The Dirty 30s

1. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CSU East Bay Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com The Worst Hard Time The Dirty 30s

2. Kevin P. Dincher

3. Kevin P. Dincher FDR

4. Humanize the Problem Stop New Settlements/Farms Stabilize Prices Stop Erosion Kevin P. Dincher FDR

5. Humanize the Problem • Support for government assistance • WPA • Visual Media Kevin P. Dincher FDR

6. Homesteading • Ended in 1934 • Buy back land • 4 million acres • Restored grassland Kevin P. Dincher FDR

7. Kevin P. Dincher FDR Stabilize Prices • Summer, 1933: Agriculture Adjustment Administration • Subsidies to create artificial scarcity • Crops were ploughed up or left to rot • 6 million pigs were killed and discarded • October, 1933: Federal Surplus Relief Corporation • Divert commodities (apples, beans, canned beef and cotton) to local relief organizations • 1935: Drought Relief Service • Cattle

8. Kevin P. Dincher FDR Farm Subsidies • 1922: Grain Futures Act • 1929: Agricultural Marketing Act • 1933: Agriculture Adjustment Administration • 1930: • 25% of the country's population resided on the nation's 6,000,000 small farms • Give extra money for crop • Guaranteed price floor • 2004-2007: wheat • Paid 52 cents/bushel • $3.92/bushel of wheat • Price: $3.80 • Subsidy: $.52 + $.12 = $.64

9. Kevin P. Dincher FDR Farm Subsidies • 1922: Grain Futures Act • 1929: Agricultural Marketing Act • 1933: Agriculture Adjustment Administration • 2000 • only 2% of the U.S. population residing on farms • 157,000 large farms accounted for 72% of farm sales

10. Kevin P. Dincher

11. 1934 • Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act Kevin P. Dincher FDR

12. 1934 • Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act • Delayed foreclosure of a bankrupt farmers' property for five years • During that 5 years, farmer made rental payments • The farmer could then buy back the property or remain in possession as a paying tenant • Purchase: • Current appraised value • 6 years • 1% interest Kevin P. Dincher FDR

13. Stop Erosion • 1933: Soil Erosion Service • Department of the Interior • Hugh Bennett • 1935: Soil Conservation Service • Department of Agriculture • 1994: Natural Resources Conservation Service Kevin P. Dincher FDR

14. Kevin P. Dincher FDR Stop Erosion • 1933: Soil Erosion Service • Technical Assistance to farmers • Early years • Studies/surveys • Educate farmers • crop rotation • strip farming • contour plowing • terracing • 1937 • $1/acre • 1938 • 65% reduction in blowing soil • 1939 • drought ended

15. Kevin P. Dincher FDR Stop Erosion • 1933: Soil Erosion Service • Technical Assistance to farmers • 1934: Great Plains Shelterbelt • 200 million trees • Abilene, Tx to Canadian Border • 1942: • 30,233 shelterbelts • 220 million trees • 100 miles wide • 18,600 miles long • $75 million

16. Kevin P. Dincher After the Drought • 1939 • Drought ended • 1940-1944 • Amount of land devoted to wheat farming expanded by 3 million acres • Dust Bowl: $5 • WW II: $50 - $100 • Timothy Egan: • "a classic tale of human beings pushing too hard against nature, and nature pushing back."

17. Kevin P. Dincher Ogallala Aquifer • 1950s • 174,000 mi² • Underlies about 80 percent of the High Plains • 30% of all ground water used for irrigation in the United States • drinking water to 82% of the people who live on the High Plains

18. Kevin P. Dincher Ogallala Aquifer • Rate of extraction exceeds the rate of recharge, water level elevations are decreasing • Overall water levels have dropped about 10%

19. Kevin P. Dincher Ogallala Aquifer • Environmental Controversies • 1980s: Nuclear Waste Site (Deaf Smith County, TX) • 2008: Keystone Pipeline

20. Kevin P. Dincher Great Plains Conservation and Restoration

21. 500,000 acres of U.S. National Park • Badlands National Park • Theodore Roosevelt National Park • Carlsbad Caverns National Park • Wind Cave National Park • 15 National Historic Sites Kevin P. Dincher Preserving the Great Plains

22. Kevin P. Dincher Badlands National Park, SD242,756 acres

23. Kevin P. Dincher Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND: 70,477 acres

24. Kevin P. Dincher Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM: 46,766 acres

25. Kevin P. Dincher Wind Cave, SD: 28,295 acres

26. 1937: Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act • 20 National Grasslands (3,838,280 acres) • Like National Forests: may be open for hunting, grazing, mineral extraction, recreation and other uses • 1 Grassland Preserve Kevin P. Dincher Prairie Conservation and Restoration

27. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Oklahoma Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Illinois Tall Grass Prairie Preserve, Manitoba Kevin P. Dincher TallgrassPreserves

28. Kevin P. Dincher Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Kansas

29. 400,000 square miles of tallgrass prairie • The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service • 2009: The Nature Conservancy introduced a small herd of bison Kevin P. Dincher Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Kansas

30. Kevin P. Dincher Tallgrass Prairie PreserveOklahoma

31. Largest tract of remaining tallgrass prairie in the world • 45,000 acres • Owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy • Chapman-Barnard ranch (Ben Johnson, Jr.) • Osage Indian Reservation • Retained sub-surface mineral rights • 2,500 Bison Kevin P. Dincher Tallgrass Prairie PreserveOklahoma

32. Kevin P. Dincher American Bison

33. Kevin P. Dincher American Bison • 1600: 50 million Bison • Shaped the grasslands • Other species • prairie dogs • black-footed ferrets • burrowing owls • Turkeys • Songbirds • 1906: 1000 Bison

34. Kevin P. Dincher American Bison • 1907: Bronx Zoo • American Bison Society sent 15 Bison to Oklahoma • Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge • American Bison • Rocky Mountain Elk • White-tailed Deer • Long-horn Cattle

35. Kevin P. Dincher American Bison • Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge • Grassland Management • Native Plants • Mowing

36. Kevin P. Dincher American Bison • Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge • Grassland Management • Native Plants • Mowing • Fire

37. 2013: • 500,000 Bison in the US Kevin P. Dincher American Bison

38. Kevin P. Dincher American Bison

39. 2013: • 500,000 Bison in the US • 20,000 wild Bison • Classification: lower risk but conservation dependent Kevin P. Dincher American Bison

40. Kevin P. Dincher

41. Kevin P. Dincher Black-footed Ferret

42. “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." Kevin P. Dincher John Muir Misquote!

43. Kevin P. Dincher John Muir "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.“ My First Summer in the Sierra

44. Kevin P. Dincher John Muir "When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.” Journal Entry July 27, 1869

45. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CSU East Bay Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com The Worst Hard Time The Dirty 30s

46. Kevin P. Dincher 5 Fridays, July 26, August 2, 9, 16, 2310:30 AM to 12:30 PM The Founding Mothers As American as Motherhood and Apple Pie