Flooding has effect on Platte ecosystem

Recently flooding has become a common problem in Nebraska and it's not just inconvenient for people, but it can have lasting effects on our ecosystems as well.

According to the Crane Trust, this is especially true in and around the Platte River, extra moisture has been changing where animals can migrate to and where food sources are found changing the ecosystem all together.

Now one group of high school students is getting an up close and personal look at the changes and some of the lasting effects of flooding.

Picking through grass near the Platte River, students participating in the crane trust's Platte summer academy in conjunction with Hastings college, were picking through the weeds to study different plants and animals found near the Platte.

But the area around the Platte is a little marshier than they expected.

"A lot of the sloughs, which are kind of like old channels that are filled with groundwater and they are really full recently. They say it's from the heavy rain and flooding that's happening so my personal experience my shoes have gotten very wet and my pants,"said Snow.

Joel Popp is a biologist working at the crane trust this summer who says this extra moisture isn't just inconvenient for the students, but for some of the local wildlife as well.

"So it just floods our sites. It's not good for the birds because the birds nest on the ground so they are like, what do we do now? So they have to either find a new spot or wait for it to drain," said Popp.

At first this may seem like trouble for the bird population at the crane trust, but Popp says that mother nature is much better at adapting than people, and that instead of less birds, it will just be different birds more adept to the wet conditions.

"Lots of birds are actually really good at bouncing back from catastrophe like all the flooding here. But I know sedge wrens really like the flooding so they will move in, bobolinks like it too. Otherwise our other species like Dickcissel, Grasshopper Sparrow wont like it as much so they will look other places," said Popp.

While it's easy to see the short term consequences of flooding, it will still be some time before ecologists and biologists will know whether or not there have been any permanent effects on the ecosystem of the Platte river caused by this years excess moisture. Its something they plan on keeping track of.