Rehydrate the Plains
Module 1: The Bases
This Module’s meeting will take place on June 2nd, 2026 from 11am – 12pm central time.
The zoom link for the meeting was provided in the email you received when you signed up for the learning journey. If you do not have said email, please contact Learn@ogallala.life.
The Bases
Dryland Cycling. Budget. Manipulate (towards oasification).
Primary Resources:
Water Cycling
Large
Small
Water Budget
Why are we talking about water, and not for instance carbon?
Watershed / Landscape Function
Take a look at major flux zones:
- Where watersheds interact with the geology that comprises the high plains aquifer system.
- Playa wetlands.
The high plains is a transient landscape.
Primer – watershed function (ecohydrology) & processes.
Not just water! All kinds of cycling. Nutrient, minerals, organic matter – dead & alive (geophysical, biophysical)
- erosion
- degradation
- agradation
- desertification
- oasification
- sedimentation
- stratification
In our drylands, the fluxes aren’t a regular, consistent process, but instead episodic.
“arroyo formation is demonstrably complex with respect to climate, which is why localized stochastic events (such as a single massive storm) may play critical roles”
– Huckleberry, Gary A., and A. I. Duff 2007 Alluvial Cycles, Climate and Settlement Shifts Near Zuni Salt Lake, New Mexico, USA. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 23(1):107–130. doi: 10.1002/gea.20204
Quick look at reservoirs.
Water budget discussion.
Also erosion & stratification
What we quickly get? Well sorted layer cake w/ clay lenses.
Denies flux up/down.
Goal?
Let’s define our objectives in water budget terms.
Consider how we might work to achieve these objectives here.
RESOURCES
(general large scale, healthy vs dysfunction…)
Mulloon SOA Day, April. And followup.