Tri-County Wildlife Corridors
| The Tri-County Wildlife Corridors connect
more than 15 miles of wildlife habitat in
Southern Jefferson, Southwestern Leavenworth and
Northern Douglas Counties of Eastern Kansas. The
Wilderness Community Education Foundation (WCEF)
in cooperation with area landowners sponsors this
project. The WCEF owns or has cooperative
relationships with nearly all the effected
landowners in this 20 square mile area and seeks
to expand the Corridors beyond their current
boundaries. Click to see Corridor Map. These Wildlife Corridors provide a balance between the increasing population of the area with the need to preserve and improve wildlife habitat. The Corridors orient increased human habitation in the area toward cohabitation with the wild animals and indigenous plant species. The Corridors offer a dramatic contrast to conventional development that breaks down land into a five-to-ten-acre checkerboard of fences and other obstructions to the free movement of native species. In fact, as the Corridors improve, the WCEF will remove existing fences and other barriers. This will actually increase the free flow and habitat of many species. One of the land owners working cooperatively with the WCEF in this effort is Pines International, the world’s leading producer of cereal grass supplements. In an effort to provide homes for employees and to demonstrate architectural styles that blend well with the sunlit bluffs overlooking or adjacent to the Corridor, Pines constructed three energy efficient model homes along part of the Corridor route.
The WCEF limits Corridors primarily to wooded areas along creeks and north-facing bluffs. The concept is to limit home construction to bluffs that face south, east or west and leave other bluff land and wooded areas for the Corridors. The WCEF also encourages the preservation of cultivated areas as sustainable organic farmland. This limits locations for homes to good solar sites on land not suitable for farming or not needed for Corridors. The University of Kansas Endowment Association owns the central Corridor area. Most of this land is already a protected area for wildlife. The Corridors leading from this central area provide a means for protected animal and plant species to spread beyond the Endowment Association lands. This ensures the enjoyment of wildlife by increasing human populations rather than allowing development to threaten wildlife habitat. The WCEF also intends to provide hiking trails through the Corridors so that human populations can enjoy the Wilderness experience. In addition, the WCEF seeks to buy up or negotiate with land owners in areas not yet in the Corridors and to expand the Corridors beyond the current boundaries. Doing this will require additional funds. We invite you to contribute to this important project.
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