{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Ask A Kansan","title":"Hidden Gems at Cheyenne Bottoms with Curtis Wolf | Wetlands Kansas","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3504,"description":"Sometimes the best things hide in plain sight. If you didn’t know, Kansas was once an ocean, and a huge chunk of that history is still alive at Cheyenne Bottoms — the largest wetland in the interior United States. We sit down with Curtis Wolf, director of the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, who breaks down what actually makes something a \"wetland,\" why this 41,000-acre basin is a lifeline for migrating shorebirds traveling thousands of miles between South America and the Arctic, and how decades of careful management keep it thriving. We also swap stories from our own family trips out there, talk monarch butterfly tagging, and wrap things up with another round of Dartography.\n\nHighlights\n\nCurtis explains the three technical requirements for a true wetland: the right soil, the right plants, and seasonal water.\nCheyenne Bottoms is a 41,000-acre basin and the largest wetland in the interior U.S. — yet less than 1% of the Kansas landscape qualifies as wetland.\nThe Kansas Wetlands Education Center opened through a partnership between Fort Hays State University, the Department of Wildlife and Parks, the City of Great Bend, and Barton Community College, funded in part through a KDOT mitigation grant.\nA Hudsonian Godwit tracked by researchers flew six days straight from Chile to Cheyenne Bottoms without stopping.\nOne square meter of mud at Cheyenne Bottoms can hold up to 65,000 bloodworms — a key food source fueling migrating birds.\nThe Center hosts around 700 programs a year, including a Second Grade Wetlands Day, summer day camps, Turtle Tots for preschoolers, and stargazing nights during the Perseid meteor shower.\nThe annual Butterfly Festival features monarch tagging tied to the Monarch Watch program, plus a honeybee demonstration hive and seed bomb crafts.\nMonarchs migrating through Cheyenne Bottoms in the fall are actually the fourth generation removed from the butterflies that left Mexico that spring.\nCheyenne Bottoms is managed in nine separate pools with a dike...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/31uDhQmE-73zaqpWjXtwnyYffNMsUnDPiL6GtjTddEQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mNzBm/YzFkNDBkODVjNGM2/MzMwMGViYjhmZTY4/Nzc0Mi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}