Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:23:44.483Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Depletion of a Great Plains Resource: The Case of Shelter-belts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Glen A. Marotz
Affiliation:
Associate Professor & Chairman, Department of Geography–Meteorology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045.
Curtis J. Sorenson
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Geography–Meteorology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA.

Extract

The Great Plains Forest Shelter-belt Project began in 1935 and was the largest tree-planting programme ever attempted in the Great Plains. Its goals included soil-moisture conservation, enhancement of a seemingly featureless environment, improvement of crop yields, preservation of the soil resource, and climatic amelioration. The first four proved realistic, and quickly became the prime rationale for the programme. Millions of trees were planted, from the Dakotas to Texas, and some planting still continues under two federal cost-sharing arrangements. In many instances, the total number of hectares that have been planted exceeds the natural forest vegetation.

Type
Main Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anon. (1977). Wheat damage cited. Lawrence (Kansas) Journal World, 11 03.Google Scholar
Barlow, T. (1977). Solving the soil erosion problem. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 32, pp. 147–9.Google Scholar
Bates, C. (1934). The plains shelter-belt project. J. of Forestry, 32, pp. 978–91.Google Scholar
Bidwell, O. & McBee, C. (1973). Soils of Kansas. Kansas State Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kansas: map.Google Scholar
Carter, L. (1977). Soil erosion: The problem persists despite the billions spent on it. Science, 196, pp. 409–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chapman, H. (1934). The shelter-belt tree planting project. J. of Forestry, 32, pp. 801–3.Google Scholar
Fisher, J. (1976). Dust fears rise where windbreaks fall. Kansas City (Missouri) Times, 11 03.Google Scholar
General Accounting Office (GAO), Comptroller General (1975). Action Needed to Discourage Removal of Trees That Shelter Cropland in the Great Plains. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.: iii + 3 pp, illustr.Google Scholar
Haverbeke, D. Van (1969). Man and trees on the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Quarterly, 16, pp. 913.Google Scholar
Huntington, E. (1934). Marginal land and the shelter-belt. J. of Forestry, 32, pp. 804–12.Google Scholar
Jahn, L. (1975), Have we forgotten the ‘Dirty Thirties?’. American Forests, 81, pp. 12–4, 46–7.Google Scholar
Kellogg, R. (1934). The shelterbelt scheme. J of Forestry, 32, pp. 974–7.Google Scholar
Kollmorgen, W. & Kollmorgen, J. (1973). Landscape meteorology in the Plains area. Annals, Association of American Geographers, 65, pp. 424–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McIntyre, R. (1977). Attention to wind-breaks pays dividends on farm. Lawrence (Kansas) Journal World, 9 01.Google Scholar
Munns, E. & Stoeckler, J. (1946). How are the great plains shelter-belts. J of Forestry, 44, pp. 237–57.Google Scholar
Palmer, L. & Judd, I. (1977). Shelter-belts: Friend or foe? Farm Journal, 101, pp. D–l to D–2.Google Scholar
Porascky, J. (1977). Observing a Mushroom Grow From Space: Landsat's Unique Perspective on Center-Pivot Irrigation. A paper presented at the 109th Annual Meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science, Fort Hays, Kansas, 04 14: 12 pp. (mimeogr.).Google Scholar
Read, R. (1958). The Great Plains Shelterbelt in 1954. Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service. Station Bulletin No. 441, Fort Collins, Colorado: 125 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Reardon, S. & Dickmann, D. (1977). Cornbelt conifers. American Forests, 83, pp. 310.Google Scholar
Sander, D. (1970). Soil water and tree growth in a Great Plains windbreak. Soil Science, 110, pp. 128–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Self, H. (1971). Irrigation farming in Kansas. Trans., Kansas Academy of Science, 74, pp. 310–7.Google Scholar
Soffar, A. (1975). The Forest Shelter-belt Project, 1934–1944. J. of the West, 14, pp. 95107.Google Scholar
Sorenson, C. & Marotz, G. (1977). Changes in shelterbelt mileage statistics over four decades in Kansas. J. of Soil and Water Conserv., 32, pp. 276–81.Google Scholar
Stone, M. (1977) Effects of Center-Pivot Irrigation on Land Use, Land Tenure and Settlement Patterns on a Selected Great Plains Landscape, The Holt Table Portion of Holt County, Nebraska. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas: viii + 229 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Strickler, J. (1971). Who says trees don't grow in Kansas? American Forests, 78, pp. 2830.Google Scholar
Tinus, R. (Ed.) (1976). Shelterbelts on the Great Plains. Great Plains Agricultural Council Publication No. 78, Lincoln, Nebraska: [not available for checking].Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (cited as USDA) (1935). Possibilities of Shelter-belt Planting in the Plains Region. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.: iii + 201 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service (undated). Facts About Wind Erosion and Dust Storms on the Great Plains. Leaflet No. 394. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.: 8 pp., illustr.Google Scholar