Playa Lakes Restoration
Tomorrow’s Water is Your Legacy
SARA is thrilled to partner with Texas Playa Conservation Initiative (TxPCI) and Texan By Nature to restore our playas. Serving as a pathway into the program, we are helping to identify landowners with an interest in this important project.
Why Restore Playa Lakes?
Playa lakes, those shallow, ephemeral wetlands that grace the Texas landscape, hold profound ecological significance. More than just scenic features, they serve as vital habitats for a diverse array of wildlife, including migratory birds, amphibians, and insects. Furthermore, playa lakes are essential for water filtration, groundwater recharge, and flood mitigation, making them indispensable for maintaining water quality and quantity in our region.
Playas provide groundwater recharge and habitat for wildlife. If you have playas on your land, we can help you restore and manage them so they work for you—and provide water for the future.
Playas—also called mud holes, buffalo wallows, and lagoons—are relatively small, round, shallow depressions found primarily in the western Great Plains. Their basins are lined with clay soil, which collects and holds water from rain and runoff, creating temporary lakes.
Your Contribution to Conservation
As a landowner, you wield immense power in shaping the future of our environment. By participating in Tomorrow's Water is Your Legacy, you can actively contribute to the preservation and enhancement of these invaluable ecosystems. Through strategic conservation practices such as wetland restoration, native vegetation establishment, and erosion control measures, you can help rejuvenate playa lakes on your property, ensuring their resilience and ecological function.
Together, we can safeguard our natural heritage, protect water resources, and create a sustainable future for all. Contact us now to learn more about how you can participate and make a significant difference in your community.
Our partners at Playa Lake Joint Venture and Playa Work for Texans have developed maps and tools to help educate and evaluate the impact of restoration.
We encourage you to click on the images below to take advantage of the tools on their sites.
The average rate across the region is about three inches per year — that’s three inches of water the size of the playa moving toward the aquifer each year.
“In general, water recharging today through playas will be available for our children and/or grandchildren. The time it takes for recharge to reach the aquifer and be available for extraction varies depending on depth to the aquifer formation and underlying soil type. If it is shallow, water will recharge in months to years. If the depth is approximately 100 feet, it will take years to decades. If the depth is approximately 200 feet, water will recharge in decades. At the deepest locations, recharge could take a century to reach the aquifer.”
“The experts agree that while the recharge rate is not fast enough to counter the amount of withdrawals due to irrigated agriculture, it can support farmers and ranchers with rainfed (dryland) crop production or grazing systems, as well as towns and communities that depend on the aquifer. This recharge through playas is a continuous process. In fact, water reaching the aquifer today started its journey during our parents and grandparents lifetimes; the water recharging now will be available for today’s children and future generations.”
What Is a Healthy Playa?
A healthy playa has an intact clay basin — without excavated pits or ditches — that is not buried by sediment from nearby fields. Water from the surrounding watershed freely enters the basin through a native vegetative buffer without being diverted from the playa by roads, terraces or other impediments.
While playas provide critical wetland habitat for wildlife, they also provide important benefits for the people who live in this region. Playas, when healthy, provide a sustainable water source for communities and rain-fed operations, water filtration, flood control, livestock forage, and recreation.
