Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

  • Portfolio
  • About
  • Contact
  • Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area
All Galleries
Download

Ogallala Aquifer_National Geographic Magazine 8/2016 89 images Created 1 Apr 2021

View: 100 | All

Loading ()...

  • A rumble of thunder and flashes of lightening illuminated a spectacular scene that “National Geographic calls the annual migration of sandhill cranes one of North America’s greatest wildlife phenomena,” according to the Crane Trust.<br />
<br />
Every spring 80% of Lesser Sand Hill Cranes and some Greater Sand Hill Cranes fly to the Platte River in greater concentrations than anywhere in the world. Fossil beds in parts of NE contain the remains of prehistoric cranes from 10 million years ago. Sand Hill Cranes feel safe from predators in about 2 inches of Ogallala water.  Grassland birds of the great plains migrate from Siberia and Canada to the southern US and Northern Mexico. Their main migratory path is north-south constrained by the Rocky Mountains in the same way as the aquifer was when the mountains were formed.<br />
<br />
Sand Hill Cranes land on Crane Trust property feeding on adjacent farmland's waste corn. Ironically, it is because modern agriculture took away the constrained rivers they need to survive. Annually 560,000 come through on migration in the shape of an hourglass fanning out in the north and the south, but hitting a choke point  in the middle around Kearney NE on the Platte River.<br />
<br />
The Crane Trust counted 413,000 Sandhill Cranes on this evening-more than they’ve ever counted before, so this image is what it must have looked like millions of years ago. Conservation groups tirelessly work to keep 20 miles of the Platte River a perfect habitat for the 560,000 cranes that fly through. <br />
<br />
Sandhill Cranes are millions of years old and evolved during the Pleistocene. One of the biggest migration corridors in the world hinges on a core of volunteers and the money they raise to dredge the rivers back to the place they were millions of years ago. So this photo addresses cranes habitat.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432808.TIF
  • Tractors pack down a giant mound of corn at a feedlot near Imperial, Nebraska, before storm clouds roll in.<br />
The $24 million USD pile of corn will be consumed by 53,000 cows in a matter of months. A press to get the corn under cover creates a crazed tractor rodeo harvesting corn and red milo before the storm. Much of the region’s corn, a thirsty, irrigated crop, is grown to fatten cattle. This mound eventually stretched 300 feet long containing five million bushels. <br />
<br />
Farmers with bedspring corrals are long gone. Big AG WON. A Darwinian dwindling of rural areas survived the Dust Bowl and the family farm crisis, and now they are facing the end of easy water. But BIG AG is still here to stay and will remain with feed lots like this one even after the easy water is gone.<br />
The math on the corn: 24 million USD is 5.25 million bushels or around $3.80 a bushel.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432803.TIF
  • Center-pivot irrigation systems etch circles of grain and other plants in Finney County, Kansas. These self-propelled, rotating sprinklers revolutionized farming, enabling more land to be irrigated efficiently. As the aquifer declines, some farmers only irrigate partial circles.  Each sprinkler needs to draw from a well that produces a minimum of 400 gallons of water a minute.<br />
<br />
Aerial photo showing fields between Dodge City and Garden City, Kansas as a rainbow appears after a storm. Corn is king and a water hungry crop. Switching to milo and bison could save the aquifer for the next generation. A center pivot pumping 694 gallons a minute can pump a million gallons a day. Rain measures roughly 18 inches years  in this region and a center pivot adds an additional 18 inches or more. Most of the pivots in the 70’s pump water out at 1,000 gallons a minute.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432801.JPG
  • A steer is coaxed into its pen at a feedlot near Garden City, Kansas. <br />
<br />
Sparse population, a semiarid climate, and abundant groundwater turned the southern High Plains into the world’s feedlot capital. A single quarter-pound hamburger requires about 460 gallons of water to raise and process the beef.<br />
<br />
In the High Plains, water is about corn and corn is about beef. Feedlots will exist after the water dwindles then grain will be brought in from outside areas. Texas ranks first with the highest number of cattle on feed followed by Kansas and Nebraska. In rough terms–there’s a 1000 feet of water left under Nebraska, 200 feet under Kansas, and about 30 feet under Texas. If all the cows are put on one side of a scale and humans on another, there are 2.5 times more cattle than people. <br />
<br />
Beef compared to other meats:  Five times the global warming contribution per calorie, 11 times more water, and 28 times as much land. Eating a pound of beef has more climatic impact than a gallon of gas. “When you add it all up, it comes up to about 14.5 percent of greenhouse gas comes from the animal agriculture sector. That’s bigger than all transportation combined,”  James Cameron
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432800.TIF
  • River “tanking” in plastic livestock-watering containers is a popular tourist draw along the shallow Calamus River in central Nebraska. With two-thirds of the Ogallala’s water underlying it, the state’s wealth of groundwater feeds countless springs, streams, and rivers.<br />
<br />
There is so much fossil water available in NE that a couple of cowboys figured out how to float the river in cow tanks. Now ranchers use tourism to supplement ranch income in hard times. One hot August day, 350 tourists floated the river. The Calamus is spring fed from the Ogallala aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432802.TIF
  • Small towns struggle in the region, where the Ogallala aquifer is pumped for irrigation.<br />
<br />
Business is slow midday in downtown Muleshoe, Texas. A community founded in 1913 northwest of Lubbock, the name traces back to a ranch by that name in the late 1800s. Muleshoe expanded with the coming of the railroad and grew to a town of 5,000 residents in 1970. But small towns struggle in the region, and population declined. The once lively Main Street is quiet with abandoned buildings. <br />
<br />
Economic stress is intensified as the community’s water source, the Ogallala aquifer, is pumped for irrigation. Muleshoe can be described as a dying town that can’t keep its grain elevator full. Although to outsiders it looks bleak, the town claims the smallest TV station and the owners are truly kind.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432804.TIF
  • Grackles gather on a center-pivot sprinkler to feed on a newly harvested cotton field.<br />
<br />
A half mile long center pivot has a well head at the center and rotates in a circle. Pivots were developed after WWII and allowed this area to recover from the dust bowl.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2473370.TIF
  • An aerial photo shows the Niobrara River filled with fossil water flowing through farms and a wildlife refuge in Nebraska. Rich hues of green on the hillsides and fields at sunset create a scenic landscape.<br />
<br />
The Niobrara River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 568 miles (914 km) long, running through the U.S. states of Wyoming and Nebraska.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481045.TIF
  • An aerial photo after sunset with lights glowing on homes, businesses and empty streets in the town of Valentine, Nebraska.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481046.TIF
  • Dust rises from roads that bisect a dry wheat field between two feedlots. <br />
Drought conditions intensify throughout the great plains for the past ten years with some parts of the state having "extreme drought" conditions.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481065.TIF
  • Small towns struggle in the region, where the Ogallala aquifer is pumped for irrigation. Businesses close their doors reflecting the downtown grain elevator.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481067.TIF
  • Morning breaks with warm rays of sun over cool blue light of dawn as Sand Hill Cranes fly in to sit in two inches of precious Ogallala water on the Platte River. <br />
<br />
Grassland birds of the Great Plains migrate from Siberia and Canada to the southern United States and Northern Mexico. Their main migratory path is north-south and then in reverse as they fly in to breed in the High Plains aquifer. The birds path is constrained by the Rocky Mountains much in the same as the ancient aquifer. <br />
<br />
Birds depend on these protected waterways creating an hourglass shape in their migration making a wide path following to the narrow choke point at Kearney on the Platte River. Nearly a half million migrating Sand Hill Cranes fly in to Crane Trust property and adjacent farmland.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481100.TIF
  • A young girl stands on a plastic chair roping plastic calf in a parking lot during Beef Empire Days in Garden City, Kansas. <br />
<br />
The High Plains culture of cowboys and beef queens are is where a girl can rope a sculpture of a steer and dream of being a cowgirl out on the range.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481118.TIF
  • A cowboy ropes then attempts to pin a steer during a rodeo.<br />
<br />
The cowboy culture evokes the words “freedom” and “out on the range,” but now exists primarily in feed lots or with professional rodeo cowboys. <br />
<br />
Beef Empire Days in Garden City, Kansas involves a ranch riding competition as well as steer wrestling or bulldogging. A cowboy ropes a steer, drops from his horse and grabs it by the horns to pull it to the ground. It is an intense, fast paced, high energy event first performed in the early 1900s.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481120.TIF
  • Lightning strikes above the town of Dodge City, Kansas.<br />
<br />
A lightening bolt cuts through the steel gray sky behind a grain elevator, a symbol of high plains rural America, that has lost more than 12 million people since 2000. Just 16 percent of the nation’s population lives in rural areas – the lowest in recorded history and down from 72 percent a century ago. <br />
<br />
Dodge City, like all towns on the high plains, have been seriously diminished by the rush to the cities. After the Dust Bowl and the family farm crisis and the domination of BIG AG that requires fewer people to produce more crops, communities face another crisis. <br />
<br />
With a dwindling supply of water, farmers unable to fill their grain elevators threatens communities further and grain will come in on the rails from other areas. Even with the water they have now, small, dusty towns are getting smaller and dustier.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481132.TIF
  • An ecstatic Deb Hedberg is honored with flowers and a banner as Miss Beef Empire, Queen of the Beef Empire Days competition at the Beef Empire Days Rodeo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481148.TIF
  • In preparation for the Beef Empire Days Rodeo parade, young girls practice for a performance under the tall grain elevator along the railroad tracks.  Corn was taken out town to sell all over the world, but now these tracks bring corn TO Garden City, Kansas  for the feedlots that ring the area.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481150.TIF
  • The Lazbuddie, Texas, superintendent drives the school bus, and a family of three redheaded Mennonite children are last to get off at the end of the route. <br />
<br />
The Texas Panhandle school district which doubles as a public water supplier, is trying to figure out how to keep the school and community alive as they run out of water. Over 200 students are drawn partly to a celebrated robotics program, but there is only 90 days of water left for 16 families. The school received federal funds for a new $360K well, but there are 88,000 wells nearby and the area has the least water from the aquifer underneath, the least regulation, the least recharge and the highest density of wells.<br />
Counties are drawing groundwater faster than the underground aquifers can recharge.  Historically, the state’s aquifers are in a decline which has led to water suppliers drilling and pumping deeper for water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481170.TIF
  • A Muleshoe, Texas tradition on Halloween is for costumed young people ride in 50 gallon drums painted like cows in a train pulled around in the downtown. <br />
<br />
In rural areas farms are too far apart to trick or treat, so families drive to the business district for a “Trunk or Treat” and open up the back of their cars to hand out candy.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481174.TIF
  • Tractors pack down a giant mound of corn and milo being stored at a feedlot near Imperial, Nebraska. Pressure builds to complete the work before storm clouds roll in and ruin the crop.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481061.TIF
  • Teenagers hang out at the shallow Calamus River which is fed by the Ogallala aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481137.TIF
  • Storm clouds build above the grain elevator and the town of Portales, New Mexico, a community without well water. Drought is taking its toll putting pressure on the aquifer shared by agriculture.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-2.TIF
  • Boys play on the slippery slides inside a semitrailer used to haul the wheat crop from the fields to the grain elevator. The farm is planting a drought tolerant variety.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2435369.TIF
  • Aerial showing a muddy feed lot after clearing storm in Finney County Kansas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481133.TIF
  • Backlit water sprays from an irrigation system that waters a field of corn. Corn is a thirsty crop grown for feed.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481060.TIF
  • A rancher struggles to fill a depleted cattle water tank on a farm in Texas because of drought and a dwindling aquifer from burgeoning agricultural use.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481176.TIF
  • Sandhill cranes arrive to roost in the shallows of the Platte River as two cranes do their elaborate mating dance.<br />
 <br />
These striking birds stand up to 47 inches tall and boast a wingspan that stretches up to 7 feet long. In addition to their distinctive height, the sandhill crane sports a recognizable red crown that contrasts with their rust or grey plumage—making them an unmistakable species.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481107.TIF
  • A mud volleyball game at a Powwow in South Dakota which is one the north end of the Ogallala Aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481154.TIF
  • A boy is greeting by dogs after school. The school superintendent drives the bus for students in the public schools in Lazbuddie, Texas. She struggles to keep things going as water runs out and the well is going dry. The well got down to 15 feet of standing water.<br />
She had 90 days of water left for 16 families and teachers that are housed at school complex. <br />
<br />
There are 88,000 wells around her in the TX panhandle and the area has the least water from the aquifer underneath, the least regulation, the least recharge and the highest density of wells.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481172.TIF
  • Bedsprings once served as a corral near Elida, New Mexico.<br />
The mayor of Elida, Pop 200, blames the dearth of water. On the plains around them are signs of hard times in the 40’s and 50’s like the dairy that used old mattress springs as a containment area for their handful of milk cows. <br />
The signs of the future for this place loom over those mattresses – huge farms of wind machines. Farmers supplement their income now with wind leases and will be more dependent on them after the water runs out.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481078.TIF
  • Sandhill cranes arrive to roost in the shallows of the Platte River.<br />
<br />
Every year from mid/late February to mid April, one million Sandhill Cranes migrate on the Platte River Valley in order to rest and eat before resuming their northward migration.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481113.TIF
  • The Sand Hills of Nebraska made of sediment eroded from the Rocky Mountains.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481049.TIF
  • Sandhill cranes arrive to roost in the shallows of the Platte River. They perform a courtship dance that begins with a low bow, although a male may dance to express aggression or territoriality.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-7.TIF
  • A ranch hand works into the night as steers are coaxed into a pen at a feedlot near Garden City, Kansas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-8.TIF
  • Cowboys watch the White River Rodeo from a wooden grandstand above the outdoor arena.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481151.JPG
  • A man and boy dressed in cowboy hat, jeans and button down shirts, balance while standing on top of horses at the Beef Empire Days rodeo event.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481162.JPG
  • A farmer taps down a pile of sorghum before tarps are draped to protect the milo.  The grain elevator is full and excess is piled and covered for the winter.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481165.JPG
  • Empty containers fill the back of a pick up truck as a  family with a dry well carries water for their home use in five-gallon buckets. They  and 30 other families rely on this water for cooking and bathing since they no longer have running water in their home in Clovis, New Mexico.<br />
A $160 million pipeline project from the Ute reservoir may help relieve the situation although communities are still finding ways to curb consumption.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-10.TIF
  • Wide empty streets in the town of Portales, New Mexico, a community that is buying agricultural wells to supply residents homes and businesses. The city has conservation efforts in effect to reduce consumption.<br />
<br />
Water levels in the Ogallala aquifer below Clovis, Portales, and surrounding communities have declined in excess of 100 feet in the past decades. In addition to the decline in water level (as much as 2 feet per year in some places), there is evidence of deteriorating water quality.<br />
<br />
The long term water supply appears more promising because of a pipeline that may bring supplies from the Ute reservoir to help.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481180.TIF
  • Native Americans set up teepees for the annual powwow that is held during Frontier Days in White River, South Dakota.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481160.TIF
  • Bubbleds mesmerize a young girl who is bathed by her mother in a bucket filled with water hauled from town since their well has run dry.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families on the fringes feel it. For several years, approximately 30 families near Clovis, NM,  have no longer been able to get water from their wells. They carry water home that they need for cooking and bathing.  This two-year old has a bubble bath sharing precious water with a family of nine that requires 105 gallons a day.<br />
<br />
County Road 5 is the canary in the coal mine for Ogallala depletion. Just across the state line from here are 88,000 wells in the Texas panhandle. Those wells use approximately 200 gallons a minute according to HPWD. When they started irrigating, the wells poured out 1000 gallons a minute.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432805.TIF
  • Children in a family with a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481182.TIF
  • A family with a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. They need 100 gallons a day to meet their needs. <br />
30 families can no longer get water from their wells since the Ogallala aquifer is running low after being pumped for agricultural use.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481183.TIF
  • A neighborhood street where a family with a dry well loads up five-gallon buckets to carry water in the back of their pickup truck for home use. <br />
<br />
They are among 30 families affected by the amount of agricultural use of water from the Ogallala Aquifer. 88,000 wells across the nearby Texas panhandle pump 200 gallons a minute. <br />
<br />
These families rely on around 100 gallons a day for their needs and are hopeful for the pipeline from a reservoir 100 miles away that is being built will relieve the situation.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481285.TIF
  • A harvester works cutting mature crops on straight rows in Hoxie KS and Imperial NE.<br />
<br />
Clouds of dirt fly into the air where farmers and ag corporations are subject to drought and climate change as well as the whims of nature.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2435370.JPG
  • A rancher is well digging on the Rosebud Reservation where he leases land. Power lines are a relic from when the power companies were complicit with pumping out the aquifer running lines for miles for free. But now with too many wells for the power companies to afford this, more diesel and solar pumps are installed.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481140.JPG
  • Sediment that formed the Ogallala aquifer sloughed off from the Rocky Mountains, creating gravel that is mined for construction materials.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-11.TIF
  • Sediment that formed the Ogallala aquifer sloughed off from the Rocky Mountains, creating gravel that is mined for construction materials.<br />
<br />
Rocky Mountain uplift and the natural weathering allowed the material to scuff off the slopes. Then materials transported by huge streams became the channels in the aquifer. The Rocky Mountains are compositionally different fhaving more granite than from those in the south.  Sixteen acres of the gravel are stored near Slaton, Texas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432806.TIF
  • Pelicans on a cattle ranch in Nebraska. The migrating populations of white pelicans are found in spring and fall. More are residents in the summer and in the winter some can be spotted occasionally. <br />
<br />
They are some of the world's largest birds and rely on fish from rivers, lakes and wetlands.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481052.JPG
  • Contestants wear leather and cowboy and cowgirl hats for the Beef Empire Days queen and princess at the Beef Empire Days Rodeo. <br />
<br />
Running for five decades, the tradition is one of the premiere showcases for the industry. It features 16 events including a rodeo, carnival and parade.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481147.JPG
  • An odd juxtaposition of pelicans and cattle on a ranch in Nebraska. <br />
<br />
The migrating populations of white pelicans are found in spring and fall. More are residents in the summer and in the winter some can be spotted occasionally. <br />
<br />
They are some of the world's largest birds and rely on fish from rivers, lakes and wetlands.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-3.TIF
  • Sandhill cranes fly in to roost in the shallows of the Platte River.<br />
<br />
Every year 400,000 to 600,000 sandhill cranes—80 percent of all the cranes on the planet—congregate along an 80-mile stretch of the central Platte River in Nebraska, to fatten up on waste grain in the empty cornfields in preparation for the journey to their Arctic and subarctic nesting grounds. <br />
<br />
Sandhill cranes among the world’s oldest living birds and one of the planet’s most successful life-forms, having outlasted millions of species (99 percent of species that ever existed are now extinct).
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-4.TIF
  • Every year 400,000 to 600,000 sandhill cranes arrive in flocks to roost in the shallows of the Platte River, and during the day they are out foraging in the cornfields and doing their dances.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-5.TIF
  • Every year 400,000 to 600,000 sandhill cranes arrive in flocks to roost in the shallows of the Platte River, and during the day they are out foraging in the cornfields and doing their courtship dances.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-6.TIF
  • Arial view at sunset of a center-pivot irrigation system sprays water from the Ogallala aquifer onto crops although much evaporates in this process.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481048.TIF
  • Sandhill cranes fly in to roost in the shallows of the Platte River. They do a courtship dance but this behavior can also be an aggressive or territorial show.<br />
<br />
Every year 400,000 to 600,000 sandhill cranes—80 percent of all the cranes on the planet—congregate along an 80-mile stretch of the central Platte River in Nebraska, to fatten up on waste grain in the empty cornfields in preparation for the journey to their Arctic and subarctic nesting grounds. <br />
<br />
Sandhill cranes among the world’s oldest living birds and one of the planet’s most successful life-forms, having outlasted millions of species (99 percent of species that ever existed are now extinct).
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481082.TIF
  • Bedsprings once served as a corral near Elida, New Mexico.<br />
The mayor of Elida, Pop 200, blames the dearth of water. On the plains around them are signs of hard times in the 40’s and 50’s like the dairy that used old mattress springs as a containment area for their handful of milk cows. <br />
The signs of the future for this place loom over those mattresses – huge farms of wind machines. Farmers supplement their income now with wind leases and will be more.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-1.TIF
  • Sandhill cranes fly in to roost in the shallows of the Platte River. They do a courtship dance that begins with a bow.<br />
<br />
Every year 400,000 to 600,000 sandhill cranes—80 percent of all the cranes on the planet—congregate along an 80-mile stretch of the central Platte River in Nebraska, to fatten up on waste grain in the empty cornfields in preparation for the journey to their Arctic and subarctic nesting grounds. <br />
<br />
Sandhill cranes among the world’s oldest living birds and one of the planet’s most successful life-forms, having outlasted millions of species (99 percent of species that ever existed are now extinct).
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481110.TIF
  • A hose snakes through the front yard where a family with a dry well hauls water. They fill five-gallon buckets and jugs in the back of their pickup truck for their personal use.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481195.TIF
  • A family with a dry well carry water in five-gallon buckets and jugs in the back of their pickup truck.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481287.TIF
  • A woman carries carries buckets into her house.  The family has a dry well and hauls water in jugs and five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck for cooking and bathing.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481288.TIF
  • Two birds fly across placid waters of a pond located in a gravel mine where rock is used for construction materials.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481072.TIF
  • Wind energy generates new income for farmers who have lost earnings as their wells dry up.<br />
Bedsprings once served as a corral near Elida, New Mexico.<br />
The mayor of Elida, Pop 200, blames the dearth of water. On the plains around them are signs of hard times in the 40’s and 50’s like the dairy that used old mattress springs as a containment area for their handful of milk cows. <br />
The signs of the future for this place loom over those mattresses – huge farms of wind machines. Farmers supplement their income now with wind leases and will be more.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432807.TIF
  • A family parks an RV in the field during the harvest so they can escape the elements and the bugs while they eat together. Generational farming is more rare as it is hard to make ends meet, especially during a drought. The farm grows drylands wheat which is a variety more drought tolerant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2435367.JPG
  • A man walks through a cornfield to open gates on an irrigation system that uses water drawn from the Calamus River to water his crops.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2473369.JPG
  • Aerial photo shows fields with various stages of plowing, planting, growing and harvesting after a rain in Finney County, Kansas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481042.JPG
  • The Niobrara River flows through farms and a wildlife refuge.<br />
<br />
The Ogallala Aquifer comes to the surface in Nebraska.<br />
<br />
The Niobrara River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 568 miles (914 km) long, running through the U.S. states of Wyoming and Nebraska.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481043.JPG
  • Outhouses with a quiet view of open fields are illuminated by a streetlight in White River, South Dakota.<br />
One for men; one for women; one has no label.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481055.JPG
  • A field of sunflowers is in full bloom in summer months.Nebraska ranks 6th in the U.S. in sunflower production.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481056.JPG
  • An irrigation system waters a corn crop in Nebraska.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481057.JPG
  • An irrigation system waters a field of corn and a few sunflowers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481059.JPG
  • Flocks of Sandhill cranes arrive at dusk to roost in the shallows of the Platte River.<br />
<br />
Every year 400,000 to 600,000 sandhill cranes—80 percent of all the cranes on the planet—congregate along an 80-mile stretch of the central Platte River in Nebraska, to fatten up on waste grain in the empty cornfields in preparation for the journey to their Arctic and subarctic nesting grounds. <br />
<br />
Sandhill cranes among the world’s oldest living birds and one of the planet’s most successful life-forms, having outlasted millions of species (99 percent of species that ever existed are now extinct).
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481085.TIF
  • Sandhill cranes fly in to roost in the shallows of the Platte River. <br />
<br />
Every year 400,000 to 600,000 sandhill cranes—80 percent of all the cranes on the planet—congregate along an 80-mile stretch of the central Platte River in Nebraska, to fatten up on waste grain in the empty cornfields in preparation for the journey to their Arctic and subarctic nesting grounds. <br />
<br />
Sandhill cranes among the world’s oldest living birds and one of the planet’s most successful life-forms, having outlasted millions of species (99 percent of species that ever existed are now extinct).
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481101.TIF
  • A family parks an RV in the field during the harvest so they can escape the elements and the bugs while they eat together. Generational farming is more rare as it is hard to make ends meet, especially during a drought. The farm grows drylands wheat which is a variety more drought tolerant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481131.JPG
  • Two teenagers  wearing cowboy hats float in the shallow Calamus River which is fed by the Ogallala aquifer. More plentiful in Nebraska than further south, water is used for agriculture, industry, recreation and communities' well water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481136.JPG
  • Well drillers let the water run to clear a well they just drilled for a rancher that leases land from the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. The power lines in the background are a relic from when the power companies were implicit with pumping out the aquifer - they would run lines for miles to your pump for free. But now there are just too many wells for the power companies to afford this - so there are more diesel and solar pumps being put in now.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481139.JPG
  • Makeup and costumes for young girls are part of the preparation for the Beef Empire Days princess contest at the Beef Empire Days Rodeo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481143.JPG
  • A young contestant wears pink to stand out for the Beef Empire Days princess at the Beef Empire Days Rodeo. Other young women don cowgirl hats and other distinctive colors as they wait for the event to begin.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481145.JPG
  • Cowboys with hats wait on horses to participate in the Beef Empire Days Rodeo, a long standing tradition in Garden City, Kansas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481146.JPG
  • Traditional dress of feathers, paint and symbols of eagles are worn by a Native American for a Powwow in White River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481156.JPG
  • Aerial photo show rows of white hutches that house calves until they are mature enough on their own at a feedlot in Nebraska.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481163.JPG
  • A farmer stops to untangle blades as he harvests sorghum.<br />
Sorghum is a versatile, multiuse crop well suited for Kansas agriculture. Sorghum is among the most efficient crops in conversion of solar energy and use of water, and is very drought tolerant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481167.JPG
  • A cheerleader stands in the shadows in Texas holding a giant megaphone used during games.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481168.JPG
  • A dilapidated center pivot irrigation system in a field outside an abandoned school. Areas in NM near the edge of the Ogallala were the first to run out of water.<br />
<br />
 The original Wheatland School burned in April 1938. It was replaced by a new school building and gymnasium built by the WPA. The new buildings, reinforced with steel and plastered inside, used multicolored rock from a nearby quarry. A duplex teacherage was also built at the same time. Completed in 1939, the buildings were only used as a school until the early 1950s, after which they were used as a community center for a time before being abandoned.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481177.JPG
  • A woman carries carries empty buckets from her house. The family has a dry well and hauls water in jugs and five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck for cooking and bathing.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481188.JPG
  • Sediment that formed the Ogallala aquifer sloughed off from the Rocky Mountains, creating gravel that is mined for construction materials. Industrial and agricultural use suck up the water where communities nearby haul water for personal use when their wells run dry.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481199.JPG
  • Sediment that formed the Ogallala aquifer sloughed off from the Rocky Mountains, creating gravel that is mined for construction materials.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481200.TIF
  • Piles of rock and industrial equipment are reflected in the water used in mining. Sediment that formed the Ogallala aquifer sloughed off from the Rocky Mountains, creating gravel that is mined for construction materials.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481204.TIF
  • Center-pivot irrigation systems etch circles of grain and other crops. There is not enough in the aquifer for the inner circle to receive water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070.JPG