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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CSU East Bay Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com. The Worst Hard Time. The Dirty 30s. FDR. Humanize the Problem Stop New Settlements/Farms Stabilize Prices Stop Erosion. FDR. Humanize the Problem Support for government assistance WPA
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CSU East Bay Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com The Worst Hard Time The Dirty 30s
Kevin P. Dincher FDR
Humanize the Problem Stop New Settlements/Farms Stabilize Prices Stop Erosion Kevin P. Dincher FDR
Humanize the Problem • Support for government assistance • WPA • Visual Media Kevin P. Dincher FDR
Homesteading • Ended in 1934 • Buy back land • 4 million acres • Restored grassland Kevin P. Dincher FDR
Kevin P. Dincher FDR Stabilize Prices • Summer, 1933: Agriculture Adjustment Administration • Subsidies to create artificial scarcity • Crops were ploughed up or left to rot • 6 million pigs were killed and discarded • October, 1933: Federal Surplus Relief Corporation • Divert commodities (apples, beans, canned beef and cotton) to local relief organizations • 1935: Drought Relief Service • Cattle
Kevin P. Dincher FDR Farm Subsidies • 1922: Grain Futures Act • 1929: Agricultural Marketing Act • 1933: Agriculture Adjustment Administration • 1930: • 25% of the country's population resided on the nation's 6,000,000 small farms • Give extra money for crop • Guaranteed price floor • 2004-2007: wheat • Paid 52 cents/bushel • $3.92/bushel of wheat • Price: $3.80 • Subsidy: $.52 + $.12 = $.64
Kevin P. Dincher FDR Farm Subsidies • 1922: Grain Futures Act • 1929: Agricultural Marketing Act • 1933: Agriculture Adjustment Administration • 2000 • only 2% of the U.S. population residing on farms • 157,000 large farms accounted for 72% of farm sales
1934 • Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act Kevin P. Dincher FDR
1934 • Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act • Delayed foreclosure of a bankrupt farmers' property for five years • During that 5 years, farmer made rental payments • The farmer could then buy back the property or remain in possession as a paying tenant • Purchase: • Current appraised value • 6 years • 1% interest Kevin P. Dincher FDR
Stop Erosion • 1933: Soil Erosion Service • Department of the Interior • Hugh Bennett • 1935: Soil Conservation Service • Department of Agriculture • 1994: Natural Resources Conservation Service Kevin P. Dincher FDR
Kevin P. Dincher FDR Stop Erosion • 1933: Soil Erosion Service • Technical Assistance to farmers • Early years • Studies/surveys • Educate farmers • crop rotation • strip farming • contour plowing • terracing • 1937 • $1/acre • 1938 • 65% reduction in blowing soil • 1939 • drought ended
Kevin P. Dincher FDR Stop Erosion • 1933: Soil Erosion Service • Technical Assistance to farmers • 1934: Great Plains Shelterbelt • 200 million trees • Abilene, Tx to Canadian Border • 1942: • 30,233 shelterbelts • 220 million trees • 100 miles wide • 18,600 miles long • $75 million
Kevin P. Dincher After the Drought • 1939 • Drought ended • 1940-1944 • Amount of land devoted to wheat farming expanded by 3 million acres • Dust Bowl: $5 • WW II: $50 - $100 • Timothy Egan: • "a classic tale of human beings pushing too hard against nature, and nature pushing back."
Kevin P. Dincher Ogallala Aquifer • 1950s • 174,000 mi² • Underlies about 80 percent of the High Plains • 30% of all ground water used for irrigation in the United States • drinking water to 82% of the people who live on the High Plains
Kevin P. Dincher Ogallala Aquifer • Rate of extraction exceeds the rate of recharge, water level elevations are decreasing • Overall water levels have dropped about 10%
Kevin P. Dincher Ogallala Aquifer • Environmental Controversies • 1980s: Nuclear Waste Site (Deaf Smith County, TX) • 2008: Keystone Pipeline
Kevin P. Dincher Great Plains Conservation and Restoration
500,000 acres of U.S. National Park • Badlands National Park • Theodore Roosevelt National Park • Carlsbad Caverns National Park • Wind Cave National Park • 15 National Historic Sites Kevin P. Dincher Preserving the Great Plains
Kevin P. Dincher Badlands National Park, SD242,756 acres
Kevin P. Dincher Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND: 70,477 acres
Kevin P. Dincher Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM: 46,766 acres
Kevin P. Dincher Wind Cave, SD: 28,295 acres
1937: Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act • 20 National Grasslands (3,838,280 acres) • Like National Forests: may be open for hunting, grazing, mineral extraction, recreation and other uses • 1 Grassland Preserve Kevin P. Dincher Prairie Conservation and Restoration
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Oklahoma Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Illinois Tall Grass Prairie Preserve, Manitoba Kevin P. Dincher TallgrassPreserves
Kevin P. Dincher Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Kansas
400,000 square miles of tallgrass prairie • The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service • 2009: The Nature Conservancy introduced a small herd of bison Kevin P. Dincher Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Kansas
Kevin P. Dincher Tallgrass Prairie PreserveOklahoma
Largest tract of remaining tallgrass prairie in the world • 45,000 acres • Owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy • Chapman-Barnard ranch (Ben Johnson, Jr.) • Osage Indian Reservation • Retained sub-surface mineral rights • 2,500 Bison Kevin P. Dincher Tallgrass Prairie PreserveOklahoma
Kevin P. Dincher American Bison
Kevin P. Dincher American Bison • 1600: 50 million Bison • Shaped the grasslands • Other species • prairie dogs • black-footed ferrets • burrowing owls • Turkeys • Songbirds • 1906: 1000 Bison
Kevin P. Dincher American Bison • 1907: Bronx Zoo • American Bison Society sent 15 Bison to Oklahoma • Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge • American Bison • Rocky Mountain Elk • White-tailed Deer • Long-horn Cattle
Kevin P. Dincher American Bison • Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge • Grassland Management • Native Plants • Mowing
Kevin P. Dincher American Bison • Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge • Grassland Management • Native Plants • Mowing • Fire
2013: • 500,000 Bison in the US Kevin P. Dincher American Bison
Kevin P. Dincher American Bison
2013: • 500,000 Bison in the US • 20,000 wild Bison • Classification: lower risk but conservation dependent Kevin P. Dincher American Bison
Kevin P. Dincher Black-footed Ferret
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." Kevin P. Dincher John Muir Misquote!
Kevin P. Dincher John Muir "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.“ My First Summer in the Sierra
Kevin P. Dincher John Muir "When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.” Journal Entry July 27, 1869
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CSU East Bay Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com The Worst Hard Time The Dirty 30s
Kevin P. Dincher 5 Fridays, July 26, August 2, 9, 16, 2310:30 AM to 12:30 PM The Founding Mothers As American as Motherhood and Apple Pie