History repeats itself
Let this image serve as a before photo of my place. It illustrates the effect of removing water and living roots from the land. By next year I hope there are no more dry lots!
This week our local Conservation District is hosting our first really big event. After months of planning we finally go live on Tuesday! In preparation I worked up a flyer about what Conservation Districts are, and how they work. In the process I discovered Hugh Hammond Bennett and went down a rabbit hole learning about his contributions.
Here’s what I wrote:
In 1928, rebel soil scientist Hugh Hammond Bennett predicted that our farming practices would destroy the productivity of the land and usher in a disaster of epic proportions. No one could imagine the great bread basket of America being anything less than abundant and Bennett was largely ignored until 1933 when the dust bowl era came into full swing.
As one of the largest dust storms the nation had ever seen swept eastward across the devastated former bread basket of America, Bennett sat before Congress lobbying for the creation of a permanent Soil Conservation Service. He knew the most recent dust storm was headed for Washington and so he stalled his presentation until, finally, the room began to darken. Everyone ran to the windows and watched in horror as the city was enveloped in an all-consuming cloud of dust. They voted unanimously to approve the first Soil Conservation Act, creating the Soil Conservation Service under the umbrella of US Department of Agriculture and directed by Hugh Hammond Bennett.
Bennett began working with local farmers in the most devastated regions. He knew there was no one size fits all approach to the challenges. He trained his staff to walk the land with those who knew it best, the land owners, and to work with them in collaboration to find the best solution for that farmer and their land. By 1937 Hammond realized that this voluntary collaboration with local land owners was key and initiated the formation of the first Soil Conservation District in his hometown.
The dust bowl provided a potent lesson in the consequences of abusing our natural resources. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said: ‘A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.’ The Soil Conservation Service was eventually expanded and became the Natural Resources Conservation Services, which most of us now know as NRCS. Conservation Districts, to this day, are made up of local land owners and managers who work hand in hand with local stakeholders, NRCS and Colorado Department of Agriculture.
“... Land must be nurtured; not plundered and wasted.”
What strikes me is that here we are 88 years since the Soil Conservation Act was passed, and large scale tillage agriculture is still the norm. Around here it is abundantly clear that we don’t just abuse our soil, we abuse our water. 100 years ago water started being diverted from the Colorado River to serve communities outside the Colorado River watershed. At the time, the river was abundant and those involved believed it was an infinitely renewable resource - the headwaters of the Colorado with ample snow and rain fall to keep the river full.
100 years later we are seeing the effects of robbing a watershed of it’s waters. We are taking water from the Colorado faster than nature can replenish it. It’s akin to having a credit card with a very high balance and thinking that you can therefore buy whatever you want even though you don’t have nearly enough income to pay the monthly bills. We are rapidly approaching a catastrophe perhaps even more devastating than the dust bowl in the US southwest if we continue to use water beyond our means.
I realized this week, we have broken the larger Colorado River Watershed function with dams and diversions. The likelihood of those interventions being undone is slim. That means that the communities that live along the Colorado River and depend upon her bounty must do what we can to restore our local watersheds and start depositing water in our community water banks now.
Please find your local Conservation District and see what they are doing. Get involved and do what you can in your own backyard.
As you can see my the photo of my place, I have a lot of work to do!
Stay tuned!