Small-scale, distributed nature-based solutions for landscape rehydration on High Plains. A program of Ogallala Commons 🤠
Central, Southern High Plains
Joined November 2021
- Tweets7K
- Following5K
- Followers2K
- Likes43.8K
Pinned Tweet
A leaky dam aka post assisted log structure @WildcatBluffNC - one of the more important structures on this stretch of W Amarillo Creek, that retains well over an acre foot of stormwater per flow event
#NIDS to slow, spread and soak stormwater - reverse rapid drainage!
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Water Quality Improvements and Hydrogeomorphic Change Over 20 Years Contributed to Macrophyte Community Recovery in the Upper Mississippi River
🔗 buff.ly/J4fX6QY
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
NEW: How Texas Could End Up Paying an Israeli Company Billions for Water
Unlike other major water infrastructure projects, this one wouldn’t belong to the public, but to a private, foreign water supplier.
insideclimatenews.org/news/2…
The hyperscale AI datacenter developers have wrought big change in this country, facilities that occupy square miles w/ more power than small towns - tax abated despite big, immediate & negative impact on infrastructure & water security
Seek AI funding, or resist...!?
Anthropic is putting 5% of its shares into a new public benefit fund, worth around $100B if its IPO goes as expected.
AI money like this is expected to chase measurable impact, a hard standard for open-source software and research.
axios.com/2026/10/19/silicon…
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
We've taken >700 students out into the field so far this Fall - guided hikes at the Bluff, the Playa & River Fest & field days - and plan for hundreds more before Winter hits 💪
Natural science education in this place that sustains us 🤠 #lfgrow
We underinvest in infrastructure for decades, then enrich foreign entities who sell promises of an easier fix...
In cost and complexity, it would rival the iconic aqueducts, pipelines and dams of the American West
"It would be one of the more ambitious projects in U.S. history," said Drew Molly, a former chair of the American Waterworks Association.
tpr.org/economy-and-labor/20…
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
Here in the Mojave Desert I see solar and geothermal applications all over public lands going into increasingly streamlined NEPA review. Most get approved unless economic factors get in the way. Permitting reform is not needed here in the trenches looking around
We do lots of natural science education, talking about the role of landscape, watershed & wetland health as relates to our regional water security
We've held 27 events YTD! 💪
Water planners in the panhandle are talking about #desal as if it'll save us all...
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
Another round of storms is expected to move across the Panhandles late Thu into Fri. These chances continue to trend with good potential to see another inch of rain by Sat morning. Flooding concerns will be present with this activity with another round possible Sun.#phwx
ALT A National Weather Service map for the Amarillo area titled "Heavy Rainfall Remains Possible Friday", showing the probability of 1 inch or more of rainfall from 7 AM Friday to 7 AM Saturday. The map displays green-shaded risk areas ranging from Low (10 to 40%) in the northwest, Medium (40 to 70%) across the central Panhandles, to High (70 to 100%) in the southeast. Safety icons remind viewers to turn around, stay weather aware, and never cross flooded roads.
ALT A National Weather Service matrix graphic titled "Active Weather on the Way for the Panhandles" (Updated Wed Oct 28, 2026 2:35 AM), outlining rain chances from Thursday through Monday. The chart breaks down probabilities across five sub-regions (NW, NE, SW, SE Texas Panhandle, and OK Panhandle) in 12-hour increments, using three color-coded tiers: 10–40% (light green), 40–70% (medium green), and 70–99% (dark green). Peak rain chances occur Friday during the day across most of the area, with elevated chances returning Sunday through Sunday night.
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
Didn’t take long for the message to be cheap food again. Sadly disappointing…….
We’ve hollowed out Rural America and both sides of the aisle goal is to hollow it out more…..
Cheap food has real costs…..
THEN vs. NOW: PROTEIN PRICES! 🇺🇸🥩
THEN: Under Biden, grocery prices soared by over 23% and set record levels of inflation. 📈
NOW: Under @POTUS, prices for key protein staples like eggs, bacon, chicken, and pork are DOWN from January 2025 levels! 📉
We've made significant progress, but there is still MUCH more work to do.
We will keep fighting to bring down grocery prices and make real, nutritious food more affordable for American families! 🇺🇸
We pay taxes to pay farmers to mine groundwater and burn diesel to grow corn for fuel ethanol, and a bonus subsidy bc diesel got expensive bc we pay taxes that funds war neverending - and nobody burns more fossil fuels than the US Militarys
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
In August, San Antonians planned to attend another data center hearing involving the TCEQ. But despite strong public interest, the hearing never happened. Neither did a separate data center air permit meeting in the Panhandle. More: bit.ly/4i8FCv5
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
Going to take months to fix all the fences and roads from this flood damage. Recon there'll be any emergency funding, or is that just for diesel for row crop farmers?
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
Treading water: Can New Mexico stay afloat?
“It’s always been there, since I was a little kid,” said Cisco Guevara, a 74-year-old Taos local, as he gazed along the shorelines of the Rio Grande near Pilar.
Read more:
ow.ly/lgo751018N7
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
Behind the meter gas power has become a common path for data centers to get power faster. But it turns out operating a city-scale utility is no joke (turbine shafts breaking, low uptimes). It's hell for social licenes (if you think communities hate data centers, try data centers with 40 jet engines running non-stop!). And it leaves these facilities quite exposed to future gas price risk, as Aniruddh illustrates below.
Interesting sections on energy in Anthropic's S1 filing!
There's been speculation on how data centers are managing fuel price risk from gas offtake, whether off-grid data centers will happen at scale
- 'an increasing share of data centers being developed with dedicated onsite generation independent of the grid'
- ANT exposed to fuel price volatility as they bear cost on a pass-through basis, no cap on fuel costs
- Lack of firm gas supply can delay facilities
- For grid connected assets, ANT discusses 'investing in curtailment systems' to reduce strain during peak periods
- Cooling needs may increase over time for data centers due to changing climate
- Notes risk that utilities may reallocate capacity required by ANT data centers
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
More kudos to @CatalystPod and @shaylekann going in depth with @Olya_Irzak on huge methane risks from the data center blitz. We could address the equivalent of 15% of emissions from the power sector by addressing leakage and efficiency.
Ogallala Life💧🌱🦫🦬 retweeted
It’s worthwhile to play through in your mind the kinds of motivated reasoning and self-deception that might have led academics to work on this project.
It’ll help you understand better what’s going on at AGI companies.
Purdue University's IDEAS Lab built an autonomous drone that tracks runners through dense forests completely without GPS or cloud networks.
By running 3D LiDAR mapping and obstacle-avoidance AI entirely on-chip, it can weave under tree canopies and predict target movement through blind spots in real time.
Massive implications for next-gen search & rescue and edge AI.
We've been working along W Amarillo Creek since 2024
So stinking dry, till these Fall rains! We withstood the first 4" rain pretty good.
The second though 😮💨
Lots of lessons. We have lots of aerial video but need make sense of it, and get something edited & published.
Inundation height looks to exceed 1:100 year predictions.
Some spots held, some consolidated but about 1/3 came unplugged :(
