Several years ago on one early spring morning, Nolan Fisher, then manager of Kanopolis State Park and I slipped into a blind overlooking a high spot in the middle of a sparse pasture where prairie chicken mating dances were about to take place known as a “lek.”

For the next couple hours, we were treated to a ritual everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. The males showed up a few at a time to dance, swagger and emit loud throaty mating calls known as “booms” which can be heard over a mile away on a calm morning.

Reminiscent of Native American dances around a roaring campfire, male prairie chickens repeat this bizarre but amazing ritual every spring in an effort to win the attention and affection of the local female prairie chickens.

Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past few years, you have read and heard numerous times about the controversy surrounding lesser prairie chickens here in Kansas. Let me briefly unpack the chain of events and maybe help you better understand what all the fuss has been about.

In 2010, knowing something must be done about fast declining lesser prairie chicken populations, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas, the five states containing the majority of the lesser prairie chicken population partnered together with the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to begin the Lesser Prairie Chicken Initiative (LPCI.)

The NRCS worked with farmers, ranchers and landowners to increase habitat through conservation efforts that would benefit both landowners and prairie chickens alike. With this initiative, participation was voluntary and kept the federal government out of the mix as well, leaving all control in the hands of each individual state.

However, in 2014, despite great strides made through the lesser Prairie Chicken Initiative, the US Fish and Wildlife Service stepped in anyway and listed the lesser prairie chicken as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Even though a special ruling was passed promising the five states continued control over conservation efforts, the federal government was now involved and it was feared participation in all efforts could become mandatory.

Besides, the feds don’t have a stellar record concerning anything they’ve been involved in of late!

Since the “threatened” listing in 2014, much time, money and effort have been spent trying to get the feds to change their mind. Finally this week a federal judge reversed the ruling, saying the US Fish and Wildlife Service was wrong to list the chickens as “threatened,” removing the federal government from the project again.

As the several year drought has somewhat loosened its grip on our region, lesser prairie chicken numbers have rebounded nicely, an estimated increase of 10,000 birds over a 2013 count. Our pastor is in the midst of a sermon series talking about relevant culture issues and last week’s topic looked at how our society now tends to worship creation rather than the Creator.

I agree wholly with trying to save the lesser prairie chickens, but it seems to me all the legislative time and money spent on doing so borders on worshiping creation. I wonder if we worshiped the Creator as we should, how many such problems would fix themselves…Just a thought.

Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

“Aren’t you from Kansas?” was the question.

“Yep” was my answer.  As I traveled across China this summer, my visits at four universities were repeats and my hosts knew me well. So I asked, “Why do you ask?”

“Kansas is on all the news. There is lots of argument in your state government,” was the reply.

So at the next opportunity, I brought up the Yahoo or MSN or CNN news feeds. Chinese watch a lot of foreign news, especially to improve their English.

And there was Kansas. When I left Kansas at the end of the spring semester, the Legislature was into overtime trying to address the State Constitution-mandated balanced budget. Kansas was $450 million in the red. Here I was in China weeks later, and this debate was still dragging on.

Finally came the news report that the Kansas Governor went to the Legislature and begged for an increase in sales tax and finally got it, but not quite enough to cover the shortfall. Then in another action, the Legislature passes a bill that would de-fund the courts if the court rules against them.

Students and teachers in China know a lot more about our form of government than the average American knows about theirs. So I knew that at the next dinner, I would be faced with more questions. And I was.

“Aren’t your branches of government supposed to do different jobs?”

So I explained how our executive branch ran day-to-day affairs. The judicial branch judged cases based on the Constitution, laws and rights. And the legislative met for a short time to pass new laws. They already knew this.

“But if your Legislature controls the money, they can control the other two branches too, can’t they?”

“That happened at the national level, too,” injected another professor, adding “That’s why they shut down the national government two times.”

I try to explain: “It’s not supposed to work that way. But some legislators think we spend too much money and they do these things.” But I could tell that explanation didn’t make sense to my fellow professors.

Now, my dilemma is how to make the Chinese perspective understood to American readers.

Many European countries as well as Israel have more than two parties. Their elections rarely see any one party gain a majority. So the leading parties have to confer to put together a ruling coalition. At any time the coalition no longer agrees, they break up and this requires a new election be held. Americans tend to ridicule such a system as confusing and short term—our two-party system is obviously much better (or so we think).

My China colleagues view our two-party system with its gridlock and power-plays with the same disdain that Americans view the European multi-party systems.  And they certainly have these cases of dysfunction to prove their point.

That does not mean that their system is necessarily monolithic. Most Americans would be surprised to know that there are over a dozen other political parties in China besides the Communist Party.  However, their membership is very low. They mainly win positions in local and regional elections.     And debate does occur, not only in their National People’s Congress, but also in the bimonthly meetings of their subcommittee that writes laws for consideration at the next congress.

I have long since given up trying to explain the O.J. Simpson trial verdict in China. And this summer I gave up trying to explain Kansas politics to my China colleagues.

In an odd twist, the State of Washington has likewise had a spat between its Legislature and State Supreme Court. Their court ruled that Washington was not adequately funding schools. Sound familiar? Three weeks ago, the Washington State Supreme Court ordered their Legislature to pay a $100,000-a-day fine until they met their Constitutional obligation to adequately fund K–12 education before 2018.

Education is so valued in China that I know not to try to explain that situation either.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

It is a classic American story: Country boy works hard on his music, goes to Nashville and finds success and love. We’ve seen that movie before. Today, we’ll learn about a different version of this story. Instead of a talented musician going from Kansas to Nashville, this musician made the journey from Nashville to Kansas.

Jim Farrell, sometimes called Tennessee Jim, is the man who made this reverse migration from Nashville. He literally grew up in the music business. Jim was born and raised in a musical family in Nashville. His father had a music ministry and sang in a barbershop quartet. His mother sang with a Nashville Symphony Chorale.

“I grew up with harmony,” Jim said. “We would be singing in the car when we went on family trips, and Dad would point at (my sister and I) and tell us to switch parts,” Jim said. This musical training came in handy. By the age of 14, he was playing and singing with adult musical groups.

“My teacher was in a southern gospel group and they needed a bass player so I joined in,” Jim said. He also took up the keyboard, guitar, bass and percussion. Soon he was doing sessions and backing artists who performed on the Grand Ole Opry.

When Jim was 15, he befriended a new kid who had moved to town. It turned out that the new kid was the son of a music publisher named Ben Hall who had traveled with Elvis Presley and gone on to become one of Nashville’s most renowned recording engineers and independent music publishers. Ben Hall recorded such musical icons as Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, and Alabama. Jim started working with Ben and would work with him on and off for the next 20 years.

Jim earned a full scholarship in music at David Lipscomb College in Nashville, and was one of the first students in recording industry management at Middle Tennessee State University. Later he excelled in video production at Davidson School of Business.

Jim became an excellent recording session musician, producer, and music publisher. He also helped Ben Hall build two different recording studios. Ben taught him how to hear and adjust acoustics, know sound frequencies, identify hit songs, and co-write music.

Jim became interested in old-time cowboy songs such as classic westerns from the Sons of the Pioneers, as he had heard his father sing. “I was mesmerized by the intricate harmonies,” Jim said.

In the mid-1990s, Jim met a cowboy singer in Nashville named Stu Stuart. The two got together with another man and formed a western singing group of their own but when the third man died of cancer, the group couldn’t continue. Stu Stuart decided he needed to move back to be closer to his aging mother who lived in Kansas, and he recruited Jim Farrell to come join him in Wichita. They formed a group now known as the Diamond W Wranglers.

Jim recorded the group’s CDs. The singing group developed an avid fan base which followed them on musical tours to such faraway locations as Carnegie Hall and the Great Wall of China. Jim also met and married Martha, whose First Generation video production business has been previously profiled here.

In 2008, Jim opened a recording studio of his own which he is now remodeling and expanding. The studio is in the rural community of Towanda, population 1,319 people. Now that’s rural.

Clients such as Rex Allen Jr. and Roy Rogers Jr. have traveled hundreds of miles to record with Jim. His work has earned many honors, including Western Producer of the Year. Martha has now relocated First Generation Video to the facility at Towanda, meaning that audio and video services are available under one roof.

For more information, go to www.fgvideo.com or www.jimfstudios.com.

It’s like the classic American story of the gifted musician who goes to Nashville, but in this case, the musician came from Nashville to rural Kansas. We thank Stu Stuart and commend Jim and Martha Farrell for making a difference with their creative talents. Nashville’s loss was Kansas’s gain.