Columns of whirling dirt thousands of feet high caught my eye as I hurtled down the highway past barren land. At the sight of the enormous dust devils, my mind skipped to the 1979 cult classic “Mad Max.” If my taste in film were better, I鈥檇 have thought of the 1940 movie “The Grapes of Wrath.” Sadly, this was no post-apocalyptic wasteland in Australia or Dust Bowl Oklahoma; it was 21st-century Colorado.听
Denuded of vegetation, dry soil can go airborne in pillars of swirling dirt or sun-eclipsing dust storms that coat roads and buildings in sandy grit. Dry fields are also vulnerable to noxious weeds like leafy spurge and toadflax, which are toxic to cattle and unpalatable to native ungulates like deer and pronghorn antelope. The soil also breeds nonnative thistles like the tumbleweed, which dispenses its seeds for miles and miles as it rolls along in the unceasing Eastern Colorado wind.听
When cities buy water rights from rural areas and let the fields go fallow, the land does not automatically return to the shortgrass prairie encountered by 19th-century听homesteaders or the Native Americans before them. It becomes a wasteland of dirt and noxious weeds that negatively impacts remaining farms, ranches and communities in the area.听
According to , 鈥淚rrigated farm lands have dropped 32% since 1997, a trend caused by city water purchases, changes in agricultural markets, drought, and fallowing of farm fields to allow more water to flow to downstream states, as required by interstate water agreements.鈥� Bent, Crowley, Otero, Prowers, and Pueblo counties have lost a higher percentage: 鈥淐rowley County has lost 90% of its irrigated lands in that period. Pueblo has lost 60.2%, and Bent and Otero have lost 37.6% and 35.2%, respectively,鈥� according to the nonprofit.听听
While state law requires parties to undertake 鈥渞easonable鈥� efforts to care for the land — and some do — the results have been disappointing. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been a little success here and there over the years, but darn near all of it抖阴ap just been a complete failure,鈥� Jack Goble, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, as reported in . He would like to see buy-up cities work with rural communities for better land stewardship.听
, a bipartisan bill sponsored by legislators who represent impacted counties, would do just that. The bill requires a water right owner who changes how they use their water from irrigation to other beneficial uses, such as urban drinking water, to work on revegetating the land or converting it to dryland agriculture, and take action to prevent soil erosion and the proliferation of weeds. As an incentive, the bill would limit the percentage of water the buyer can use during the conversion process. The bill is headed for a hearing later this month.听
Revegetation with native plants will not only help prevent erosion, but it will also restore the native biodiversity. The Eastern Colorado prairie was once carpeted with a mix of hardy grasses, flowering plants, and small shrubs that supported great herds of bison and pronghorn, abundant prairie dog colonies, predators like coyotes, foxes, and badgers, as well as numerous bird species, reptiles, and insects. While dryland wheat supports less biodiversity than native plants, the practice helps prevent erosion and weed proliferation while yielding a decent crop in good years. Either option is better for the communities in Eastern Colorado than what the law requires today.听
Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.
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