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KU News: KU researchers launch new Kansas ecosystems online teaching tool

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From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

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KU researchers launch new Kansas ecosystems online teaching tool
LAWRENCE — University of Kansas researchers have created the ArcGIS StoryMap Mapping Kansas Ecosystems to draw attention to the wide range of landscapes across the state — and serve as an online resource in classrooms, libraries and homes, for all ages. Through a mix of photos, videos, conversational text, history and interactive maps, the site dives deep into the modern landscape and the “ecosystem influencers” that shape it.

Three Jayhawks invited to attend White House Native American events
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas and the Office of Native American Initiatives is proud to share that three KU students — Kylie Kookesh (Tlingit), Delilah Begay (Diné) and Hayley Harman (Prairie Band Potawatomi) — were invited to and attended two prestigious events in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14 and 15. Native youth from across Indian Country joined together to attend the annual White House Tribal Youth Forum hosted by the White House, United National Indian Tribal Youth (U.N.I.T.Y.) and the Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) at the Aspen Institute.

KU Study Abroad & Global Engagement selected for IIE American Passport Project
LAWRENCE — This fall, 95 University of Kansas freshman students will receive free U.S. passports as part of the IIE American Passport Project, a grant initiative sponsored by the Institute of International Education. IIE contributed grant funds for 25 passports, with donations through KU Study Abroad & Global Engagement funding the remaining passports for Pell Grant-eligible KU students.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Kirsten Bosnak, KU Field Station, 785-864-6267, [email protected], @KUFieldStation
KU researchers launch new Kansas ecosystems online teaching tool

LAWRENCE — Dana Peterson hopes the new ArcGIS StoryMap Mapping Kansas Ecosystems will draw attention to the wide range of landscapes across the state — and serve as an online resource in classrooms, libraries and homes, for all ages.

“Here in northeastern Kansas, we think of one landscape: green, hilly, a mix of woodland and grassland,” said Peterson, an assistant research professor focused on remote sensing at the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research. “But Kansas has incredible variety of different grassland ecosystems, and different types of woodlands and wetlands, some native and others human-created. This StoryMap provides a great entry point to these ecosystems.”

Peterson and research colleague Jennifer Moody created the extensive website using the StoryMap multimedia platform. Through a mix of photos, videos, conversational text, history and interactive maps, the site dives deep into the modern landscape and the “ecosystem influencers” that shape it. An embedded web application, Kansas Ecological Systems Map and Field Sites, enables users to explore 49 mapped land cover types.

Completed in September, the website grew out of a larger, five-year project: the development of a new Kansas land cover map — focused on non-cropland. While the land cover map does include a cropland class, the project group’s goal, Peterson said, was to understand non-cropland vegetation systems, whether native or “messy” classes that occur as the result of human impacts.

“There isn’t a lot of attention placed on understanding what land cover is and what it means, and how crucial this information is to conservation decisions,” Peterson said. “The StoryMap goes into what factors drive land cover and land use — whether natural factors, such as the state’s east-west precipitation gradient, or human use including habitat fragmentation.”

To develop the land cover map, Peterson and other researchers at the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research traveled throughout the state, collecting data and taking photos. The group included Moody and former researchers Courtney Masterson and Amy Isenburg. Kelly Kindscher, a senior scientist at the research center and a KU professor in the Environmental Studies Program, created the Kansas plant community classification and also directed and participated in the project’s field research.

To showcase the land cover map and provide public educational content about Kansas landscapes, Peterson secured a one-year grant for the StoryMap from AmericaView, a nationwide network focused on using public domain satellite/remote sensing imagery for education, applied research and technology transfer. The network of university-based members, representing 41 states, is supported by the U.S. Geological Survey. Peterson is the lead investigator and coordinator for KansasView, the member in this state.

The land cover map is a collaboration between the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and the Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership (MoRAP). The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources provided funding for the development of land cover maps for both states in tandem. All project partners worked in tight coordination to create new maps with borders that would match seamlessly.

The Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research houses a diverse group of ecological research and remote sensing/GIS programs at KU. It also manages the 3,700-acre KU Field Station, a resource for study across the university.

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Contact: Melissa Peterson, University Academic Support Centers, 785-864-7267, [email protected], @NativeatKU
Three Jayhawks invited to attend White House Native American events
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas and the Office of Native American Initiatives is proud to share that three KU students were invited to and attended two prestigious events in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14 and 15.
Native youth from across Indian Country joined together to attend the annual White House Tribal Youth Forum hosted by the White House, United National Indian Tribal Youth (U.N.I.T.Y.) and the Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) at the Aspen Institute.
Representing KU, undergraduates Kylie Kookesh (Tlingit), Delilah Begay (Diné) and Hayley Harman (Prairie Band Potawatomi) participated in programs with high-level administration officials and special guests and engaged in important conversations that impact Native communities including mental health, climate change, food sovereignty, education and more.
Following the forum, First Lady Jill Biden invited the students to visit the White House for a Celebration of Native American History Month.
Assistant Director and Native American Student Success Coordinator Lori Hasselman (Delaware/Shawnee Tribes of Oklahoma) is grateful for the continued connection with CNAY that facilitated this wonderful opportunity for KU Native students. “We have such a tremendous pool of high-achieving Native students at KU, and I am excited that the three students participating in this honor are a great representation of Jayhawks at the Capitol.”
About the students
1. Kylie Kookesh (Kyałxtin) is Tlingit, Deisheetaan (Raven, Beaver) from Shdeen Hít (Steel house) in Angoon, Alaska. Kookesh is currently studying elementary education and aspires to return to her hometown to set an example as a consistent long-term teacher, creating culturally relevant curriculums that inspire students to succeed in and after school. She is also a Multicultural Scholar and recipient of the Billy Mills Scholarship.
2. Delilah Begay, a citizen of the Navajo Nation from Ganado, Arizona, is a double major in film & media studies and linguistics. Begay aspires to work in the film industry and bring representation and a voice to those like her. She is also a McNair Scholar and a Chief Manuelito Scholar.
3. Hayley Harman, of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation from Hoyt, is studying human biology with the goal to attend medical school at the KU School of Medicine to become a doctor. Harman is a member of the KU First Nations Student Association, KU Women in Medicine, KU Pre-Medical Society and KU Club Softball team.

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Contact: Angela Perryman, Office of Study Abroad & Global Engagement, 785-864-3742, [email protected], @KUStudyAbroad
KU Study Abroad & Global Engagement selected for IIE American Passport Project

LAWRENCE — This fall, 95 University of Kansas freshman students will receive free U.S. passports as part of the IIE American Passport Project, a grant initiative sponsored by the Institute of International Education.

Now in its second year, the IIE American Passport Project seeks to promote diversity, inclusion, access and equity in study abroad and encourage students to go abroad who would otherwise not participate in an international experience as part of their college education. For students of limited means, studying abroad can require long-term planning and involve financial hurdles, like the cost of a passport, which could bar them from moving forward.
IIE selected KU as one of 40 institutions to receive this unique funding opportunity. Through the IIE American Passport Project, Study Abroad & Global Engagement received grant funds for 25 U.S. passports. Through the generosity of donors, SAGE contributed additional financial support, enabling up to 95 freshman, Pell Grant-eligible KU students to obtain a U.S. passport this fall.
“We are honored to have been selected by IIE for the American Passport Project,” SAGE Director Angela Perryman said. “One of the primary goals of KU Study Abroad & Global Engagement is to increase the number and diversity of students participating in education abroad, such that the population of study abroad students mirrors the KU undergraduate student population across all student profiles (academic discipline and student demographics). The American Passport Project directly supports this goal by providing students access to a passport and the resources and motivation to use it during their time at KU.”
International education has measurable benefits for all students. As a high-impact practice, study abroad is positively correlated to increased student engagement and retention, the development of soft skills and professional competencies, and improved career outcomes.
According to recent research from the University System of Georgia Consortium for Analysis of Student Success through International Education, students who studied abroad were 6 percentage points more likely to graduate in four years and 4 percentage points more likely to graduate in six years than their classmates, and achieved higher cumulative grade-point averages than their peers. These effects are even more pronounced for students on need-based aid and those who identify as first-generation college students, making efforts to support and engage these student populations in education abroad both a national and institutional priority.
The IIE Network is a global membership network connecting more than 10,000 professionals from over 1,500 organizations to resources, including IIE’s extensive knowledge and decades of experience supporting student mobility and exchange, campus internationalization and international partnerships.

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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

Round-trip to posterity

By
Milo Yield
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Thayne Cozart
Milo Yield

A week ago about this time in the afternoon we were pulling up to the unloading dock and greeting some helpful folks at the Texas Tech University Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library in Lubbock, Texas.
We unloaded 14 storage boxes of “paper or computer stuff” I’ve either written or saved since 1974, since the founding of FARM TALK.
It included all of my columns I’ve written during that time span, all my correspondence — letters written and received — and other business, legal, civic, and economic materials that I felt at the time were important enuf to save for posterity.
If readers will recall, we made the same trip last April to make the first delivery of similar materials to the archive library. In the future, there will likely be more “stuff” for the library as Nevah and I continue to downsize our latter-life.
Only time will tell if “posterity” finds any of my “stuff” important enuf to revisit. But, one thing for sure is all that “stuff” is out of our basement and archived at a major university if anyone ever wants to take a look. That’s a major load off my mind.
Contemplating that pile of materials, I think might explain the intermittent arthritis pain in my fingers and hands. My ol’ fingers have done a lot of typing during my life — and they ain’t done yet.
Our April trip to Lubbock wuz just Nevah and me. This trip we were joined by my high school classmate from Platte City, Mo., ol’ Canby Handy, and his wife May Bea. Canby wuz at the wheel becuz he drives a nice Ford F-150 with a weather-tight cover over the pickup bed. The truck had ample room for my “stuff” and all our travel cases.
We decided to visit some sights in Oklahoma that were new to the Canbys. They picked the route from Emporia. They stayed with us Saturday night and we headed south and west Sunday morning. We went south to Pawhuska, Okla., to take in all the changes to that county seat brought about by the now-famous television chef Ann Marie “Ree” Drummond.
From there it wuz on to Fairfax, Ralston, and Pawnee, where some of Canby’s early kinfolks resided a few generations ago. Next stop wuz Oklahoma State University where we “tour-drove” the campus and ate a leisurely lunch at the iconic Cowboy restaurant and store Eskimo Joe’s.
Then it wuz straight west to Okeene and south toward our evening destination Lawton. It got late on us and we made a little unplanned diversion onto some remote backroads. That’s when a funny thing happened. Just as dusk, we mentioned that we hadn’t seen any wildlife all day. We’d scarcely got our mouths shut when a big fawn deer leaped out of the ditch right in front of us and we chased it a couple hundred yards until it found a spot to jump the fence.
After our overnight in Lawton, Monday morn found us in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Preserve, atop of Mount Scott, the highest elevation in Oklahoma at more than 2,000 feet. It wuz cold and breezy and above some of the low-scudding clouds, but we got quite a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape.
From the Wichitas, we drove to Frederick and then entered Texas. About 50 miles into Texas, we turned west and drove past the famous (past and present) 6666 Ranch. We saw a slew of Taylor Sheridan’s horses, but none of the Dutton family members or crew from the “Yellowstone” TV show.
We also drove by the famous Pitchfork Ranch and also a lot of cotton fields yet to be picked. It’s still droughty everywhere we went on the trip, but there were still puddles from a recent rain, no dust, and the landscape look a lot better generally than it did in April. Most of the wheat looks in pretty good shape.
After unloading, we drove a bit through the Texas Tech campus and then headed north to Plainview for our Monday night lodging. Tuesday, we headed north, then east, and caught a fabulous eastern portion of Palo Duro Canyon. We got a good view from the tourist lookout.
We skirted Amarillo and stopped at the decrepit little burg of Skellytown, not far from Pampa. Skellytown played an important part in the lives of Canby’s Dad and Mom. During the Great Depression, they lived in a tar-paper shack in Skellytown and his Dad worked a filthy job in a carbon-black factory. After a few years, they moved back to Kansas with all their life belongings in a homemade, two-wheel trailer pulled behind a Model T Ford (might have been a Model A).
We stopped for a nice lunch at Canadian, Texas. We ate at the historic Cattlemen’s Exchange Building — a former real cattle exchange, now renovated into an upscale restaurant. The grub wuz pricy, but good. The top-priced steak wuz $62, but I’m wuz too frugal (cheap) to order it and ate a big burrito instead.
After we entered Oklahoma, we drove through Shattuck, a little town with a city park display of all sorts of windmills. Next stop wuz at Boiling Springs State Park, just east of Woodward. The big spring doesn’t actually boil, but it stirs the sand as it flows out of a sand dune and it looks like it’s boiling.
We went north hoping to see the Alabaster Caverns near the Kansas line, but it wuz too late in the afternoon and too long of an underground hike for a group of elders like us.
Our evening destination wuz Pratt, Kan., and we drove north through the rustic burg of Sun City. We ate supper at Woodie’s Cafe with a mutual friend and my fishing buddy, ol’ Claude Hopper. Canby and I first met Claude in a dorm room at Bea Wilder U in the fall of 1960. Our trip on to Emporia was uneventful the next day. All in all, it wuz a great little trip for all of us.
***
Words of wisdom for the week: “Someone may owe you a yesterday, but no one owes you a tomorrow. That’s up to you.” Have a good ‘un.

CULTIVATING SUSTAINABLE SOIL AND MINDS

By
tammiehoeme
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By Shelby Varner on November 15, 2022

Did you know less than 2 percent of the population is involved in growing food and fiber? That’s not very many people doing a whole lot of work! This means the land that’s farmed by this small group of go-getters needs to be productive and healthy. One way farmers ensure their soil is healthy is through measuring soil quality. Have you ever considered what goes into “quality soil?”

More than five years ago, Austin Schweizer helped his farming operation in Reno County further expand their sustainability practices with the use of cover crops, which can add organic matter to the soil as well as improve soil structure. Rye, triticale, peas and barley are a few of the many cover crops that can be used. They also help suppress weeds and are beneficial for insects and wildlife.

“I was learning about soil health and started seeing results in better moisture holding capacity, better nutrient cycling and microbial activity in the soil was better,” Schweizer says.

Growing cover crops benefitted the soil and provided another benefit — it gave Schweizer’s cattle a grazing opportunity.

Schweizer didn’t stop with cover crops; he continues to learn how he can do more.

 

cattle, cover crop, grazing

 

Sustaining and regenerating

One of the things Schweizer focuses on is improving the quality of soil through regenerative agriculture.

Schweizer shares it’s like sustainability because you’re trying to maintain soil quality while also continually improving.

One way he measures continuous improvement is through soil health tests, which helps him better understand what nitrogen is available in the soil. Knowing that allows him to reduce the amount he places on the field.

“We are able to lower our synthetic inputs because we have a more accurate assessment of what our regenerated soils are doing,” Schweizer says.

Lowering the use of manmade fertilizers reduces Schweizer’s overall costs and lessens the chance they are washed into the water system.

The land Schweizer farms is highly erodible, which makes cover crops more valuable. They help the ground be resilient throughout the ever-changing and sporadic Kansas weather. One heavy rain can wash away topsoil, but cover crops hold the soil firmly intact.

“We have our ground stable from cover crops, and that makes us more resilient from year to year,” Schweizer says.

 

Sunflower, cover crop, flower

 

Adding to sustainability

With most things farming and ranching, you learn from your mistakes and sometimes even the mistakes of others. Schweizer gains knowledge about cover crops, sustainability and regenerative agriculture from a variety of sources.

He is part of the General Mills regenerative ag program in Hutchinson where there are many other producers who are trying similar soil health practices.

“We can bounce ideas off each other and learn from each other’s mistakes and from everybody’s successes as well,” Schweizer says.

He says that allows them to learn quicker and become better faster.

Schweizer also serves on the Reno County Farm Bureau board which he has done for the last four years, and this year serves as president.

“After our meetings, we will sit around and we’ll talk about regenerative agriculture, we’ll talk about soil health, we’ll talk about no-till,” he says.

Tilling involves turning over soil, usually several inches, in a field which can lead to issues with erosion and loss of nutrients. No-till and regenerative agriculture tie together as they both factor into improving farming practices and soil health.

Serving on Kansas Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers committee also allowed him to network with people across the state and hear how others deal with sustainability throughout the different areas of the state.

“We challenge each other to become better.”

Helping others be sustainable

Schweizer is a Star Seed salesman and in this position, he helps others understand how cover crops can impact their operation.

“If anybody gives me a call, we usually end up talking for 20 or 30 minutes about cover crops.”

 

soil, worm, sustainability

 

He says that conversation usually involves them talking about what he does and then trying to figure out what their goals are and figuring out a plan for what they need in the future.

“When you have different things come up in your environment a lot of those different conversations from different people can help you work your way through it,” Schweizer says.  “When we started it was really very simple, simple minded.”

Now he’s learned how to use cover crops to prepare his soil for its next crop and enjoys sharing what he’s learned with others. However, he isn’t done learning, he continues to gather information so he can better serve the soil.

Digital Edition 11.23.22

By
tammiehoeme
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digital edition

Digital Edition 11.23.22

By
tammiehoeme
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Charles “Earl” Willis,  Jr., 97, of Inman, KS, died November 16, 2022.  Funeral arrangements are with Stockham Family Funeral Home, McPherson. (website: www.stockhamfamily.com) 

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