We've had success developing and transferring conservation technologies, from tillage systems to cropping schedules. At first glance there's something almost heretical about a project to harvest soil water from the semiarid prairies. Perhaps in a perfect world, water would be distributed evenly across the fields and pastures of the prairie landscape, but perfect worlds are boring. The prairie landscape is not - among other topographic features, it's spattered with waterlogged seeps that impede farming activities. At the same time, researchers want to put the water to better use elsewhere.
Water creeps down the slope until it encounters a dam of clay, creating a spring seep.
This seep will dry out on its own, but too late for seeding, and gradually becomes soured by salinity. To redistribute the water, researchers have developed a technology that uses recycled rubber tire chips and short lengths of louvered tubing to bypass the dam and allow the water to move to the bottom of the hill. There, the water can be used for livestock, irrigation, waterfowl and other purposes. Once this subsurface redistribution system is in place, additional water can be harvested from the atmosphere using various snow trapping techniques to augment up-slope water. Scientists are currently evaluating grass windbreaks for their water-capturing capabilities.