The Ecological Disaster In The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl is a classic tale of humans pushing too hard against nature and nature pushing back (The Dust Bowl). The narrator of the film said it was the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history (The Dust Bowl). The groups of people that choose to live in this region choose to ignore the history of the land that included droughts and severe winters. Ignoring the severe winters of the 1880’s caused the “Beef Bonanza” to close and a severe drought in the 1890’s that pushed farmers off the land. Farmers ignored the ecosystem by ridding the land of the vegetation that had evolved. The vegetation that was there were short grasses with roots that went 5 feet down forming dense sod (The Dust Bowl). These grasses could withstand the region’s periodic droughts and extreme weather conditions (The Dust Bowl). The farmer’s actions caused nature push back.

The American farmer took many steps in destroying the perfect ecosystem nature had created. The farmers were told, “Rain follows the plow,” if they farmed more of the land it would bring more rain (The Dust Bowl). By plowing the land, they went too deep and took the roots of the natural grasses called buffalo grass. These long roots held the moisture in the land. Experts said that by removing the grasses more rain could penetrate the soil (The Dust Bowl). The drought hit there was nothing to hold the moisture or the soil to the ground causing the dirt storms, The Dust