Rattlesnake Creek

Is it possible for profitable agriculture to coexist alongside healthy ecosystems? 

Heidi Mehl, director of water and agriculture for The Nature Conservancy, believes so. 

"It's not just that we can sustain farming and wildlife together, it's that we need both," she says. "Our future depends on it."

One of the places where that idea is being put to the test is around Rattlesnake Creek in central Kansas. The 95-mile stream flows through Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, where large salt marshes provide critical habitat for migratory birds like the endangered whooping crane. 

Wildlife needs the wetlands to have enough water flowing from Rattlesnake Creek. Local farmers need water to irrigate their crops. These competing needs have caused tension, but there’s a solution.

“We can restore the flow of water in Rattlesnake Creek if we reduce water use,” says Mehl. “Protecting the refuge is vital. We need to find the solutions that support everyone who relies on the creek for water, which means supporting both wildlife and agriculture.”

When More Trees Isn't the Answer

New technology won’t fix everything. Sometimes an old-fashioned approach is needed. For Rattlesnake Creek, that means chopping down trees.

Most of Kansas is naturally devoid of trees except along riverbanks. Before humans began cultivating, nearly all this land was prairie where grasses, flowers and shrubs dominate the landscape instead of trees. This is true of the area around Rattlesnake Creek, known as the Great Bend Sand Prairies because of the sandy soil. In the 19th century, people introduced non-native ornamental trees like salt cedar and Russian olive to serve as windbreaks. These invasive trees drink up more than their share of water, depleting groundwater and further reducing how much water is left to flow in the creek.

"Rebalancing water use in the Rattlesnake Creek watershed isn’t an easy task," cautions Mehl. "It's going to take effort from a lot of people and organizations, but The Nature Conservancy and I are committed to this work. We have to keep bringing people together to find the solutions that work for both nature and people."

Our Continued Commitment

Our work in the Rattlesnake Creek watershed reflects The Nature Conservancy’s long-term commitment to communities facing real and rising water challenges. With funding from the Walmart Foundation, we have continued partnering with farmers, local institutions and water managers to better understand what a resilient future looks like in a region where agriculture, ecosystems and water availability are deeply intertwined. This is not a one-off project but one part of a sustained effort to stand with farmers and communities as they navigate increasing risk and uncertainty.

A key milestone in this phase of work was the completion of an assessment of social and environmental conditions in Rattlesnake Creek using the LandScale platform. The assessment provides a shared, data-driven picture of the watershed, capturing local priorities around the resilience of water resources and agricultural production and overall health of the ecosystem. Importantly, LandScale goes beyond diagnosing challenges—it creates a common reference point that helps align farmers, companies and other partners around where action is most needed and where progress can be measured over time. You can explore the full Rattlesnake Creek LandScale assessment on the LandScale website.

Looking ahead, our next phase of work builds directly on this foundation. We are focused on advancing locally identified solutions designed by and for this region that also create credible pathways for companies sourcing from Rattlesnake Creek to invest in achieving shared outcomes. By helping connect on-farm practices, water management strategies and innovative financing approaches, we aim to enable companies to share in de-risking regenerative agriculture that supports long-term resilience for farmers and ecosystems alike. This is how landscape collaboration moves from assessment to action and how commitments translate into durable change on the ground. To learn more about the identified solutions, please see the “Transition Pathways” section in the Flyway and Farmland: Farmer Typology and Transition Pathways Report.