By Bob Welch
In 1820, President James Monroe tabbed Stephen Long to lead an expedition through the newly-acquired Louisiana Purchase. He was charged with finding the sources of the Platte and Arkansas rivers. In his report, he stated the Plains of the area were “unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture.”
In fact, on the map he made of his expedition, he called the area a “Great Desert.” He envisioned what he saw as a wasteland as a buffer against other nations’ interests on the continent.
Despite a shift in geopolitical interests, the Dust Bowl of the 1930s seemed to prove him right.
Yet within 20 years of the Dust Bowl’s ravaging effects, the Great American Desert, or High Plains, became the nation’s breadbasket. How? The existence of the continent’s largest freshwater reserve beneath the vast and treeless plains: the Ogallala Aquifer.
The aquifer stretches over 174,000 square miles in parts of eight states. Most of Nebraska sits atop it, but so do parts of South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, about half of Kansas, and most of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles.
In the wake of World War II, wells were drilled and diesel engines were set up to draw the water from the depths. Somewhere around 20% of the wheat, corn, cattle and cotton in the United States are dependent on the Ogallala Aquifer. Its existence has amplified the productivity of a large swath of the nation’s land and contributed mightily to the U.S. national food security. More than 90% of the water pumped from the aquifer is used for agricultural purposes. Today, about 27% of the irrigated land in the United States utilizes water from the aquifer.
The problem, of course, is it’s not an inexhaustible resource. In 1990, there were 170,000 wells pumping from it. Between 1950 and 2015, according to the United States Geological Service, the water level has dropped by approximately 9%. Farmers spanning its footprint are seeing a drop in the productivity of their wells. Roughly, the aquifer drops at a rate of two feet per year and only recharges at a rate of one inch per year.
Agriculture is rising to meet the demands created by this shrinking resource with the help of science. Whether it’s improved plant genetics that require less water, more stringent monitoring of plant health to determine water requirements, or even taking some wells out of production, today’s agriculturalists are dealing with the problem in a variety of creative and forward-thinking ways in the hopes that future generations can raise food and fiber on the Great Plains. ★
This article appears in the Spring 2023 issue of the Ranch Record. Would you like to read more stories about NRHC and ranching life? When you become a member of the Ranching Heritage Association, you’ll receive the award-winning Ranch Record magazine and more while supporting the legacy and preservation of our ranching heritage. Become a member today.
