Western Kansas farmer Mike O’Brate has known the low, flood-prone playa lakes on his fields his entire life. After decades of trying to farm them and watching wells decline, he enrolled about 600 acres of playas and buffer habitat in the USDA Conservation Reserve Program Migratory Birds, Butterflies and Pollinators State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) practice.
“The payment was $125 an acre,” Mike said. “I can’t farm them for that. Those acres take too much water.”
Restoring the playas means less fertilizer and seed on ground that rarely paid off, and more wildlife. Antelope, deer, pheasants and ducks now use the restored areas. “My wildlife is coming back,” he said.
As a longtime board member of Kansas Groundwater Management District 3, Mike sees playa restoration as one way to help the Ogallala Aquifer. “It may take years for the water to soak in, but you’ve got to start somewhere,” he said.
At 73, he’s proud of the acres he’s enrolled in conservation programs and hopes more producers consider doing the same.