I’m pleased to see the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not call for water rights administration in 2025 in the Rattlesnake Creek basin. This beneficial development is the result of multiple parties working together to satisfy the water right held by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. It’s also a testament to Kansas Farm Bureau’s (KFB) long-held belief that voluntary actions in conformity with state water law are preferable to legal mandates. Throughout the process, I’ve requested farmers and ranchers in the watershed consider participating in the Compensated Allocation Management Program (CAMP).

I am deeply appreciative of the farmers and ranchers who heeded the call to participate in this voluntary, incentive-based water reduction program. To date, nearly 4,000 acre feet of streamflow reduction have been secured in the basin, with more than 56 percent of the total coming from CAMP.

Common-sense solutions like CAMP and other measures give water rightsholders a temporary reprieve and allow for further discussions toward a permanent remedy. KFB still believes augmentation is the best way to provide timely water delivery to the refuge during certain times of the year when the natural flow of Rattlesnake Creek is typically at its lowest, but that alternative is still years away.

The willingness of those who’ve taken this elective action has secured the rights of all farmers and ranchers in the basin for another year, as well as the economic interests of area communities.

I look forward to working with all parties in the Rattlesnake Creek basin to ensure the needs of Quivira Wildlife Refuge are met without infringing on the vital production of farmers and ranchers in the watershed.

– Kansas Farm Bureau President Joe Newland