Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge

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Marais Des Cygnes Wildlife Area near Pleasanton is one of the state’s most beautiful public lands, especially in fall when autumn colors are peaking. Unit G is especially attractive, given its great wildlife populations in a marsh and timber setting. But thick trees along the road have sometimes made it difficult for wildlife watchers to observe the area, and now, several small improvements will provide a better look for wildlife watchers. Assistant area manager Phillip Buser explains: “We’re at the Unit G Overlook now. This is a project we just completed this summer. A couple of summers ago, we had a wet rainy day, and I saw that as a good opportunity to kind of spruce this up a little bit, so I sent a seasonal employee up here with a chain saw and had him do some clearing to make the view just a little bit better, with that in mind, and he came back at the end of the day and told me that he thought he had a pretty good start on it. “When I came up here, he had a real nice clearing started on it, so I was really liking it. And my Supervisor came by and looked at it two days later, and he really liked it too, and thought we really did something good there. And we thought about ways that we could make it even better after that. “So we put in a request for funding on this project, and this last year, Ken Brunson in Pratt, the nongame biologist and supervisor and coordinator, he came through with some money for us and helped us finish this out. We expanded it out and got some dirt work done here and got some gravel, and cleared it up just a little bit more, and now have a pretty nice little pulloff here on the side of the road – a lookout over the marsh, set up a spotting scope if they want, and be able to see the marsh, and all of the birds and waterfowl and everything that’s out there, and have a real nice view of the area. For the amount of effort and involvement, it didn’t cost a whole lot of money and it didn’t take that much extra work, but we’ve got a real nice product at the end of the deal here, and we’re real happy with it, and I think a lot of people will be able to use it as well.” Kansas Wildlife and Parks constantly looks for ways to make public resources more usable for the people of Kansas. And sometimes, even small improvements like this can make a big difference. Two small pulloffs were completed to improve the view. Visit Marais Des Cygnes this fall and take in the wonder of fall migration. I’m Mike Blair for Kansas Wildlife and Parks.