Page 14 - September/October Outdoor Oklahoma Magazine

JENA DONNELL/ODWC

A marker designates the Lunceford Playa, dedicated in 1992 as the first joint project in the Playa Lakes Joint Venture in Oklahoma.

PLAYAS IN THE PANHANDLE
To see playas in Oklahoma, you’ll need to visit the Panhandle
counties of Beaver, Cimarron, and Texas. Those three counties
have an estimated 2,800 playas that lie atop the Ogallala aquifer.
While healthy playas provide critical wetland habitat for wild-
life, they also provide a sustainable water source for families,
communities, and rain-fed operations as well as water filtration,
flood control, livestock forage, and recreation.
Playas recharge at an average annual rate of about 3 inches
per year — that’s 3 inches of water over the size of the playa
descending to the aquifer each year when there is adequate
rainfall. So, a four-acre playa (a small one) will send about an
acre-foot of water toward the aquifer every year. That’s roughly
325,850 gallons of water, or enough to supply three average
families for a year.

12 OUTDOOR OKLAHOMA