The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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Discussion

September 29, 2006

Wetlands area planned for area southwest of Enid

By Robert Barron Staff Writer

An area southwest of Enid known as Drummond Flats soon may be known as the Drummond wetlands.

An area just west of Drummond, at the confluence of three creeks, has a low-lying depression in the ground and historically floods during heavy rain and often remains wet. According to Alan Peoples, chief of Wildlife Division of Oklahoma Depart-ment of Wildlife, the area is marginal as farmland because of the perpetual wetness of the area.

If plans work out the way Wildlife Department officials hope they will, the area would become an important public hunting and bird-watching area.

Wildlife Department officials want to restore the area to a wetland habitat that would be a counterpart to other wetland areas in the state. Peoples specifically mentioned Hackberry Flats in Tillman County as an example of what Drummond Flats would be like.

The transformation would be accomplished through Project Legacy funds, which are raised through the purchase of Legacy permits in the state, along with hunting and fishing licenses. Legacy permits cost $5 and must be purchased before a hunting or fishing license can be obtained. It is now in its third year, and revenue is earmarked for land acquisition.

The department is negotiating with several landowners in the area to purchase acreage and already has secured 1,440 acres of the planned 6,800-acre development. The low-lying depression itself is about 4,000 acres.

Drummond Flats is in the same flight path, the central flyway of migratory birds, as is the Tillman County area.

Turkey Creek, Elm Creek and Dry Salt Creek converge in the flats, creating a bowl-shaped area with only about 5 feet of elevation difference in the entire 4,000 acres, Peoples said.

“It’s a huge, flat bowl. When the creeks overflow and flood, it’s a very important wetland area, particularly for waterfowl. Our goal is to secure property in public ownership and enhance the wetlands,” Peoples said.

He said it is difficult to run cattle or farm the area because of the salty soil. Because of the saline content, plants are salt-adapted and not good for cattle forage or farming.

Peoples wants to work nationally with Resource Conservation Service and Ducks Unlimited to restore wetlands. The area also would be a public hunting area.

“It will be a long-term process. We must have willing sellers,” he said.

Peoples was reluctant to mention a purchase price of the land already under contract for fear of inflating land prices in the area.

“It’s a project, and it’s happening. Our goal for the whole project depends on willing sellers. If people in the core area decided they didn’t want to sell to us, we wouldn’t have had a project, but we have been successful in purchasing the core area,” he said.

Peoples thinks the development will be important economically to Enid. The land is about a 15-minute drive from Enid, and there are few public hunting lands in the Enid area. In addition, it will be a major wetland, not just for hunting but for birds watching and should be a habitat for waterfowl of all kinds. In Tillman County, where the wetlands have been restored, people are coming from all over the world to look at birds, he said.

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