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<br />ground water. <br />most of these <br /> <br />Because of the undeveloped status <br />wetlands have been preserved. <br /> <br />of much of the Sandhi 11 s, <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />The original total of 13,525 wetland areas occupied 183,391 acres. <br />About 15%, or 28,000 acres have been destroyed by ditching, pumping and in <br />one case, suspected ground water drawdown. Remai ni ng are 13,341 wetl ands <br />occupying 155,381 acres (McMurtrey et al., 1972). <br /> <br />The wetlands of the Sandhills have been classified by McMurtrey et al., <br />19721. The wetland type designations are shown on Table 1-1, along with the <br />acreage and percentage of each type in the Sandhills region. <br /> <br />Type I wetl ands were not incl uded in the survey; however, both Type I <br />and II have a large waterfowl attractant val ue when filled with water. <br />Although not as valuable as Types III, IV and V, they increase attraction to <br />the area as a whole and may increase breeding pair capacity by enlarging <br />territorial space (McMurtrey et al., 1972) <br /> <br />The lakes of the Sandhills ". . .differ in degree of hydraulic connec- <br />tion with the zone of saturation, the top of which generally is within a <br />few feet of the surface in those valleys that contain lakes. Where a good <br />hydraulic connection exists, the lake surface is continuous with the water <br />table, or the top of the zone of saturation, and the two surfaces fluctuate <br />in unison, or nearly so. Conversely, where a lake is virtually sealed off <br />from the zone of saturation, the lake level and water level fluctuate inde- <br />pendently. Those that are sealed off are generally higher in salt con- <br />centration and are called Alkali lakes." (Keech and Bentall, 1978). <br /> <br />Most of the al kal i lakes are located in the western portion of the <br />Sandhills. McCarraher, 1977, explains that the sealed lakes in the western <br />portion receive surface drainage from the tablelands to the west, and through <br />the years the cl ay-type sediment settl ed in the basi ns and created an <br /> <br />1 Thi s survey was compl eted in the 1960s and the data do not refl ect any <br />destruction of wetlands since that time. <br /> <br />1-14 <br />