Fishes of the Big Blue River Basin, Kansas Part 1

Fishes of the Big Blue River Basin, Kansas.

by W. L. Minckley.

INTRODUCTION

The Big Blue River in northeastern Kansas will soon be impounded by the Tuttle Creek Dam, located about five miles north of Manhattan, Kansas. Since the inception of this project by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers much argument has arisen as to the values of the dam and reservoir as opposed to the values of farmland and cultural establishments to be inundated (Schoewe, 1953; Monfort, 1956; and Van Orman, 1956). Also, there has been some concern about the possible effects of impoundment on the fish-resources of the area, which supports "a catfish fishery that is notable throughout most of the State of Kansas and in some neighboring states (U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1953:9)." The objectives of my study, conducted from March 30, 1957, to August 9, 1958, were to record the species of fish present and their relative abundance in the stream system, and to obtain a measure of angler success prior to closure of the dam. These data may be used as a basis for future studies on the fish and fis.h.i.+ng in the Big Blue River Basin, Kansas.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Messrs. J. E. Deacon, D. A. Distler, Wallace Ferrel, D. L.

Hoyt, F. E. Maendele, C. O. Minckley, B. C. Nelson, and J. C. Tash for a.s.sistance in the field and for valuable suggestions. Dr. J. B. Elder, Kansas State College, arranged for loan of specimens, and Mr. B. C.

Nelson supplied data on _Notropis deliciosus_ (Girard) in Kansas, and on specimens in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

I thank the many landowners who allowed me access to streams in the Big Blue River Basin. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District, also allowed access in the reservoir area, and furnished information and some photographs. Mr. J. C. Tash did chemical determinations on my water samples.

Dr. Frank B. Cross guided me in this study and in preparation of this report. Drs. E. Raymond Hall and K. B. Armitage offered valuable suggestions on the ma.n.u.script. Equipment and funds for my study were furnished by the State Biological Survey of Kansas, and the Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Commission granted necessary permits.

TUTTLE CREEK DAM AND RESERVOIR

The data on Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir that follow were furnished by Mr. Donald D. Poole, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District. The dam, an earth-fill structure, will be 7,500 feet in length, with a maximum height of 157 feet above the valley floor.

Release of water will be from beneath the west end of the dam, through two tunnels 20 feet in diameter that have a capacity of 45,000 cubic feet per second; however, releases exceeding 25,000 c. f. s. are not planned. The gated spillway is located at the east end of the dam.

Freeboard will be 23 feet at the top of flood-control pool.

The reservoir will have a maximum pool of 2,280,000 acre-feet capacity, a 53,500-acre surface area, and 368 miles of sh.o.r.eline. The present operational plan provides for a conservation pool having a surface area of 15,700 acres, a sh.o.r.eline of 112 miles, and a length of 20 miles.

BIG BLUE RIVER BASIN

Big Blue River and its tributaries, a sub-basin of the Kansas River System, drain approximately 9,600 square miles, of which 2,484 miles are in Kansas (Colby, _et al._, 1956:44). The headwaters of the Big Blue River are in central Hamilton County, Nebraska, near the Platte River (Fig. 1). The stream flows generally south and east for 283 miles to its confluence with the Kansas River near Manhattan, Kansas.

Little Blue River, the largest tributary to the Big Blue, rises in eastern Kearney and western Adams counties, Nebraska, and flows southeast for 208 miles to join the Big Blue near Blue Rapids, Kansas (Nebraska State Planning Board, 1936:628). The Big Blue River Basin varies in width from 129 miles in the northwest, to approximately ten miles near the mouth (Colby, _et al._, 1956:44).

GEOLOGY OF THE BASIN

In Kansas, outcrops of Pennsylvanian and Cretaceous age occur along the extreme eastern and western sides of the Big Blue River Basin, respectively, whereas Permian beds (overlain by Pleistocene deposits) occur throughout most of the remainder of the watershed (see Moore and Landes, 1937). The Big Blue and Little Blue rivers and their tributaries have deeply incised the Permian beds of the Flint Hills in Kansas, exposing limestones and shales of the Admire, Council Grove, Chase, and Sumner groups (Wolfcampian and Leonardian series) (Walters, 1954:41-44). Pleistocene deposits in the Big Blue Basin in Kansas consist of alluvium, glacial till, and glacial outwash from the Kansan glacial stage, overlain by loess deposits of Wisconsin and Recent stages (Frye and Leonard, 1952: pl. 1).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1. Big Blue River Basin, Kansas and Nebraska.]

The Big Blue River was formed "in part on the till plain surface and in part by integration of spillway channels," in the latter portion of the Kansan glaciation (Frye and Leonard, 1952:192). This stream, and the Republican River to the west, carried waters from the areas that are now the Platte, Niobrara, and upper Missouri River basins (Lugn, 1935:153). Drainage was southward, through Oklahoma, until establishment of the east-flowing Kansas River (Frye and Leonard, 1952:189-190). As Kansan ice receded the Blue and Republican rivers retained what is now the Platte River Basin. The lower Platte River developed and the surface drainage became distinct in the Iowan (Tazwellian) portion of the Wisconsin glacial stage (Lugn, 1935:152-153). However, according to Lugn (1935:203) the Platte River Basin contributes about 300,000 acre-feet of water per year to the Big Blue and Republican rivers by percolation through sands and gravels underlying the uplands that now separate the basins.

CLIMATE, POPULATION, AND LAND-USE

Climate of the Big Blue River Basin is of the subhumid continental type, with an average annual precipitation of 22 inches in the northwest and 30 inches in the southeast. The mean annual evaporation from water surfaces exceeds annual precipitation by approximately 30 inches (Colby, _et al._, 1956:32-33).

The average annual temperature for the basin is 53 F. (Flora, 1948:148). According to Kincer (1941:704-705) the average temperature in July, the warmest month, is 78 F., and the coolest month, January, averages 28 F. Periods of extreme cold and heat are sometimes of long duration. Length of the growing season varies from less than 160 days in the northwest to 180 days in the southeast (Kincer, _loc. cit._).

The human population of the Big Blue Basin varies from about 90 persons per square mile in one Nebraska county in the northwest and one Kansas county in the southeast, to as few as six persons per square mile in some northeastern counties. The population is most dense along the eastern border of the basin, decreasing toward the west. This decrease in population is correlated with the decrease in average annual precipitation from east to west (Colby, _et al._, 1956:80).

The princ.i.p.al land-use in the Big Blue Watershed is tilled crops, with wheat, sorghums, and corn being most important. Beef cattle are important in some portions of the basin. Colby, _et al._ (1956:24) reported that in 1954 as much as 55 per cent of the land in some counties near the mouth of the Big Blue River was in pasture. Only one Nebraska county had less than 15 per cent in pastureland.

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF STREAMS

Streams of the Big Blue River Basin are of three kinds: turbid, sandy-bottomed streams, usually 150 to 300 feet in width; relatively clear, mud-bottomed streams, ten to 60 feet in width; and clear, deeply incised, gravel-bottomed streams, usually five to 30 feet in width.

SAND-BOTTOMED STREAMS.--The Big Blue and Little Blue rivers represent this kind of stream. The bottoms of these rivers consist almost entirely of fine sand; nevertheless, their channels are primarily deep and fairly uniform in width, rather than broad, shallow, and braided as in the larger Kansas and Arkansas rivers in Kansas (Plate 11, Fig.

1). In the Big Blue River, gravel occurs rarely on riffles, and gravel-rubble bottoms are found below dams (Plate 11, Fig. 2). The Big Blue flows over a larger proportion of gravelly bottom than does the Little Blue.

Big Blue River rises at about 1,800 feet above mean sea level and joins the Kansas River at an elevation of 1,000 feet above m. s. l.

The average gradient is 2.8 feet per mile. Little Blue River, originating at 2,200 feet, has an average gradient of 5.3 feet per mile, entering the Big Blue at 1,100 feet above mean sea level (Nebraska State Planning Board, 1936:628, 637). The Little Blue is the shallower stream, possibly because of the greater amount of sandy glacial deposits in its watershed and the swift flow that may cause lateral cutting, increased movement, and "drifting" of the sandy bottom.

For approximately a 50-year period, stream-flow in the Big Blue River at its point of entry into Kansas (Barnston, Nebraska) averaged 603 cubic feet per second, with maximum and minimum instantaneous flows of 57,700 c. f. s. and one c. f. s. The Little Blue River at Waterville, Kansas, averaged a daily discharge of 601 c. f. s. (maximum 50,400, minimum 28). Below the confluence of the Big Blue and Little Blue rivers, at Randolph, Kansas, the average daily discharge was 1,690 c.f.s. (maximum 98,000, minimum 31) (Kansas Water Resources Fact-finding and Research Committee, 1955:27).

The turbidity of the Big Blue River, as determined by use of a Jackson turbidimeter, varied from 27 parts per million in winter (January 10, 1958) to as high as 14,000 p.p.m. (July 12, 1958). The Little Blue River has similar turbidities, with high readings being frequent. In the summer of 1957, pH ranged from 7.2 to 8.4 in the Big Blue River Basin--values that correspond closely with those of Canfield and Wiebe (1931:3) who made 25 determinations ranging from 7.3 to 8.3 in the streams of the Nebraskan portion of this basin in July, 1930. Surface temperatures at various stations varied from 38 F. on January 10, 1958, to 90 F. in backwater-areas on July 19, 1957. The average surface temperature at mid-day in July and August, 1957, was approximately 86.5 F.

Chemical determinations were made on water-samples from my Station 4-S on the Big Blue River, and Station 50-S on the Little Blue (Table 1).

These samples were taken from the surface in strong current.

Determinations were made by methods described in _Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Sewage_, 10th edition, 1955.

TABLE 1.--CHEMICAL DETERMINATIONS IN MILLIGRAMS PER LITER AT FIVE STATIONS IN THE BIG BLUE RIVER BASIN, KANSAS, 1958.

TABLE LEGEND: Column A: Phenolphthalein alkalinity Column B: Methyl-orange alkalinity Column C: Chlorides Column D: Sulphates Column E: Nitrates Column F: Nitrites Column G: Ammonia Column H: Phosphate

==========+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+===== STATION | | | | | | | | AND | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H DATE | | | | | | | | ----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- 4-S | | | | | | | | August 9 | 0.0 | 154 | 16 | 28 | 3.5 |.083 |.250 |.225 | | | | | | | | 50-S | | | | | | | | August 9 | 0.0 | 125 | 24 | 20 | 2.5 |.669 |.427 |.240 | | | | | | | | 35-M | | | | | | | | August 9 | 0.0 | 366 | 15 | 108 | 9.4 |.220 |.750 |.080 | | | | | | | | 11-G | | | | | | | | July 8 | 0.0 | 272 | 15 | 60 | 4.5 |.060 |.625 |.140 | | | | | | | | 18-G | | | | | | | | July 22 | 0.0 | 183 | 10 | 60 | 1.6 |.938 |.293 |.240 ----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----