Environment in the Great Plains Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The Great Plains region of the United States stretches in a broad band from Mexico in the south to Canada in the north and includes the states of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. It is a region characterized by wide, flat lands with few trees similar to the steppes of Central Asia and the pampas of Argentina. The term prairie is often used, particularly in Canada. The Great Plains are part of a larger geographical area that extends to Texas and other more easterly states. It is possible to divide the Great Plains from the High Plains region approximately along the line of the 100th meridian. Land is more fertile to the eastern side, where the more generous rainfall supplements the ability of the land to sustain livestock, particularly cattle, as well as cereal crops and vegetables. The High Plains region to the west receives significantly less rainfall and the land is subject to drought and dustbowl effects, most notably during the 1920s and 1930s when, in combination with the effects of the Great Depression, depopulation of the area became a major trend as farm failures became endemic. In addition to the geographic features of the Great Plains, this region of land is characterized in modern culture by the perception of the people who have settled and lived there. Given the hardships of farming the often-difficult land, the remoteness, and the extremes of weather, the Great Plains has given rise to a notion of its people as being hardy, self-reliant, and stoic.

The Great Plains regions may be further divided into a number of different sub-regions, each with its own pattern of settlement and geography. These range from the Black Hills area of the Dakotas, which are composed of dark, igneous rock related to the Rocky Mountains, to the heavily eroded Red River Valley of Texas. The topography affects wind flow and this in turn affects rainfall and attendant plant life. For example, the warm air that flows up the Mississippi River Valley helps contribute to the moister climate of the east and bypasses the western region altogether. This makes for significant variation of conditions across the Great Plains, which in turn leads to some extreme weather conditions. Intense thunderstorms rage across the interior of the region and many settlements are threatened by seasonal tornadoes that erupt on an annual basis. The tornadoes are generally small but occur frequently. Other forms of extreme weather also mitigate against extensive population settlement and successful agriculture.

It is believed that the Great Plains were created as a byproduct of the geological processes that created the Rocky Mountains. Before recorded history, they were the home of many native animal species such as the buffalo (American bison) and other large mammals subsequently hunted to extinction. Tribes of indigenous peoples used the Great Plains on either a temporary or semi-permanent basis by building earth mounds or log houses of various types. Because their lifestyles relied on hunting and gathering more than sedentary agriculture, the indigenous tribes moved their residences on a rotating, seasonal basis to follow food sources. The peoples who were present in the Great Plains included the Sioux, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and many others. Low population densities meant that conflict between different tribes did not generally lead to highintensity warfare, although raiding was a common occurrence. The horse was introduced by the Spanish and this revolutionized the lives of the native peoples whose long-range transportation abilities increased enormously; the ability to conduct hunting at long-range and to move further away from regular water supplies were significant.

With the arrival of European settlers, the lifestyles of the indigenous peoples became antithetical to new uses to which the land was being put. Settlers sequestered large parcels of land for private, household use and would not permit passage to any others. From Texas in the south, large cattle ranches were created with the animals driven north for fodder on a yearly basis. Both of these forms of agriculture yielded no space for indigenous tribes and warfare became inevitable.

The superior technology of the Europeans proved decisive, although not immediately or without great losses on either side. The remaining indigenous tribes were forcibly removed from the lands on which they had traditionally lived and required to live on circumscribed reservations where they were obliged to modify their lifestyles to the new situations in which they found themselves. Many have found it difficult to adjust and poverty and very low opportunity have been the result for many generations.

The new settlers were not automatically successful in their attempts at establishing farms; those who had experience with comparatively difficult situations tended to do better than others. This led to the tendency toward ethnic homogenization of the Great Plains as those with the skills to succeed in agriculture there typically came from similar geographical locations. The Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States and the Dominion Land Act of 1871 in Canada made provision for any settler to claim up to 160 acres of land (in America) on the basis that he and his family lived and worked the land for a specified period of time. Subsequent legislation strengthened the rights of farmers and regulated the rights of individuals and organizations to use and control water resources and other significant inputs. Water resources were of particular importance in the western Great Plains because of the low rainfall levels and the persistent threat of drought. The Tyler versus Wilkinson case of 1826 had been instrumental in creating a regulatory regime in which the equitable and sustainable distribution of water resources became possible. Although the Civil War of 1861-65 was fought mainly in the eastern part of the United States, it had a significant impact on the Great Plains both in terms of actual military action and in the disruptions to patterns of supply and demand. Slave labor was not generally used on an intensive basis owing to the marginal profitability of many farms and their inability to feed many mouths. Nevertheless, slave labor built and developed the Great Plains just as it did the rest of the country.

As the railroad spread across the country, ranchers became accustomed to driving their cattle up from southern ranches to the railheads in the Great Plains where fodder was available for the livestock, which could then be transported east for slaughter and consumption in the eastern and coastal cities. The large-scale nature of this activity effectively prevented any change of land use in the intervening territory. However, drought and disease made the practice susceptible to external environmental shocks and it was more or less ended by the 1886 drought and famine, which witnessed thousands of over-crowded cattle starved and frozen to death. After this date, ranchers tended to move toward growing their own crops to support livestock throughout the winter.

While this had little positive effect on the Great Plains region, it did permit the wider spread of more intensive and scientific agricultural systems across the land. This was necessary since the hardy prairie grasses utilized deep root systems, which formed dense, interlocking sods that required multiple teams of oxen to plough for the first time. However, scientific advances ultimately contributed to the dustbowl conditions during the 1930s that led to the depopulation of the area. Decades of decline have followed, interspersed with some revivals as technology has suggested improvements in land use.

In recent years, since the 1950s in particular, the intensive use of the Ogallala aquifer has enabled widespread irrigation of much of the Great Plains area and this has made it possible for previously marginal or unusable land to be brought under agricultural land use. While this irrigation has revived many parts of the region, the use of the water may be unsustainable as presently organized since it is believed that more is being extracted than can be replaced by natural means. When aquifers are depleted in this way, the ultimate effects include subsidence, desertification, and the salinization of the remaining water as saltwater creeps in to replace the freshwater. However, steps have been taken since the 1970s to reduce the amount of water extracted and these have been partly successful. Even so, there has been a long-term tendency toward the depopulation of the region and the abandonment of its many small towns and villages.

Owing to the interaction of a number of different factors, including the failure of many farms, falling family sizes, the increased ability to use personal transportation to obtain paid income elsewhere, and the lack of enthusiasm for farming among younger generations, population density has gradually declined. When towns become insufficiently large to sustain their own infrastructure of schools, government agencies, and private sector firms, they are often amalgamated with neighbors for the purposes of providing such services and the cycle of depopulation intensifies as jobs disappear from the towns.

There are now many thousands of abandoned, or ghost, towns studding the Great Plains regions and many of those that have survived pose significant problems of rural poverty, isolation, and lack of basic services. However, research into agricultural practices suitable for the region have suggested a number of new options for agricultural practice that might bear fruit and help reinvigorate the region. One alternative approach is to consider the region effectively a failed development plan and reintroduce buffalo to roam freely over it.

Bibliography:

Geoff Cunfer, On the Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment (Texas A&M University Press, 2005);
David Elstein and Don Cornis, “Moving away from Wheat/Fallow in the Great Plains,” Agricultural Research (v.53/6, 2005);
Tim Flannery, The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001);
Ian Frazier, Great Plains (Picador, 2001);
Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History (Oxford University Press, 2002).