A hot summer is ahead, and already three ponds are dry, with no relief on the horizon at the Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco.

The soil at the bed of some of the ponds that are home to birds and alligators is cracked from the dryness. Park superintendent Javier De Leon says it's been like this since December.

“That's what we try to tell a lot of visitors who've been coming for years, they get a shock when they see the dry wetlands,” De Leon said.

According to De Leon, the park’s irrigation district was told last fall they wouldn’t get any more water due to low water levels at the Amistad and Falcon dams that provide water to the entire Rio Grande Valley. 

“Even if we have water available in our accounts, we cannot use any irrigation water — which is what we normally use to fill our wetland system,” De Leon said.

Without these water sources, birds will go elsewhere, and terrestrial animals such as bobcats and tortoises will need to move.

At the other end of the park, the deeper Alligator Lake still has water, but its banks are exposed, and levels are lower.

Visiting the park now isn't the same for Jim Brookes. He travels from the Houston area every year to visit the park.

“I've never seen it without water, and it is bone dry,” Brookes said. “And we've been coming down here for 15 years. It does impact you emotionally for a lot of visitors."

At its peak, the wetlands at Estero Llano Grande State Park were home to thousands of birds and the ecosystem that came with them.

It's now hard to spot wildlife at the park.

Park staff worry that the creatures like amphibians and plants that depend on the lake won't endure this long of a change. 

The park is working to repair a well system that will give them some water, but even with that, they say it'll only fill in a fraction of the pond.

They're waiting for rain, and asking everyone to conserve.

Watch the video above for the full story.