HIST 316L Week 7 Discussion

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Geography

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Apr 3, 2024

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docx

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Week 7 Discussion 4. Why did the environmental movement have such huge support in the American West? Does it still? The early environmental movement gained great support in the American West due to one of the largest environmental disasters that occurred there because of a culmination of farming practices and 4 major droughts happening in succession. Since the Homestead Act of 1862, the Great Plains saw a shift from grazing to farming. With population growth, demands for certain crops grew, such as wheat, which meant more and more acreage of the Plains were plowed and planted. 1 The earlier settlers brought with them crops and farming practices that were successful in the more humid eastern U.S., but ended up being very unsuitable for the Great Plains. However, since the earliest settlements coincided with a wet cycle on the plains, they continued their practices. 2 This, along with over-grazing of what prairie grasses were left, caused the Great Plains to became progressively bare with time. Combine this with 4 major droughts, the first of which started in 1930, and the prairie winds began lifting the soil into the sky. 3 The four droughts occurred in rapid succession, with no time in between for the land of the Great Plains to recover enough before the next drought hit. With the droughts occurring after years of improper land management practices for the plains soil, the effects created what was considered the most widely accepted worst drought on record for the U.S. at that time. 4 In addition, this culmination of events also caused the worst dust storms experienced by Americans. The effects of the Dust Bowl dust storms were not only limited to the American West. Dust from the first major dust storm were recorded as far as New York in November of 1933. 5 Additionally, dust was seen as far south as Florida from the second major dust storm in 1934. 6 So these storms were not just driving out settlers to California, but were affecting people back in the eastern part of the U.S. as well. Because of how much the Dust Bowl storms affected so many people, and especially devastated so many in the West, President Roosevelt’s administration put many programs in place to provide relief to the Great Plains. One of those measures was one of the first long-term, proactive plans to reduce vulnerability to drought in the future. This program was called the Soil Conservation Services. This taskforce stressed soil conservation ideas and plans for the Great Plains, created the first soil conservation districts, and carried out demonstration projects to show the benefits of proper soil management, such as contouring and terracing. 7 This program later evolved into the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Because of the success seen in the programs of the Soil Conservation Services, people living in the West supported the early environmental movement. The environmental conditions that caused the Dust Bowl storms in the 1930s can still occur today. The Great Plains suffered another major wide spread drought in 1988 to 1989. 8 Because those conditions continue to be a threat, the American West is still fully active in the environment movement.
1. Dust Bowl Migrations. u.d. Ebook. Library of Congress . Accessed May 1. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/dust-bowl-migration/pdf/ teacher_guide.pdf . 2-4. "The Dust Bowl". u.d.   University of Nebraska - Drought.Unl.Edu . Accessed May 1 2020. https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/Home.aspx . 5-6. Mattice, W. 1935. "Dust Storms, November 1933 To May 1934". U.S. Weather Bureau , Monthly Weather Review, 53-54. Accessed May 1 2020. ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/mwr/063/mwr-063-02-0053.pdf . 7-8. “The Dust Bowl”, University of Nebraska .
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