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To control flooding, many lakes and
reservoirs were built in the 1950s.
Almost all of Kansas’s major lakes, in
fact, are manmade. The largest is
Milford Lake, a 16,000-acre (6,475 ha)
reservoir constructed by damming the
Republican River to control flooding
from the Republican and Kansas rivers.
One of Kansas’s few naturally
formed lakes is Cheyenne Bottoms in
central Kansas. But although the lake
basin itself is natural, manmade dams
and canals have been added to control
the water levels. These were con-
structed to provide wetlands for
migratory birds. About 45 percent of
all migrating shorebirds in North
America pass through these marshy
waters. As many as 328 different
species of birds have been observed
here. That number includes several
endangered species, such as the pere-
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Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska
The Arkansas River meanders
over the plains north of Wichita.
A flock of Marbled Godwit shorebirds gather
together at the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge
located in Stafford.