POSSIBILITIES OF SHELTERBELT PLANTING IN THE PLAINS REGION

To alleviate the economic condition of the people in the Plains region has become one of the major concerns of the Department of Agriculture. The situation there has assumed the aspects of a national calamity as a result of the severe climatic and economic conditions of the past few years. In the spring of 1934 the seriousness of the situation was dramatically brought home to the country as a whole by great dust storms, nature's own manifestation of land disorders, which arose in the Great Plains region and blanketed almost the entire eastern half of our country.

Early in 1934 Congress appropriated $528,000,000 for the relief of the inhabitants of the drought-stricken Plains. As part of the huge program of relief and rehabilitation thus inaugurated, there was made public in June 1934 a proposal of the Government to plant shelterbelts on about 1,000,000 acres of farm land within a 100-mile-wide zone extending through the prairie-plains region from the Canadian border into the Texas Panhandle. This proposal was but a revival and definite formulation of a plan in which the President had been interested personally for some time, and which had been under consideration by the several bureaus of the Department of Agriculture since August 1933.

The factors leading to the present distress in the Plains region are not entirely of recent origin. True, the present economic situation and the abnormal drought of the past few years have brought matters to a head. But man has been laying the pitfall for his own disaster for many years through improper land use. Through the stimulus of high prices during the "war years", thousands of acres of grassland were broken by the plow. Under normal price conditions such areas are distinctly submarginal for farming and become a liability. This overextension of agriculture, aside from social ills such as tax delinquency and lower standards of living to which it contributed, exposed huge areas of cultivated land to the drying action of the sun and wind. It formed a vast breeding ground for destructive dust storms, which strip the fertile topsoil from areas where it is valuable and deposit it in others where it becomes a liability, which blow the sown crops out of the earth in one locality and smother them in another, and which, with the added physical distress that they produce, contribute markedly toward lowering the morale of the people. The increased area of plowed land forced thousands of herds of cattle and sheep onto other and poorer areas, led to overgrazing and consequent destruction of the protective grassy cover, and further enlarged the area of origin of dust and other calamitous drought effects.

Thoughtful citizens are coming to realize that the old American policy of unlimited, undirected, and often wasteful land use cannot continue longer without grave consequences, and must be replaced by united, intelligent effort toward a more rational and balanced utilization of all our natural resources.

This report, while confined chiefly to the field of shelterbelt forestation, has been prepared with the conviction that full and wise use of our whole land resource is vital to the future welfare of the region and the Nation, and with the recognition that shelterbelt development is only one phase of Plains management, a phase that must be developed in harmony with the entire land-use pattern of the region.

Tree planting as a measure for improving Plains conditions has received attention since the advent of the early settlers. Trees grouped together as windbreaks or shelterbelts are credited with the improvement of physical conditions, probably most tangibly expressed as the protection of crops and crop land. A larger and more vital value, however, and one that cannot be expressed in physical terms or realized by those who have not experienced life in the prairie-plains region, is the reinforcement of the people's morale that comes with shade from sun glare, shelter from the ever-prevailing winds, the improved appearance of the countryside, a greater pride in ownership, and a real increase in value of the farmstead—all culminating in a general sense of being at home on the land.

The Forest Service was given the task of carrying out the proposed program of shelterbelt planting. This task very naturally divides itself into two parts: (1) The investigative or exploratory phase, and (2) the administrative phase, concerned with the actual execution of the work.

Before planting operations could begin, it was necessary to answer certain fundamental questions of urgent importance: Can shelterbelts be established successfully in the Plains region, and if so, where is such establishment most feasible, and where will it accomplish the greatest good? As a necessity for general orientation, the Forest Service during 1934 and early 1935 conducted explorations of the climate, soils, native vegetation, and results of past planting in the prairie-plains region of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. These, together with consideration of economic factors, information on tree enemies, and certain pertinent documentary material descriptive of the region, supplemented by the accumulated trial-and-error experience of past windbreak planters, defined the possibilities of shelterbelt planting, provided a broad program for shelterbelt development in the region, and afforded a more or less empirical basis upon which to proceed immediately. The results of these investigations, with which the body of the present report is very largely concerned, formed the basis of active planting operations that began in the spring of this year (1935) with the definite organization and launching of the Plains Shelterbelt Project.

During this first season's work 125 miles of field shelterbelts were planted in strips 8 rods wide having an area of 16 acres per mile, or 2,000 acres in all. In addition 4,800 acres were planted in the form of windbreaks around farmsteads. The total area, 6,800 acres, probably equals or exceeds the area planted within the Plains region during the entire preceding decade. This initial planting was in addition to the collection of seed supplies and the establishment of nurseries. Seedlings are now growing and land has been selected and prepared for the planting of some 30,000 acres in the spring of 1936, which area will comprise 1,400 miles of field shelterbelts and about 6,400 acres of plantations around farmsteads.

Expanded planting operations must be guided at every step by specific experimental activities. The suitability of soils for individual plantings must be determined. A quantitative expression of the effect of shelterbelts on climatic factors and crops, under different conditions, must be sought. Experimental plantings must be established for determining more accurately the proper orientation, width, and structure of shelterbelts, and the intervals at which planting, as it assumes its final pattern in different parts of the region, will be most effective for protection.

In supplying and presenting factual information, and in formulating programs and recommendations, many agencies and individuals have participated. These include, besides the Forest Service, such bureaus of the Department of Agriculture as Chemistry and Soils, Soil Conservation Service, Weather, Plant Industry, Biological Survey, Entomology and Plant Quarantine; also the conservation and survey division of the University of Nebraska and State officials and private individuals throughout the region.

The conditions and trends which are reflected in the report have changed in the past and will change in the future. The facts are not presented in minute detail but in their broader aspects, and with a considerable margin of conservatism in drawing conclusions. It is highly undesirable at this stage that the program of shelterbelt development be cast in any rigid mold. On the contrary, our policy should be sufficiently flexible to take advantage of changing conditions and increasing knowledge. The outlines of the situation are sufficiently clear so that the program herein recommended can be presented with full assurance that it is justified and, in fact, essential for the public welfare.