Period+3+-+Dust+Bowl

Details:  ·   An era of harsh dust storms causing major natural and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands  ·   Caused by severe drought coupled with decades of widespread farming without crop rotation or other techniques to prevent erosion.  ·   Such grasses normally kept the soil in place and moisture trapped, even during periods of drought and high winds.  ·   During the drought of the 1930s, with the grasses destroyed, the soil dried, turned to dust, and blew away eastwards and southwards in large dark clouds.  ·   At times the clouds blackened the sky, reaching all the way to East Coast cities such as New York and Washington, D.C.   ·    Much of the soil ended up deposited in the Atlantic Ocean. The Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres centered on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and adjacent parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/040324_dust_bowl_04.jpg
 * The Dust Bowl (**** 1930-1936) “The Dirty Thirties” **

Causes: ·  Poor agricultural practices and years of sustained drought caused the Dust Bowl. ·  The grass covering the prairie lands for centuries held the soil in place and maintained moisture. With deep plowing from increased farming, the grass holding the soil was eliminated. ·  Combined with the drought, the soil became very dry and loose and was simply carried away by wind making dust clouds which further prevented rainfall. ·  The catastrophe, which began as the economic effects of the Great Depression were intensifying, caused an exodus from Texas, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Great Plains, with more than 500,000 Americans left homeless. ·  Plains grasslands had been deeply plowed and planted to wheat. ·  During the years when there was adequate rainfall, the land produced bountiful crops. ·   But as the droughts of the early 1930s deepened, the farmers kept plowing and planting and nothing would grow. ·  The ground cover that held the soil in place was gone. ·  The Plains winds whipped across the fields raising billowing clouds of dust to the skies. http://argenteditions.com/images/large/fsa/fsa-dust-bowl-farm-32396-700.jpg

Laws/Policies as a result of the Dust Bowl  ·   Governmental programs designed to conserve soil and restore the ecological balance of the nation were implemented.  ·   Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes established the Soil Erosion Service in August of 1933 under Hugh Hammond Bennett. o   It was later reorganized and renamed the Soil Conservation Service in 1935, and is now the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).  ·   Additionally, the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation was created after over six million pigs were slaughtered and went to waste in order to stabilize prices.  ·   The FSRC diverted agricultural commodities to relief organizations. Apples, beans, canned beef; flour and pork products were distributed through local relief channels.  ·   In 1935, the federal government formed a Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief activities. o    The DRS bought cattle in counties that were designated emergency areas, for $14 to $20 a head  ·   President Roosevelt ordered that the Civilian Conservation Corps plant a huge belt of more than 200 million trees from Canada to Abilene, Texas, to break the wind, hold water in the soil, and hold the soil itself in place.  ·   The administration also began to educate farmers on soil conservation and anti-erosion techniques, including crop rotation, strip farming, contour plowing, terracing and other beneficial farming practices.  ·    In 1937, the federal government began an aggressive campaign to encourage Dust Bowlers to adopt planting and plowing methods that conserve the soil.

http://hollyhistoricalsociety.org/images/dust%20bowl%201.jpg

Sources: http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html http://www.ccccok.org/museum/dustbowl.html http://www.essortment.com/all/dustbowl_rcmk.htm

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