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1-16 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I impervious seal. Ninety-four percent of the strongly alkaline lakes of the Sandhills are located in this Region. The vegetat i on, fi sh and wil dl ife and other natural resources of the area have been described by McCarraher, 1977; McMurtrey, 1972; and Keech and Bentall, 1978. Some general characteristics are discussed for each river basin in a later section. Of the most significant features, the Valentine and Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuges are both located in the Sandhills and contain many lakes which are hydraulically connected to the ground water. Nebraska lists several endangered and threatened species that may occur in the Sandhills, including the black-footed ferret, swift fox, whooping crane, American peregrine falcon, Arctic peregrine falcon and Eskimo curlew, which are endangered species. Threatened species include the mountain plover, brook strickleback, northern redbelly dace, finscale dace and pearl dace. Rainwater Basin Wetlands Another significant biological feature of Nebraska is the rainwater basin areas in the south central portion of the state. The area is approxi- mately 4,200 square miles originally containing 3,907 freshwater wetlands. Most of these wetlands are sinkl ike depressions with impervious or nearly impervious clay soils in the bottom. Because of this, the depressions hold runoff and rainwater for various periods of time depending on evapora- tion. During wet years, thick vegetation grows in the basins. A survey of the wetlands in the late 1960s determined that only 685 wetland marshes comprising 32,529 acres were still in existence (McMurtrey et al., 1972). Most were destroyed by draining and ditching. Most of the remaining wetlands are publicly owned and utilized for waterfowl production and wildlife habitat.