Comment box Scope: summary, information, takeaway Tone: neutral Opinion: final paragraph only Sarcasm/humor: none A video describing the New Deal project to create a protective “wall” of tree...
Comment box
Scope: summary, information, takeaway
Tone: neutral
Opinion: final paragraph only
Sarcasm/humor: none
A video describing the New Deal project to create a protective “wall” of tree shelterbelts for Dust Bowl farms in the 1930s and ‘40s. The benefits were great: increasing agricultural yields, reducing unhealthy and dangerous dust storms, and promoting ecological diversity.
This stuff needs oversight though. Without a bureaucracy to maintain healthy forests, private individuals rarely have the wherewithal to upkeep anything beyond the bare minimum (their crops themselves).
We’ve had nasty droughts since then, but the federal government agencies responsible for land management have done a relatively good job encouraging a minimum level of tree and shrub planting in conjunction with crops. As a result, the dust storms from the Depression haven’t been quite as much of an issue.
We should be striving to replicate these successes with additional sustainable agricultural practices to properly integrate humanity into the earth’s ecosystems, not stomp on them.
Interesting video. I think the way I was taught it in school was that the main countermeasure was better farming practices, as opposed to a large government works project. The fact that we don’t...
Interesting video. I think the way I was taught it in school was that the main countermeasure was better farming practices, as opposed to a large government works project. The fact that we don’t have this scale of dust storms despite poor maintenance of the shelterbelts probably shows how other changes were equally important.
Comment box
A video describing the New Deal project to create a protective “wall” of tree shelterbelts for Dust Bowl farms in the 1930s and ‘40s. The benefits were great: increasing agricultural yields, reducing unhealthy and dangerous dust storms, and promoting ecological diversity.
This stuff needs oversight though. Without a bureaucracy to maintain healthy forests, private individuals rarely have the wherewithal to upkeep anything beyond the bare minimum (their crops themselves).
We’ve had nasty droughts since then, but the federal government agencies responsible for land management have done a relatively good job encouraging a minimum level of tree and shrub planting in conjunction with crops. As a result, the dust storms from the Depression haven’t been quite as much of an issue.
We should be striving to replicate these successes with additional sustainable agricultural practices to properly integrate humanity into the earth’s ecosystems, not stomp on them.
Interesting video. I think the way I was taught it in school was that the main countermeasure was better farming practices, as opposed to a large government works project. The fact that we don’t have this scale of dust storms despite poor maintenance of the shelterbelts probably shows how other changes were equally important.