LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dust Bowl: United States
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What became the Dust Bowl was the true last frontier of the American West, a forbidding 100 million acres in parts of five states (Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas). For eons, this tabletop-flat landscape was covered with prairie grass named for its primary inhabitants, the buffalo that roamed in massive herds hunted by Indians.
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When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, he recognized the Dust Bowl as a serious problem for the United States, and he founded the Soil Conservation Services to address the issue. The government agency was one of many public works agencies founded during President Roosevelt's term, and it focused on restoring the formerly fertile conditions across the central American states. By planting windbreaks and cultivating native plants, the Service began to slowly rebuild the topsoil while preserving what was left. In 1994, the name of the organization was changed to the Natural Resources Conversation Service, reflecting its broader scope.
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Worster and Bonnifield both published their chronicles of the Dust Bowl in 1979. Bonnifield's book is almost an apology for the farmers who plowed up the sod and ... set up the conditions for disaster. It is heavy with useful tables, charts and statistics. Bonnifield relied extensively on contemporary newspaper accounts, as well as interviews with survivors. The book includes an excellent bibliography.
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Though wind erosion will always occur, it will probably never be as bad in the United States as it was during the Dust Bowl because farmers are using better technology to protect the soil. Even a small amount of residues (leftover plant parts) on the soil surface helps reduce erosion. Wind erosion was not as severe in the "Filthy Fifties" due to the use of irrigation and better management practices.
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The U.S. government took a number of steps to combat the dust bowl, including the construction of a massive system of dams in the western states. These dams provided water to people, agriculture, and business in the western states, as well as cheap electricity. The electricity, in turn, made it cheap to pump water from deep underground.
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