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With bird migration season under way in Central Nebraska, the Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last weekend completion of a multiyear project to improve access for visitors at Funk Waterfowl Production Area in eastern Phelps County.
Ronnie K. Sanchez, deputy project leader for the Wetland Management District, said improvements will appeal to bird-watchers who come to south Central Nebraska for the spring migration.
"But the district also wanted to create an inviting site for local visitors to enjoy wildlife in the spring and year-round," Sanchez said.
He said Funk, the largest of 60 WPAs the district manages in the region, was an obvious choice to "showcase" Rainwater Basin habitat.
The Rainwater Basin Joint Venture is based in Grand Island.
More than 40 different species of shorebirds can be found in the Rainwater Basin, which covers an area of more than 10,000 square kilometers south of the Platte River in Central Nebraska.
Rainwater Basin Joint Venture Coordinator Steve Moran said more than 257 species of birds have been identified as using Rainwater Basin wetlands, including many rare and at-risk species.
He said an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 migrating shorebirds pay a brief but crucial visit to the Rainwater Basin each spring.
Sanchez said that the waterfowl migration is at its peak in early March; April and May bring migrating shorebirds, then the songbirds and waders that will nest in the area during summer.
Funk WPA is a 1,995-acre complex of grasslands and wetlands divided by dikes, which permit wetland water levels to be individually controlled.
Sanchez said employees of the Wetland Management District have constructed a six-mile network of walking trails atop the dikes, and added interpretive signs that inform visitors about wetland management practices, native wildlife, and the importance of Rainwater Basin wetlands including Funk to migrating ducks, geese, and other birds.
Additional improvements, he said, include repair and enhancement of an observation blind whose low windows make it accessible to wheelchair users, and an accessible poured concrete path to the blind.
Other trails are topped with crushed concrete. Parking lots are now located at various points along the trail network and include several lots whose entrances have been leveled and widened to accommodate school buses for field trips.
Waterfowl Production Areas, including Funk WPA, are publicly owned, and are generally open to public use during daylight hours. Unlike most WPA's in the Rainwater Basin region, which stretches from Dawson and Gosper counties in the west to Butler, Seward and Saline counties in the east, Funk WPA is not open to snow goose hunting in the spring.
The WPA is 11 12 miles south and one mile east of the I-80 Odessa exit. It is 1 12 miles north of the community of Funk on U.S. Highway 6.
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