28 Nebraskaland • May 2023
There is still a wildness that remains in the heart of the Great
Plains. The loss of prairies and wetlands is overwhelming, but
the Sandhills are a place of promise and refuge where 20,000
square miles of mostly intact mixed-grass prairie-covered
dunes reside. Beneath the ground lies the Ogallala Aquifer,
which holds nearly one billion acre-feet of water.
Wetlands in the Sandhills are found where the aquifer meets
the surface in the valleys and between the hills, along the
shorelines of the many rivers and streams, and on the edges
of lakes. Impressively, the Sandhills has more than one million
acres of wetlands and is one of the last truly wild landscapes
left in the Great Plains.
Water is a critical resource for the people, plants and wildlife
inhabiting the Sandhills and those downstream who rely
on the Ogallala Aquifer for drinking water, crop irrigation
and other municipal uses. Ranchers and conservation
organizations manage the land through grazing, fi re and
various other methods.
The Sandhills is the largest and most intact grassland left in
the world, remaining relatively untouched since the westward
invasion of European settlers. The sandy, porous soils make
row-crop agriculture challenging, unlike how much of the
Great Plains has turned to the plow. The amount of life and
wonder that remain in this precious landscape is remarkable.
Sandhills Wetlands
By Mariah Lundgren
Wetlands are a critical part of the Sandhills, where more than one million acres can be found. MARIAH LUNDGREN
A marsh marigold in full bloom on a fen in the Nebraska
Sandhills. A fen is a wetland fed by groundwater, which helps
form the peat and muck soils that are indicative to fens.
ETHAN FREESE
A top-down view of an alkaline wetland in the western
Nebraska Sandhills. These wetlands are characterized by
their unusual chemistry and salt content, as shown by the
white crust in the image. MARIAH LUNDGREN
