State Agencies Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Service has various voluntary programs and help for farmers and ranchers. National and State Monuments National Monuments - a living monument to the Great Plains. Facilities include tables, fire rings, drinking water, and toilets. Parties interested in reserving the group picnic area or education site should contact the Greeley office. Wetlands Water is scarce in the Pawnee Grasslands.
Rivers are few, and the waters they contain are in high demand.
Crow Creek and the South Platte river are the only year round wetlands. Additional water can be found in several underground aquifers. As you drive through the prairies, you will notice groves of Cottonwood trees appearing along certain gullies, yet their is no visible water, this is because the Cottonwoods tap deep into the underground waters of the Ogallala Aquifer, a subterranean water cistern underlying much of this area. The Ogallala Aquifer, North America's largest underground water source, lies beneath the western parts of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, extending north into South Dakota, west into Wyoming and Colorado, and south into New Mexico and Texas. Aquifers are like huge underground sponges made of porous sediments of sand and gravel eroded from the Rocky Mountains.