The Republican River-Kansas River Project

The Republican River-Kansas River Clean Up Project

  The Republican River runs in to the Kansas River at Junction City, Kansas. Both are major water ways in Kansas. The Republican River is severely polluted with trash.  There are many old tires, a very large amount of broken glass, large amounts of rusty metal ,old car batteries and either trash in the river. The Kansas river is not as bad off but there are some parts that have large amounts of trash. The Prairie Preservation Organization  is working to clean up this trash and preserve the prairie river habitat  for the many birds and either wildlife that depend on it   Pictures

Plant Life

  In presettlement times both rivers flowed throw nearly all prairie habit with few clusters of cottonwoods.  Today both river banks are covers by woodland on areas that are not farmed.  In some places the land is farmed right up to the edge of the river.  This causes soil to be washed in to the river changing the sand bottomed river to a river with large amounts of mud destroying the original habit conditions.  There is almost no original prairie habit left along side either river. 

Animal Life

  There are still some native fish left in the river but there are also many nonnative carp there to.  There are still large amount of frogs and some toads left.  There are few snakes left but there are soft shell turtles and a couple of hard shell turtle although they are rarely seen. Some of the soft shell turtles can be found with birth defects such as a limp that is deformed. This is probably from the polluted water. 

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