Access digital copies of guides and regulations publications from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
Issue link: http://digital.outdoornebraska.gov/i/720963
66 plugged with mud at the time of collection. In this area, the water table was fairly close to the surface, averaging 46 cm below the surface of the ground. Oxygen levels in the burrow water were quite high, averaging 8.6 mg/l. 112 In Nebraska, I have had considerable difficulty in locating areas with Prairie Crayfish having only been able to make four collections. 1) The first was a female from a pasture in the Big Blue River basin in northwest Gage County on 1 August 2002. The particular site was in an unmowed section of ground that was a hundred yards from an intermittent drainage in the Clatonia Creek watershed. 2) The second was from a pasture one mile west of Burchard Lake in Pawnee County. The pasture was lightly grazed at the time and the burrows were in a low area with moist soils. Many juveniles were collected from a small vernal pool on 16 May 2012. By September, that pool was almost dry. Devil crayfish were also found in this area. 3) The third collection was at the Mayberry State Wildlife Management Area in Pawnee County on 1 May 2013. This area includes a small reservoir and the grassland upstream. A mature Form I male was collected from a burrow in a heavily vegetated wet meadow. Devil crayfish was also found in this area. Burrows were numerous though difficult to find in the dense vegetation. 4) The fourth and most recent collections were in a road ditch along Hiway 77 just south of Princeton in Gage County on 5 May 2014. This is in the headwaters of the Big Nemaha River but only 8 miles northeast from the first collection in the Clatonia Creek watershed. The road ditch is perennially wet and is visibly wet because of the wetland plants growing here. In the photo, we are looking south and the burrows tend to be near the bottom of the ditch. Burrows appear to be shallow as they are only a few inches above the level of the water in the ditch. There was also a culvert at this site with a small