Wildcat Bluff Discovery Center is working with Ogallala Life Conservation Inc., another local nonprofit, to help restore the water in West Amarillo Creek, which runs through their land.
Wildcat Bluff was established as a nature center in 1992 and merged with the Don Harrington Discovery Center in 2021 to expand the Discovery Center’s focus on nature, environmental science, and conservation.
Our semi-arid climate has experienced extreme and prolonged drought before, but people survived along the breaks of the Canadian River valley, where springs and creeks flowed clear and clean. The water was a natural discharge from the base of the High Plains Aquifer system, contributing to West Amarillo Creek’s flow. That water flow formed the bluff we all know and love, and natives enjoyed the live water, fished, swam, danced, and played along the creek.
The current ecological conditions are the result of centuries of man-made disturbance. The Comanche grew immense horse herds that wintered in the riparian bottoms, and the trees were torn down for fodder. Then, a few decades of immense sheep herds. Then, the famed cattlemen and their cows. Then, the farmers and irrigation leading to regional groundwater depletion. The creek dried up in the 1970s, and water issues and shortages in the area have become more frequent.