After a scorching hot, seemingly endless summer, we have finally blown right through temperate autumn temperatures into the early cold and damp of winter.
Paradoxically, we received rain in July and August, normally dry months, none in September and the beginning of October, generally wetter periods, and into heavy November precipitation.
Despite the increasing frequency of rain, we are still 9 inches short of our historical average. The water supply for the state’s largest city and metropolitan area is at historic lows. The Ogallala Aquifer is dropping some 30 feet (10 meters) per year, an unprecedented drop brought on my drought and overuse of water for inefficient methods of crop irrigation.
More concerning is the lack of urgency to preserve groundwater for future generations. The rural economy is dying, and in its death throes, is lashing out and destroying its children’s futures.
It’s time to turn the Great Plains back to prairie grass, to let native species, such as the cougar and gray wolf, roam the prairie again. Turn it over to those who came before and who lived with it instead of imposing its will on the rugged, windy, dangerous prairie.
Now I sit and watch a gray mist develop outside my window. I drink an herbal tea and watch that mist slowly freeze, and I think of Willa Cather’s words:
“Anybody can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the prairie” — My Antonia
Howling Yeti 