GREG WRIGHT: The importance of these sloughs within the wet meadows is they host a number of species that are found nowhere else. One species of fish, the plains topminnow, itís a long ways away before you find more populations of those. And people wonder, what does that small species mean? Well, it doesnít necessary mean anything in the form of consumption or photographs or anything else, but thereís a comfort in knowing that itís there and knowing the systems is operating correctly. 

JERRY KENNY: You know, if youíre in an airplane and each of those species is like a rivet in the wing, you know, you can pop a few rivets and still keep flying, but you may not be entirely sure what the last rivet is that pops that keeps that wing on. You donít really want to be on the plane when you find out that youíve gone past the tipping point, and itís not just those species that are endangered, but that you brought the entire system crashing down around us.

GREG WRIGHT: Sloughs are one really important component of that system, and you can go and see river otters and see waterfowl. Itís an area of open water when everything else is frozen, and something can go get a drink, and itís just a little thread of life through otherwise a pretty desolate place in the winter.