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Kansas Wetlands
by Thomas L. Flowers, District Conservationist, NRCS, Meade, Kansas
 SALINA, May 16, 2006 -- What value does one of those mudholes in your
wheatfield have? Most of the time, it is bone dry, cracked clay soil that seldom
raises a crop and only holds water for a couple of weeks each spring. If you are
thinking not much value, you are mistaken.
Wheatfield ponds, more properly known as playa lakes, have considerable value
on the landscape of southwestern Kansas. These small wetland areas are host to
over 200 species of birds and a myriad of other wildlife including 37 mammal
species, 13 amphibian species, 124 aquatic invertebrate species, and over 340
species of plants. Many of these plants are found nowhere else on the landscape.
As important as their value is to wildlife, a more important value for playa
lakes may actually be for the recharge of the Ogallala aquifer. What's that?
Remember those cracks in the clay? Researchers are now finding that those cracks
are a direct link to the aquifer that we rely on for drinking and irrigation
water. After a rain, these cracks "wick" water downward for a short time, until
the clay swells and seals the playa. Studies have shown that playas contribute
as much as 3 inches of recharge beneath the playa as compared to as little as
0.003 to 0.03 inches on the uplands! They also cleanse the water of herbicides,
pesticides, silt, and other pollutants.
So how does one little mud hole contribute to the huge Ogallala aquifer? One
single playa does not make much of a contribution, but when you add your one
little mudhole to the other 60,000 playas located in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska,
New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, it all adds up. Playas average 17 acres in
size, so that is a whopping 1,020,000 acres contributing three inches of water
to the aquifer each year! That makes a difference.
Preserving your little mudhole provides much, much more than a place for the
ducks and Killdeers. Preserving your playa is also preserving a way of life in
the agricultural community, and may in fact, provide your drinking water down
the road.
Playa lake wetland conservation is not just for the birds, it is for all of
us.
Additional Information
Last Modified:
08/26/2008
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