Yes—propaganda. I’ve lived and done agricultural work around both forested areas and other places surrounded by natural prairie. After about the second year of severe drought, natural prairie roots shrivel and break off easily, regardless of depth. Natural prairie will blow away.
I’m not knocking soil conservation through crop rotation, leaving bands of perennials/trees here and there, terracing (illegal in my State due to water rights regulations), and so on. Those are smart practices that will hold moisture, hold top soil, and buffer against shorter droughts. But yes, I’ve seen the false blame from environmentalists on mechanized equipment, human presence, etc. People, doing small agriculture properly, can actually better preserve land and animals against diseases and other natural disasters.
The drought that we’re seeing now, BTW, is more geographically extensive than the dust bowl drought (up to 6,000 feet elevation back then). Now, it’s sweeping over the top of the Great Divide.
My guess is that without enough precipitation during the months to come to stop it, we’ll start seeing dust storms next summer. Saw much more dust in the atmosphere than usual at over 9,000 feet last summer. There’s nearly no visible snow-pack on the peaks now—only thin streaks here and there.
Another two years, and we’ll see the kinds of storms seen during the Dust Bowl era if not sooner. The most severe part of the Dust Bowl drought lasted for about 7 years or more—closer to 8 or 9 years for the whole drought.
Have fun. Enjoy the slide. No doubt, millions have been praying for it and giving thanks.
Yup. The forbs are deteriorating and breaking off as you state. We have not yet seen plain devastation but we are seeing so many trees die that I wonder what will be left if this persists.
Strangely, south of 290 and back to the south of I-10 but east of the Colorado River here in Texas people cut hay up to 5 times this last summer so there are pockets that are just a little odd.
In Oklahoma we got one cut in the spring. Some tried to cut late fall before frost but it wasn’t worth the diesel. South Central Oklahoma near McAlester but north of Durant made a good second cutting but that was all I saw. The Ouchitas are dry as toast. I saw a guy trying to drill winger pasture in McCurtain County and I don’t think he was much more than scratching the ground. Everybody is trying to drill something in and you can’t find a 10 to 12 foot pasture or no-till drill anywhere around. They sell in less than a week if someone has one.
We tried to plant some rye in 2007 in October. Got a little mist the night after we planted it and no more moisture until spring. Needless to say, nothing came up. We got flooding rains last fall and spring. We have a spring that was reliable back in the 20s and 30s. I cleaned it out with the trackhoe to 10’ deep a couple of years ago. The ground was downright saturated and I felt luck to get out of the area. Now the spring is dry to the bottom. It has been unseasonal for a long time.