How prairie Helps Conserve Water
(Pssst, Want to learn more about the midwest’s dire water situation? Check out episodes 121 and 203 of The Prairie Farm Podcast. I would start with episode 121. Some of the foremost experts on the subject were interviewed for this one.)
A recent YouTube channel was brought to my attention of a company who restores old vehicles. This company had found a boat that had sunk in a lake and were gearing up to restore it. The part that caught my eye was where they found the boat… 125 feet under the old lake water mark. The lake was 125 feet below normal depth…
Happy “National Groundwater Awareness Week”?
Half of the United States relies on groundwater as their primary source of water. It’s a vital part of our society, and it’s getting lower. Some places lower than others. In Northern Texas, Oklahoma, California, and other naturally dry states are depleting their groundwater levels rapidly. (See graph for more details).
click to see source of picture
A solution that I was not expecting as I was researching the topic was prairie. I first heard it during a podcast interview with Ryan Callaghan. He mentioned that prairie helps raise water table levels. My immediate thought was “what… how?” but the situation demanded the conversation meander on like a hippo in water. There was no stopping it.
After thorough research, I discovered there are several major methods in which the prairies help raise the water levels-- root systems, soil structure, evapotranspiration, wetland support.
Roots systems. Prairie plants have deep roots (as deep as 15 feet at times) that can penetrate the soil and reach the water table. At first I thought this would mean the prairie starts to soak up the water table, and while that’s true, it’s what happens afterwards that helps raise the water level. As the roots absorb water from the soil, they create pathways for water to move deeper into the ground, which can help recharge the groundwater. Similarly, worms create these pathways, but the worms are much less likely to engage with the soil without the nutrients created by the prairie roots… so the roots help two-fold.
click to see source of picture
Soil structure. The soil in prairies is typically rich in organic matter and has a porous structure which allows water to infiltrate and percolate through it more easily. This is a product of decades (or centuries… or millennia) of prairie’s organic matter having its cycle in and on the soil.
Evapotranspiration. I first heard of this word during a podcast where we talked about corn sweat. It’s a real thing, folks. That’s why in late July and August the air starts to get more humid in the Midwest. It’s not a fun time. Similarly, prairie evapotranspires. What does this mean? The prairiegrass absorbs water through its roots and releases it into the atmosphere through a process called transpiration. But how does that help? Doesn’t that drain the water table faster? Well, it helps by reducing the amount of water that runs off the surface and is lost to nearby rivers and streams. It puts this water back into the air to rejoin the local water cycle instead of making its way down the Mississippi River.
Wetland support. Prairie wetlands serve as an important hydrological feature of the landscape by trapping and storing water during wet periods and releasing it during dry periods through transpiration. The wetlands recharge the groundwater through the local water cycle and create pathways from while providing habitat for many different flora and fauna.
What’s the point? Well, there’s a larger theme here of water consumptiona dn stewardship. But each person can only do their part. As for me… I’ll be taking slightly shorter showers and expanding my prairie garden, because conservation happens one yard at a time.
Looking for prairie for your fields? You can find it here.
Trying to find a smaller batch for your yard? Then you can find them here.
Blessings!
