Volume 7, Number 4,
May 1961:
The F.B. and Rena G. Ross
Natural History Reservation

Text-only version

ISSUE HOME PAGE

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

IN THIS ISSUE
- Introduction
- History of the Area
- Description of the Area
- Aerial Photograph
- Accumulation of Field Data
- Weather
- Conservation Practices
- Animals of the Reservation
- Nature Trail
- Cover Picture
- Ross Message

SLIDESHOW
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This page was last modified:
February 24, 2008

This page was originally posted:
June 14, 2005

The F.B. and Rena G. Ross Natural History Reservation
by John Breukelman, Thomas A. Eddy and Emily L. Hartman

Click here for a printable .pdf of the complete image.

On this aerial photograph of the Ross Natural History Reservation are shown most of the readily identifiable features of biological interest. The squares drawn on the photograph outline the ten-acre grid sections that are marked with steel posts and numbered to indicate their locations. The 200 acres owned by the State of Kansas are shown by the double line extending southward and eastward from the northwest corner of grid section B34. Entrance into the headquarters area, located on the old farm site in A57, is gained through a gate near the southeast corner of this grid section. The route of the nature trail is indicated by the broken line that beings in A57. The numbered white circles indicate the stations, which illustrate communities within the prairie, as follows:

1. Helgerow field edge (Osage orange)

2. Tall grass (bluestem-Indian grass)

3. Spring -marsh (sedge-watercress)

4. Shrub (sumac-dogwood-plum)

5. Woodland (boxelder-maple-cottonwood)

6. Stream-wash (willow-sloughgrass)

7. Prairie creek

8. Pond

Ponds are shown by use of concentric lines, in A5, at the southwest corner of A24, at the side of B32, in B48, and in D10.

Natural features can be detected by careful examination of the photograph. Three major drainages can be seen. The forking white lines in C34 indicate the headwaters of the drainage that courses through C33, B40, B26, and leaves the Reservation in B7. The second drainage starts in B44 and flows northeast. The third begins in B47 and after passing through Gladfelter Pond leaves the Reservation in A21. Major limestone outcrops can be seen as broad wavy ribbons in B59, B60, and B61, and another in B27, B26, and B39. Most of the stone used in building Welch Stadium on the KSTC campus came form a quarry in B26. Examples of severe gully erosion are seen in A28 and B51. Natural wooded areas are noticeable in C33 and along the creek in A21, A27, and A38. Windbreak or fencerow plantings are in evidence in A10, C49, and D25. Terraces may be located as lines following the land contour in B35 and B46, B49, B62, A24 and A25, and in A12, A21, and A22.