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Revising the Dust Bowl: High Above the Kansas Grasslands
Kenneth M Sylvester1, Eric S A Rupley2
1Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
Environmental History
|October 8, 2014
Summary
New Deal land programs wrongly assumed widespread misuse of submarginal land in Kansas during the Dust Bowl era. Historical analysis shows poor land use was rare, even in vulnerable regions.
Area of Science:
- Agricultural History
- Environmental Science
- Soil Science
Background:
- The New Deal era implemented land retirement programs aimed at addressing perceived widespread misuse of submarginal land.
- Historical accounts suggest significant ecological and economic challenges in regions like the Dust Bowl during the 1930s.
- Previous assessments of land use practices during the Great Depression lacked detailed scientific evaluation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To reconstruct historical land cover patterns in Depression-era Kansas.
- To compare the spatial distribution of cultivated lands with areas identified as submarginal in modern soil surveys.
- To critically evaluate the scientific basis of New Deal land retirement programs.
Main Methods:
- Reconstruction of land cover from historical aerial photographs of Kansas.
- Comparison of historical crop field locations with modern digital soil survey maps identifying submarginal lands.
- Spatial analysis correlating land use with land capability.
Main Results:
- Cultivated lands were infrequently located on lands currently classified as submarginal.
- The Dust Bowl region showed particularly low instances of land misuse.
- New Deal programs likely overestimated the extent of 'bad land use' due to insufficient scientific assessment.
Conclusions:
- The scientific basis for New Deal land retirement programs was flawed, overestimating land misuse.
- Historical land use in the Dust Bowl region was more conservative than previously assumed.
- Modern soil science reveals a lower prevalence of cultivation on unsuitable lands than policy decisions at the time suggested.
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