[upbeat music]
- It's a semi-arid climate, not a lot of rainfall.
- In this area of Texas, we have less surface water
than anywhere else in the United States.
- This is a heavily irrigated part of the state.
Those crops are all very important.
Those are things that people are consuming every day.
- KATHERINE DRURY: Water has always been there for us.
We tend to forget about the vitalness
of this resource until we don't have it anymore.
- We're extracting more than we're putting back in.
This problem is prevalent across the Great Plains.
- DON KAHL: It's a landscape that's changed drastically
over the last 150 years.
- KATHERINE: There's 300,000 people in Lubbock County alone.
- DON: From both residential water use,
as well as for irrigation and other purposes,
we have areas of the Ogallala Aquifer
seeing drastic declines in water
to the point where some feel that within the next 50 years,
some of the aquifer could be completely dry.
- If we're going to have future generations on this land,
we have to get our water usage rate
in balance with our recharge rate.
- The water that people drink in Lubbock
comes from recharge through the playas.
So we've gotta keep these things in good condition
to provide water for people.
- CHRIS GROTEGUT: It is ultimately the cheapest
water solution for this region.
[soft dramatic music]
[footsteps]
- I'm Don Kahl,
I'm the Region One Migratory Game Bird Specialist.
Playas in essence are a low spot
on a relatively flat landscape where water collects.
These clay basins are dependent upon rainfall to fill them
and then water infiltrates through these basins
down into the aquifer below.
[thunder rumbling]
The Ogallala Aquifer is one of the largest aquifers
in the world, and the largest in North America.
And it ranges throughout the Western Great Plains,
into the Texas Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico.
The water from the Ogallala comes from thousands
if not millions of years of infiltration
through playa basins.
Some of the threats to these playa systems
include outright farming, where they've been broken out
and they're actually farmed through
and crop production occurs in the basin.
Also, with farming, the loss of grass buffers.
Short grass prairie has been removed around these playas.
And what that does is it leaves those Playa basins
at threat for sediment buildup.
As we build up sediment over the top of the clay soils
it affects the functionality of those playas.
There's a lot threats that have
come about to playas in particular.
Very important system, both from a wildlife perspective,
and from a aquifer recharge perspective.
[soft dramatic music]
[gentle wind blows]
The Texas Playa Conservation Initiative began back in 2015.
It's a multi-agency, multi-partner initiative
that works to restore and conserve playas
in the High Plains of Texas.
We cover parts of 46 counties,
so we have a very large area that we work within.
Whenever there's no crops growing,
and the fields are barren,
you can really see the playas begin to pop out.
Based off of satellite imagery,
we actually find playas that fit our criteria for restoration.
We're looking for playas that have old pits
that were dug into them for irrigation.
We can see that there's grass around it,
and we can see there's a pit in it,
and that pretty much tells us we need to
try to contact that landowner.
These pins indicate some projects that we've completed.
We've got a wealth of potential projects out there,
we just need willing landowners to work with us.
[bulldozer rumbling]
We wanted this program to be as landowner-friendly as possible
and so we cover 100% of the cost of the restoration.
We also find the contractor, we hire the contractor,
and oversee the contractor.
And so there's no work on the landowner's part.
And then additionally, we also pay a small
one-time incentive payment for working with us
and doing conservation on their playas.
And so that system has been very popular
with landowners that we've worked with.
They're very happy to see both the wildlife benefits
as well as the water quality and quantity benefits
that they see for their wells.
- Aquifer recharge under a flat piece of land
is gonna be less than half of an inch on an average year.
A lot of that water is evaporated or used by plants
before it can actually reach the aquifer.
So these playa lakes serve as super recharge zones.
We experience between 10 to 100 times more recharge
depending on the soils underneath that playa lake.
- The dry times, maybe they're not that noticeable,
but that dry period is very important
because it also serves a very vital function of a playa.
Which is, when it dries up,
then cracks form in that lake bottom.
And then the next time we do have adequate rainfall
and that water does reach that basin,
those cracks that have developed, since it was dry,
help really facilitate the infiltration of groundwater.
Because it is underground and we don't necessarily see it,
monitoring is so very important.
- KATHERINE: The High Plains Water District goes out annually
and measures 1,400 observation wells across the district.
- JASON: We measure that water level
at approximately the same time as the previous year
to determine what change has occurred.
[alarm beeps]
- The water level's 113.85 feet.
- JASON: We've been able to observe water level trends
over many decades.
Certainly over time the aquifer has exhibited some decline,
but that's where we say our job of conservation
and informing people about stewardship is very important.
[soft dramatic music]
- The threat to the Ogallala has led to
folks rethinking the value of playas.
Somebody tried to plow through this and farm through this.
And so we just kind of let the weeds and grasses come back,
just trying to take this land back to nature.
This is a playa lake that's in the restoration process--
it's not complete.
Part of it is sedimented over.
You can see that berm because that was once farmed.
Getting as many of those lakes restored back to
their original function is extremely beneficial
because if you don't do that,
those are gallons of free water that aren't available.
Those are wildlife areas that are not available
for the wildlife that travels through here.
[birds calling]
- Playa lakes are known as biodiversity centers,
and that's everything from amphibians and toads,
to sandhill cranes, waterfowl.
Basically in an arid landscape,
these features provide water for all the wildlife.
The playas go from Texas all the way to Nebraska.
That's the central flyway, that's the migratory path.
They're hosting a couple million waterfowl during migration.
And then over the winter they'll hold
one and a half million waterfowl.
So very, very important resource.
[soft dramatic music]
- CHRIS: If we can enhance the water-holding capacity of the
land with the native grasses, and still be able to
crop on that land with no-till technology,
then when a raindrop falls on the earth,
maybe we can catch 90% of it in the field.
And 10% of it goes to the lake.
And hopefully that lake is functioning properly,
to where we catch a very high percentage of that 10%.
We get some wildlife benefit of water on the lake
so the wildlife have a place to land
and it encourages that natural biodiversity also.
That is ultimately what we're shooting for,
is to balance our ecology with our economics.
- I grew up hunting waterfowl in the Midwest,
and came to the High Plains of Texas,
and saw these playas, and really enjoy the habitat
that they provide and the ducks that they draw.
My wife and I started a family here.
And so knowing the threats to our water,
whether that's water quality or quantity,
this work, from a water perspective,
is pretty important to me.
In the fall and the winter, these playas are incredible.
You can come to a playa and potentially have
tens of thousands of waterfowl.
It's very impressive and it's something to behold.
Folks are beginning to buy in
and beginning to become more excited about
playa restoration and conservation.
And that's very exciting for us.
[ducks calling]