Wetlands Center sees ‘normal’ year
BY DALE HOGG
dhogg@gbtribune.com
In five years, a normal year at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center has been elusive, Site Manager Curtis Wolf told the Barton County Commission Monday morning in is annual report.
But, “after three years of extreme drought conditions from 2011-2013, 2014 was a year for rebound for the KWEC,” Wolf said. Relatively consistent water levels in Cheyenne Bottoms produced one of the more “normal” years in terms of the attendance at the KWEC.
Total contacts increased by almost 2,500 visitors (23,000 visitors total) this year compared to 2013, he said. On-site and outreach programming continued to be a strength for the center, and it offered an all-time high number of programs in 2014 (598 total programs – 283 on-site, 315 outreach), with nearly 13,000 participants.
Several annual events continued in 2014 (and most grew in offerings and attendance), including the winter and summer kids program series, the third-biennial Great Migration Rally, the second Wild Goose Chase 5k/3k, fourth-annual Butterfly Festival, and the second-annual hunter appreciation breakfast.
“School programs are our strength,” Wolf said, adding the center’s relationship with the schools remains strong, offering 400 programs to schools in the area last year. And, the annual Wetlands Day for Barton County second graders attracted 400 students.
Their goal is to have one big program each month, Wolf said.
This is also the year for the biennial Wings and Wetlands Birding Festival which is planned for April. The last festival would have been in 2013, but was canceled due to the drought.
The festival is a big deal, Wolf said. It attracts between 100-200 bird watchers, many of which are from out of state.
In addition, the KWEC worked closely with area communities by hosting chamber coffees and providing programs and/or booths at Great Bend’s June Jaunt and Earth Day events, Ellinwood’s After Harvest Festival and Bike Across Kansas events, and Barton Community College’s Jack Kilby Science Day. The KWEC also promoted the center and the area at several trade shows, including the Kansas Sampler Festival, Great Bend’s Taste of Home show, Discover Salina Naturally, GPNC’s Walk With Wildlife, and Ark River Water Festival.
The Kansas Wetlands Education Center is a branch of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, is operated by Fort Hays State University personnel.
The facility overlooks the 19,857 acre Cheyenne Bottom Wildlife Area managed by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Park and Tourism and the 7,694 acre Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve managed by The Nature Conservancy.
In other business Monday morning, the commission:
• Approved contracting with Postal Presort to create valuation notices, mailing labels and envelopes for mailing the valuation notices. County Appraiser Barbara Esfeld said this will cost $8,322, but it would have cost her office well over $9,000 had it handled the bulk mailing.
• Following the close of the agenda meeting, commissioners attended the Annual Township Meeting. The meeting was held at the Great Bend Elks Lodge.
Barton County remains in the grips of a whooping cough outbreak, but the extent of the outbreak remains unclear, Barton County Health Director Shelly Schneider told the county commission Monday morning.
She did say her department is investigating 29 or 30 suspected cases and have followed up on over 100 people who may have come in contact with those individuals. The staff has also administered over 1,000 doses of the Tdap (tetanus, diptheria, and pertussis) vaccination in adults 19 and older in the past couple weeks.
But, she said, “numerous, numerous, numerous” Barton County residents have been tested for pertussis by Great Bend Regional Hospital. And, oddly, there have been “numerous, numerous, numerous” negative results despite the positive symptoms.
In other words, there are a lot of people who look like they have whooping cough but they don’t. A review of the GBRH results by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment confirmed the findings.
This sparked curiosity at KDHE, Schneider said. State officials wondered why there were so many negatives.
Barton County sent five sample swabs to the KDHE for additional testing. These yielded positive readings for para-influenza (a milder version of the flu) and a different flu strain that has not been found in the county as of yet.
“They want to know what is making Barton County so ill,” Schneider said. Officials also want to know why these illnesses are mimicking pertussis.
The samples may be sent on the Centers for Disease Control for further examination, she said.
In the meantime, the local health department is in a state of chaos. “This is baptism by fire,” Commissioner Jennifer Schartz said of the newly hired Schneider facing this outbreak.
Schneider said her office has been extremely busy tracing cases and contacts while maintaining the department’s other services.
It has been a learning experience, Schneider said. She is thankful for the guidance from the state epidemiologist from the KDHE.
In theory, only one adult Tdap booster with the pertussis component is needed during a lifetime, Schneider said. However, some of the current suspected cases are in people who have been partially or completely vaccinated.
If someone contracts whooping cough, they are susceptible to get it again, she said.
The outbreak was first reported two weeks ago when there were five cases of whooping cough and one fatality from the disease.
Pertussis symptoms include a severe, uncontrollable cough and low-grade fever. Schneider’s staff is attempting to triage patients based on how long they have been coughing, the severity of their coughing fits and other indictions such as is the coughing causing vomiting.
Young children and the elderly are at greatest risk of long-term harm or death from pertussis, she said.
Whooping cough is an air-borne disease and can be spread by coughs and sneezes.
It can be prevented via the vaccine, and it can be treated with antibiotics, Schneider said.
Pertussis can last for weeks and be exhausting due to the constant hacking, she said. And, through much of that time, the patient remains infectious.
