4-3 Case Study: Grassland Soil Erosion

Both my spouses and my families have been practicing agriculture for years. This has introduced me to many of the programs that the Farm Services Agency has to offer. On my mother’s side, they have participated in the CRP Highly Erodible Lands Initiative program. By enrolling in the CRP program, ground they farm in the hills has benefited by increasing the water quality to intermittent streams below and provided habitat for deer, turkeys, and other local wildlife. Their farm located near the Missouri River has some farmers enrolled in the Flood Plain Wetlands initiative in order to combat loss of crops from flooding. It offers waterfowl habitat and minimizes risk in planting crops that flood from year to year. My father-in-law has been enrolled in the SAFE program and he is trying to re-habilitate habitats for prairie chickens. In western Kansas there are wildlife guzzlers on some of the land enrolled in

Erosion is a process where natural forces like water, wind, ice, and gravity wear away rocks and soil. Erosion occurs at the Earth’s surface, and has no effect on the Earth’s mantle and core. Water erosion is the removal of soil particles by heavy rainfall or running water. “While the causes of erosion by water are generally natural, water erosion is usually caused by rainfall and runoff on a slope” (GEI Works Erosion Pollution). “The process of water erosion usually occurs on stream and river banks, sea shores and seaside cliffs” (Reference.com).

In the second section of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pastoral grass and “organic foods” are the main focus and many agree that grass is a far better choice for animals that graze. By switching a cows diet back to normal food, will impact the market of food prices because the supply would not be able to keep up with the demand, thus making the food market a disaster, or at least that’s what I picture when I think of the outcome. The demand for beef now is so great that these cattle are being slaughtered at roughly 12 months, that’s not even half of the total life-span they’re supposed to live. A grass fed cow takes about 4-5 years to be ready for some great steaks, but thanks to our wonder crop, “corn”, we can slice that

While there are millions of acres of public land for these wild horses to be kept on, there are also many other animals on the land too, leading to either fully removing the wild horses or introducing predators. Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, points out that the horses are not actually overpopulated, “Wild horses aren't overpopulated, just overcrowded by cattle which graze the same land” (Graslie). Roy also states in Serri Graslie’s article that there is a more natural way to take care of this problem of there being too many horses, “That can mean removing cattle and introducing more natural predators.” Others talk about how the horses are overcrowded due to other animals that should be removed too,

In efforts to restore the land back to normal, the federal government along with other agencies, created new rules and regulations to help improve the rehabilitation of the land. Some adjustments included: imposing that farmers plant trees and grass to anchor the soil, to plow and terrace in contour patterns to hold rainwater, and also was the emergence of allowing certain parts of the farmland to lie fallow each year so the soil there can regenerate. The government also purchased 11.3 million acres of land to so that the land would not be used for farming and other agriculture processes.

The rangelands of the west are the legendary rolling hills and wide-open spaces of American history and folklore. Federal and nonfederal rangelands include grasslands, deserts, tundra, mountains, canyons, and riparian areas. Federal rangelands are primarily managed by the Bureau of Land Management, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Rangelands include wilderness areas and provide habitat for millions of plants, wild animals, and fish, including 74 threatened or endangered species (“Rangeland Health”). Rangeland is the base of forage for most of the livestock industry in America. They also provide recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat, and off-site

“Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality”.1 These are the words of President Woodrow Wilson during his “Declaration of Neutrality” on August 19, 1914. Something crazy would happen, the United States would enter The Great War a three years later. A lot of things influenced the United States to finally get to their eventual declaration of war on Germany. The two factors I thought most significant were: the United States’ economic interests favoring Great Britain and Wilson’s insatiable need to have a voice at the peace talks in Europe.

This causes the desertification and it also slows down progress for finding areas that can be medicine for certain diseases. Grasslands act as a big sponge, as they are able to absorb the rain that falls throughout the grassland. Because of this, there's fertile land, and abundance of nutrients for migrating wildlife. In south Africa, companies have put non-native trees in the grassland which is taking away nutrients from the area. In the Florida Everglades, they're only about 80 Florida Panthers left. The big problem that I notice is that we are able to make plenty of land for agriculture but not for people. In only three years, farmers in Zambia have created food security for 16,000 farmers. Glaciers are melting all run the world, however the speed of this has went up three times as much in the last 50

1 The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has stepped in to provide restorative practices upon 500,000 acres of heavily degraded public grasslands. This land is suffering from severe soil erosion as well as degradation due to overgrazing. The suppression of natural fires has caused shrubs and invasive weeds to encroach upon the grasslands. A full scale assessment will take place on this land before restoration efforts begin. The first thing that would need to be assessed is the soil, for it is eroding and holding little nutrient value. Samples would be taken of this soil from various parts of the grasslands including the eroded gullies. Each soil sample would be taken from at least 1 foot below the surface, to test for carbon richness below the topsoil. These would then be tested for texture, density, water retention, and chemical composition. Typically, powerful, healthy soil will contain amounts of both Nitrogen and Phosphorous, which are essential nutrients in sustainable plant growth. These samples would also be tested for any build-up of salts, something known as soil salinization. Unhealthy, salinized soil is created over years of over-hydrating and deep plowing. Excess water will suffocate root systems of once-healthy crops, and salinized soils will reduce crop output up to 20% (Withgott &Brennan, 2011). The next assessment would be in the shrubs and invasive weed species on the land. Knowing the volume and location of these plants gives way to a better understanding of

A famous example of overgrazing is the Kaibab plateau in northern Arizona in the early 1900’s. In summary, cattle was introduced to the plateau and thus created the problem of overgrazing the land. Then in 1906 Theodore Roosevelt declared the area the Grand Canyon National Game Preserve. The regulators of the area officially banned hunting of deer in 1907, in addition, the extermination of predators of deer was put into effect. By 1920 the deer population had risen out of control from these laws and hunting was reopened. This overpopulation of deer caused overgrazing to happen once again and 60,000 deer starved within the next two winters. The image above shows the population of deer from 1905

Every year the Wildlife Bureau of the DNR purchases land for public use and wildlife habitats. The restoration of Iowa’s prairie land is considered important because it can restore the natural ecosystem, benefit water quality, and reduces soil erosion caused by runoff. Other farming practices such as having buffer strips near streams and cover crops have helped manage the soil erosion in Iowa, but since 1850 we have lost nearly 14 inches in topsoil depth and growing.

Iowa became a state in 1846 and by 1860 almost the entire state was settled and farmed by Euro-Americans. The settling led to the devastation of prairie in Iowa. The beautiful lush grasses, forbes, and sedges were being cultivated and planted with crops along with severe overgrazing and much more. Prairie is a habitat type that gets a lot of focus in Iowa today. It gets so much focus because it is such a huge part of Iowa’s ecological history. “Before the advent of white man, prairie covered approximately 84 percent of the area of Iowa”. (Aikman, 1959) “Tallgrass prairie is one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America (Sampson and Knoppf, 1996), with less less than one percent of its original extent remaining.” (Rowe, Fargione, Holland,

The experiences of Australian women in both World War 1 and World War 2 were similar but also different. WWI was fought from 1914 to 1918, and WW2 was fought from 1939 to 1945. These were the biggest military conflicts in the history of man. The main areas of change in Australian women around these times were employment, roles and positions in the war, and the attitudes towards women at these times. In WW1, the main occupation for Australian women was nursing. In World War 2, however, women were given the opportunity to do ‘a man’s job’ for the first time.

If that isn’t enough, the Amazon rainforest is being affected by beef production; four-fifths of the deforestation is due to cattle ranching (Scheer). This is because there needs to be room for the livestock to roam and crops to feed the animals. There isn’t enough space for humans and our livestock since reported by Suzanne Rice, writer for the Journal of Thought, “30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is... involved in livestock production” (Rice 118). 30 percent doesn’t leave us with much and it is no wonder we are deforesting these rainforests. However, although cattle seems to be the most detrimental livestock factor to the environmental problem, they are not alone.

Did you ever wonder what people did a long time ago? Well I’m going to answer that question for you but comparing two special civilizations. I’m comparing Ancient Egypt and Ancient India. So let’s see some differences and similarities. Let’s see how different life was back then that long, long time ago.