Dryland Development in the Americas Whereof What's Past is Prologue (The Tempest, Act II) James F Reynolds Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment Durham, North Carolina USA Desert Restoration Bites - 6 Tales from 6 Continents COST / Old Royal Naval College / University of Greenwich 8-January-2013 London, United Kingdom
THE DUST BOWL chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history The frenzied wheat boom of the Great Plow-Up followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation
Grassland of the United States Northern Mixed Prairie Shortgrass Steppe Southern Mixed Prairie Gulf Coast Prairie Tallgrass Prairie DUST BOWL SOURCE: Lauenroth et al. (1994)
The Great Plow-Up (1890-1935) 1910-20s wet years + high wheat prices + WW I = classic boom & speculative land bubble More land plowed under Prosperous farmers with women and children stand in abundant wheat field. Molt, Montana (1927) Credit: Mildred Romundstad Madson
Migrant man looking up at billboard. Dubuque, Iowa (April 1940) Credits: John Vachon; The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
1909 US Bureau of Soils The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possesses. It is the one resource that cannot be exhausted; that cannot be used up.
Boom! Then Bust. Two farmers harvesting grain with farm equipment. Costilla County, Colorado (October 1 Credits: Arthur Rothstein; The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Great Depression Markets evaporate Land left bare/abandoned + Drought of the 1930s = Human-Ecological disaster Abandoned farm north of Dalhart, Texas (1938) Credits: Dorothea Lange; The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
A car is chased by a "black blizzard" in the Texas Panhandle (March 1936) Credits: Arthur Rothstein The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
A young boy covers his mouth during a dust storm on farm. Cimarron County, Oklahoma (April 1936) Credits: Arthur Rothstein; The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Migrant Mother series. Woman with children in a tent. Nipomo, California (1936) Credits: Dorothea Lange; The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Is the past just a prologue of what's to come?
Ogallala Aquifer
Is the past just a prologue of what's to come? Massive dust storm, N. Oklahoma 19-Oct-2012
That will never happen again. Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese
Tri-City Border: (Las Cruces, El Paso, Juarez) ARIDnet - Americas Huasteca Sur, Sierra Madre Oriental (Huichihuayan), MEXICO La Amapola, MEXICO Nochixtlán (Mixteca Alta), MEXICO La Sepultura (Chiapas) MEXICO El Alto Patía COLOMBIA Quesungual (Santa Rosa, Guarita, Candelaria,Lempira) HONDURAS) Salar de Uyuni, BOLIVIA Región de Coquimbo, CHILE The San Luis (Villa Mercedes), Central ARGENTINA Research Coordination Network
Salar de Uyuni in southern Bolivia
Altiplano (Andes High Plains)
Farm communities in the Salar de Uni region Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) of Bolivia (Altiplano) Native Andes of Bolivia, Chile, Peru Quinoa "mother grain" in the Inca language Inca rice eaten continuously for 5,000 years as staple part of diet Remains important food crop for descendants
Salar de Uni region of Bolivia (Altiplano)
Organic stores in USA & Europe DEMAND Soil Fertility Wind, water erosion NGOs, USAID, etc Quinoa Introduction of tractors Land area of cultivation $ Family, community cooperation $$ Profits Health & Cultural traditions
Shakespeare s Tempest, Act 2, Scene I Full quote: Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come, In yours and my discharge. It is not only that events of the past have lead to what we see happening today but also that it is up to us what the future will bring
A N T O N I O Ousting his brother made him Duke Milan Are more foul deeds planned by this ruthless man? Whereof what's past is prologue
Abandoned farm with windmill and farm equipment. Dalhart, Texas (June 1938) Credits: Dorothea Lange; The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division