Drought shrinks McConaughy

OGALLALA - Lake McConaughy is Nebraska's ocean. When full, the lake stretches west for 22 miles from Kingsley Dam to where it meets the North Platte River, the source of most of its water. ...more

Beneath ground lies treasure

For decades, water has been diverted from the Platte River into more than 500 miles of canals and pipelines to irrigate thousands of acres of crops in south-central Nebraska. ...more

Officials watch water law consequences

At 77, Clayton Lukow can remember watching his father lose his corn crop west of Hastings to the 1934 drought. In a state that had yet to discover the depths of its irrigation riches, the corn withered and turned white, a complete crop failure, at 2 feet tall. ...more

Cities want great voice on water use

LB962 is aimed considerably at an agricultural sector that annually accounts for 95 percent of all water use in the state. But dozens of municipalities are realizing they're also affected by new state regulations that ban well-drilling in areas where the Department of Natural Resources has determined water demand meets or exceeds supply. ...more

Nebraska's farmers adapt as drought continues

John Delp has farmed in central Nebraska for 35 years. This is the first time he's had to deal with serious drought. "Over the years there've been periods of drought," said Delp. "But we've never been in this situation before." ...more

Cooperative agreement seen as solution to saving imperiled species

They call it a cooperative agreement. The problem: It's been tough to get people to cooperate, and so far there's no final agreement on what should be done to help four endangered or threatened species survive along the Platte River in central Nebraska. ...more

Threat to Platte wildlife grows as habitat disappears

In 1973, Congress decided U.S. citizens couldn't do without wildlife and enacted the Endangered Species Act. Along the Platte River in Nebraska, the act protects three imperiled species of birds - the whooping crane, piping plover and interior least tern - and one species of fish, the pallid sturgeon. These species share a reliance on the habitat endowed by the Platte. ...more

Cranes contribute to area economy

Margery Nicolson of California has visited Nebraska almost every spring since 1999 to watch the sandhill crane migration through the Platte River Valley. She volunteers as a guide at the Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon, which thousands of people visit each year to see the cranes. ...more

• Sandhill cranes stop along the Platte to refuel

• Watersheds go with the flow and bring it all together

• Aquifer an unseen sea that quenches our thirst

• New study may affect water management

• The journey of the Platte begins with a snowflake