Ogallala Life

We're building soil! There's a central windmill (now solar) & tank

The slope below it was cut by deep gullies, highly degraded

In 2024 we built a series of bunds to spread, slow & sink and runoff from the road, to allow sediments to aggrade & better retain water & nutrients.

The hard packed clay'ey shale (?) is slowly rotting, and soil is building. Pretty cool to see over time.

The desired function for this spot is to serve as oasis for wildlife, an area to assemble & rest, be nursery to desired flora including perennials, and resilient to support & accomodate livestock.

We need find pics of the windmill area before our work ... Will work on that.

This country N of the Canadian River, where we worked in 2023, got a lot of rain this year, including one day that got 5-8"

The roads were torn up and vegetation thick. It's been a while since we could check up on our work - but we finally made it to Shady Springs, where we built over a dozen woody structures to slow, spread & soak stormwater

This canyon runs thru the Trujillo formation which is part of the minor Dockum aquifer, underlying the Ogallala. The sandstone & whatnot can hold a lot of water, but rainfall tends runoff & fast.

Not so much anymore!

The structures are largely mature, in that the retention area upstream has filled with alluvial sediments - sponges, that retain water & nutrients

We'll get a video or more extensive review out soon.

Check out the "well" where some animal dug a hole, a foot deep or so, and the bottom fills with clean water 🤠

Our work is being recognized as a 2025 Conservation Wrangler - a program to catalyze the very best Texan led conservation projects 💪 a big day!

A short video is being released today, and we're excited to share it. We'll post a link soonest.

In the meantime, see how it's going, and check out these Return on Conservation values!? We invested ~$60k on landscape rehydration works at Wildcat. The results just in terms of perpetuating life on land & biodiversity (SDG 15) are valued at >$550k.
Excellent ☺️

TXN has some interesting posters up. One shows the estimated amounts of investment into conservation by eco-region.

The region that receives the LEAST investment in TX is ... the high plains. No surprise there.
The second most neglected eco region is the rolling plains.

Wildcat Bluff exists at the margin, where the southern high plains meet the rolling plains & breaks of the Canadian River valley. This part of the world deserves a great deal more investment and we're proud of the role that we've played to prove it.

Per TXN, every dollar invested in ecological conservation on the high plains generates over $5 in economic returns; on the rolling plains, the return exceeds $11.

Long story short, devoting funds to natural infrastructure makes good economic sense. Moreover, nature is good for us! It is life itself and we cannot live in isolation - clean air, water, a livable climate & biodiversity are absolutely necessary for the maintenance of life, human & otherwise.

Thanks for your support! To learn more, dm us. To support future efforts it'd be best to speak with the development teams at the and

Muchos Gracias & 🤠

October is chock full of high plains aquifer related education! Today, another field day - this out of Bushland.

Some great talks, the core question - what happens when we care for playa & the plains!?

The answer being, groundwater & 🤙

Much thanks to all making these happen!

, Quail Unlimited,