optima Wildlife Management Area biologist at 806-339-5175 to find out if the playas are holding water or are closed for some reason. For further information on playas visit: www. wildlifedepartment.com/playalake.asp.
Oxbow Lakes occur when an "elbow" of a meandering river or stream bed gets cut off and blocked from the main flow. Many oxbows have sandy subsoil so that local rainfalls soon percolate down to the water table leaving the depression dry most of the time. Others have a clay base and/are situated over a high water table or on occasion an artesian well.
Some years ago, accompanied by friends, I visited one of my favorite places, the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge located in north central Oklahoma, Alfalfa County. One of my vivid memories is of walking the trail below the Salt Plains Lake along the crescent curves of an oxbow situated in the northwest area of the refuge, looking up and seeing a brownish-black snake so still that it looked like the dead branch where it lay motionless.
Beyond the cool over-cover of the willows and button-ball bushes that grew alongside the green teeming water, aquatic plants, insects and small invertebrates gyrated while a hot sun baked the salty soil. Not too far from the Salt Plains Oxbow is an artesian well that until not too long ago was the only drinkable water anywhere near. Pat and I took a sip from the cold water that flows vigorously through a metal pipe that someone installed in the aquifer. The taste was delicious, perhaps the best-tasting water I've ever drank.
Deep, permanent wetlands such as the Salt Plains Oxbow become fecund wombs giving birth to myriad life forms. If it weren't for these indigenous bodies of water in the dryer portions of Oklahoma, wildlife would be sparse; not just in Alfalfa and Texas Counties but because migrating animals depend on these waters the total North American continent and beyond would suffer.
Betty Culpepper may be reached at bculpepper3@cox.net for comments, questions or topics for future columns.
Outdoors
January 14, 2010
Part-time lakes are of full-time importance
- Outdoors
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- Safety is vital when working with chain saws STILLWATER -- As Oklahomans clean up after the recent ice storm that left tree limbs shattered or lying around, care should be taken to ensure protection against unintentionally risking an arm or leg being added to the toll.
- Dolese Youth Park Pond teeming with trout for young anglers Oklahoma City resident Gaston Gallant goes fishing nearly every day of the two-month trout season at Dolese Youth Park Pond, a northwest Oklahoma City fishing destination currently teeming with nearly 2,600 rainbow trout.
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De-icing salt can harm landscape plants
Each winter, millions of tons of deicing salt are applied to state and municipal roads to keep the roads safe for vehicles to travel. Salt is spread near houses to avoid pedestrian injuries. This is necessary for safety, but did you know excessive salt can cause widespread damage to trees ? possibly leading to permanent decline and even death?
According to the Tree Care Industry Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to the tree care industry, even severe salt damage might not be visible on a tree until the end of summer, leaving homeowners wondering what might have caused the problem. - Making it through That was a cold spell of what we used to call "Biblical proportions." It was made perhaps more interesting locally by the old heat-pump in the house, which died on New Year's Eve. For a week, the household was maintained by an old Franklin stove in the living room, and by the old owner, who had to carry in firewood so it could be fed every hour or so.
- University of Oklahoma team wins college fishing event ZAPATA, Texas -- The University of Oklahoma team of Mark Johnson and Chip Porche won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Texas Division event on Falcon Lake Saturday with six bass weighing 34 pounds, 8 ounces.
- Great Western Feedout entry deadline Friday It is time to start entering for the Great Western Feedout of 2010. For those of you not familiar with it, the Great Western Feedout is a producer information feedback program that allows cattle producers the opportunity to evaluate the genetic merit of the calves they produce for feedlot performance and carcass value following weaning and a winter stocker program.
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Part-time lakes are of full-time importance
For the unlearned, old age is winter, for the learned, it is the season of harvest.
--Hasidic saying
Today's topic is the most important wetlands you've never heard of: Playa lakes and oxbow lakes. Playa lakes are usually saucer shaped natural low places with clay bottoms located in dry landscapes. - Christmas Bird Count yields unexpected rewards What am I doing here? It is incredibly cold morning and I am crouched here in the dark in the willows on the banks of the South Canadian River with a few stalwarts indulging in an activity called "owling.
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Increasing deer population leads to ornamental and garden plant damage
STILLWATER -- With more than a half million white-tailed deer in Oklahoma, many landowners experience nature in its purest sense as the deer can be viewed at close range.
However, this has become a problem over the years as the deer population has increased, forcing thousands of these animals into peripheral suburban areas, leaving homeowners to deal with damage to ornamental and garden plants. -
Wildlife Department to host town hall meeting
Sportsmen will have an opportunity to voice their thoughts on wildlife, hunting and fishing related issues at a town hall meeting hosted by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
The meeting, one of a series, is set for 7 p. - More Outdoors Headlines
