Using the Freedom of Information Act and on-the-ground reporting in the Texas Panhandle, global environment team reporter Tammy Webber revealed a new Dust Bowl brewing on farmland above the nation’s biggest aquifer — and the halting efforts to stave it off.
Farmers, communities and researchers have long known that groundwater in the Ogallala aquifer was steadily declining due to irrigation and might not recover. But while researching a story about disappearing prairie grasslands, Webber discovered that both issues were colliding to create another challenge: As climate change is making rainfall scarcer, farmland is blowing away just as it did during the Dust Bowl.
Biologist Jude Smith looks over a nearly dry spring at the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge outside Muleshoe, Texas, May 18, 2021. The spring is fed by the Ogallala aquifer, which is becoming depleted because of irrigation and drought.
AP Photo / Mark Rogers
Sand that blew from farmers’ fields is piled up in a ditch outside Lingo, N.M., near the Texas-New Mexico border, May 18, 2021. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is encouraging farmers in a “Dust Bowl zone” that includes parts of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado, to establish and preserve grasslands to prevent wind erosion as the area becomes increasingly dry.
AP Photo / Mark Rogers
Tim Black uses his tractor’s GPS system while planting grass seed on his Muleshoe, Texas, farm, April 19, 2021. Native grasslands are being restored to prevent wind erosion in this Dust Bowl zone.
AP Photo / Mark Rogers
Tim Black tosses unscented laundry detergent into a stock tank at his Muleshoe, Texas, farm, April 19, 2021, to reduce bloating in his cattle.
AP Photo / Mark Rogers
Tyler Black adjusts an irrigation head at his Muleshoe, Texas, farm, April 19, 2021, as he prepares a pasture for grass-planting. Black and his father raise cattle and plant pasture in wheat and some native grass — and ration water use — because the Ogallala aquifer is being depleted.
AP Photo / Mark Rogers
Tim Black checks on native grasses growing on his farm in Muleshoe, Texas, May 18, 2021. Black planted the grasses to prevent wind erosion and to provide grazing for his cattle. More farmers are planting native grasses as the Ogallala aquifer dries up, making irrigation of traditional crops more difficult.
AP Photo / Tammy Webber
Webber talked to researchers who predicted huge farmland losses and warned that some remaining groundwater would be needed to restore native grasslands before it was too late. Traveling to the Panhandle town of Muleshoe, she told the story of farmers who began planting native grasses to preserve terrain as their wells struggle to produce water. She also reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had identified a Dust Bowl zone where farmers would receive extra money to enroll in grasslands conservation, and spent months prying loose government data showing that not all farmers were embracing the program.
Webber’s comprehensive and engagingly written narrative, with photos by freelancer Mark Rogers, vividly captured the new Dust Bowl threatening an important agricultural region, and the efforts to keep farmers on their land.
Sand blows from fields, creating a dust storm near Morton, Texas, May 18, 2021, in a photo provided by biologist Jude Smith. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is encouraging farmers in a “Dust Bowl zone” that includes parts of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado, to preserve and establish grasslands as the area becomes increasingly dry.
Jude Smith via AP