Essays

Moseying: Exploring the Natural World

Playas are the focus of Programs at the Sibley Nature Center this fall
August 22, 2007

“Jes’ fill in that dang buffalo wallow. It’s our property and we can build what we want on our own property. This is America, by Golly. Buffalo wallows are nasty places, and besides, when it rains, a billion mosquitoes will come out of it.” Buffalo wallows get in the way of progress.

Playas (buffalo wallows) have been recognized for their aesthetic values, however. They have been turned into parks in Midland, Lubbock, Amarillo and other towns on the Llano Estacado. Some park playas have water year around (especially ones like the Wadley-Barron Duck Pond where excessive home irrigation create a “perched water table.” Some playa parks serve as floodwater retention areas, like Midland’s Hill and Grafa Park and remain grassy fields most of the year.

School and civic programs at the Sibley Nature Center this fall will include playa education elements. For the past year our focus was on sanddune ecology. We are methodically examining all of the eight major habitats of our homeland, the Llano Estacado.

There is a small playa along our trails at the Center. A dam bisects the playa. On the dam’s north side the Hogan Park Golf Course deepened the playa and keeps it full of water. Diving ducks and geese visit it during the winter. Coots (mudhens) nest in the cattails along its edge in the summer. On the south side of the dam we maintain a swampy pond, but most of the playa on the south side of the dam remains dry except for brief periods after a heavy rainfall. We have planted willows, cottonwoods, burr oaks and other trees and shrubs such as 3-leaf sumac, wild plum, and seepwillow. Visiting birds have planted hackberry trees and herbaceous plants such as march fleabane. The wind has planted Siberian elms there, too.

As a result we can observe five varieties of playa habitat – deep water, shallow permanent water, shallow temporary rainwater pools, the dry play bottom, and a playa “riparian forest.” Some playas on the Llano Estacado developed “forests” of elms, salt cedar, will, cottonwood and seepwillow during the “rainy ‘80s” that managed to survive the long drought from 1993-2005. The Hogan Park playa no longer produces toads, however, unlike most regional playas. Leopard frogs (which need permanent water) emigrated from other ponds on the golf course in 1981, the year our little pond was constructed. Leopard frogs are toad predators, and over the last 26 years have managed to eliminate the playa’s toad population.

Thanks to Eagle Scout and Chapman Award winner Luke Dunn we also have a miniature salt playa along our trails as well. Salt playas are different from clay-bottomed playas. They are at least a square mile in size, and are usually larger. One reference reports that around 300 salt playas are found on the Llano Estacado, along with 25,000 clay-bottomed playas. Other references estimate the number of playas from 10,000 to 35,000. The almost flat Llano Estacado tableland is freckled with playas – from the air a person realizes that almost every square mile has at least one playa, so a more appropriate estimate of the number of playas may be closer to 50,000!

A future column will discuss the Playa Lakes Joint Venture Group. The Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) is a partnership of federal and state wildlife agencies, conservation groups, private industry and landowners dedicated to conserving bird habitat in the Southern Great Plains. The PLJV provides science-based guidance and decision-support tools for all-bird conservation throughout the region, as well as outreach, coordination and financial support to our partners and local groups to conduct on-the-ground habitat work. The PLJV invited Sibley board member David Crum and me to an “outreach evaluation and critique charrette” in Clovis, New Mexico, this week.

The playas of the Llano Estacado have two major ecological functions. Playas perform some recharge to the Ogallala Aquifer. They also serve the wintering grounds for thousands of ducks, geese, and sandhill cranes. In the old buffalo prairie days playas supplied water for buffalo, pronghorn, and Native Americans. Playas are places of wonder. Every resident of the Llano Estacado should see thousands of sandhill cranes coming to a salt playa during the winter, hear thousands of toads singing in a clay playa, be awed by thousands of migrating shorebirds poking in shallow water and mud in August, see millions of fairy shrimp and tadpole shrimp squiggling in shallow water through submerged vegetation, or be surprised by hundreds of foot-long salamanders in a breeding swarm on a warm February day.

Prehistoric Clovis and Folsom artifacts, along with the bones of mammoth and other Pleistocene fauna are often found near playas. Jumanos, Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa Indians often camped next to a filled playa. Spanish conquistadores, missionaries, and ciboleros, mesteneros, and Comancheros all navigated the vast grass sea of the Llano Estacado utilizing playas as landmarks and camping grounds. The first cattlemen of the region hand dug water wells next to playas before windmills were introduced.

Not every playa should be or can be left “natural.” The human population of the Llano Estacado is increasing, and some playas are “in the way.” Playas should not be casually dismissed as wasteland. Doing so is denigrating our past and our ecology. Playas are an integral part of our heritage and landscape.

To examine more material about playas visit the designated Habitats section. For information about salt playas, click on “alkali soil.” For a brief introduction visit the photoessays. For a deeper understanding of playas, read the essays. We would love to hear from you. If you have further questions or would like to suggest other topics, please call us at 432-684-6827. If you would like to arrange for a program to be given to a school, youth group, civic group, or oil company safety meeting call us and leave your name and number with Richard Galle or Michael Nickell, and I will return your call and schedule your program after Sept 2, when I return from my vacation!