IT WAS THE 1930S, and rural people clung sugarbeet, dust rose to meet their gaze. because there was no feed. We also had extensive root systems that can withstand to the land as if it were a part of them, “The dust storms, they just come in a grasshopper plague. There would be the extreme weather on the plains. While as integral as bone or sinew. But the land boiling like angry clouds,” remembers so many flying, they would darken the a nine-year drought has been dragging betrayed them—or they betrayed it, Maxine Nickelson, 81, who lives near sun. It was really, really hard times.” the region by the heels, farmers—and the depending on the telling of history. Oakley, Kansas, less than 10 miles from Times have changed. Now, when the landscape—aren’t facing anything near In the black-and-white portraits of the the farm where she grew up during the wind blows at The Nature Conservancy’s the desperation of the 1930s. time, dismay is palpable, grooves of anx- . “The dust piles would get 17,000-acre Smoky Valley Ranch, 15 That the country hasn’t seen another iety worn deep around the eyes. In scat- so high they’d cover up the fence posts miles south of where Nickelson grew up, Dust Bowl is testament to advances in tered fields throughout the country, along the roads. Yeah, it was bad. We it whispers through a thriving shortgrass farming equipment and cultivation prac- farmers took the stitching out of the soil had to use a scoop shovel to take dirt prairie. For the most part, the dust is still. tices and other shifts in farming tech- and turned the earth upside down, so the out of the house. The people were very Land that once was plowed under and niques. But perhaps the most significant old saying goes. Decades of bad farming discouraged. They thought something farmed—or “broke out,” as farmers changes have stemmed from the farming practices had eroded topsoil that had was turning against them. There was lit- say—has been reseeded with buffalo and community’s embrace of conservation, accumulated for centuries; then came tle rain. Daddy had to sell all the cattle gamma grasses. Such native plants have largely spurred by the federal Farm years of drought, and the land simply green fields gave up. As farmers looked out over acres of what once was wheat, corn or 1930s

How the Farm Bill, conceived in Dust Bowl CONSERVATION KICKOFF The Dust Bowl hits the desperation, central and Canada; in response, President Roosevelt signs into law the Agricultural became one of Adjustment Act of 1933, which provides direct payments to farmers who cut production of crops the world’s and livestock. After the Supreme Court finds direct payments unconstitutional, the law is rewritten in most powerful 1936 to provide payments for soil conservation. forces for conservation. BY REBECCA CLARREN PHOTOGRAPHS [CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT] © BETTMANN/CORBIS; ASSOCIATED PRESS (2); BETTMANN/CORBIS

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Bill’s huge pool of financial incentives gress is expected to reauthorize a new BACK IN THE 1920S AND ’30S, when Maxine crusader for farmland conservation, pub- farmers and an employee at the USDA’s drama goes a long way. On the morning rewarding farmers for efforts to sustain Farm Bill, though it’s a sure bet that this Nickelson was growing up poor in lished a report for the U.S. Department Bureau of Soils, argued in countless jour- of the hearing, he rechecked the weather soil, water and wildlife habitats. time there will be less money available. Kansas, a number of ideas about farming of Agriculture titled “Soil Erosion, A nal articles and speeches that soil erosion reports calling for a major dust storm to A piece of legislation reauthorized With a historic budget deficit, maintain- techniques were grounded more in tradi- National Menace.” The report made an caused by farming practices—if left roll into Washington, D.C., out of the every five or six years, the Farm Bill is ing existing conservation funds won’t be tion than science. Farmers were raised on almost puritanical call for the nation to unchecked—would hinder the nation’s Ohio Valley. As the hearing dragged on, mostly known for its commodity-support easy. Even so, the Conservancy is work- the old conceit that rain would follow reform what it called “the evils of … land ability to produce food. By 1930, largely the storm arrived on cue. Bennett asked programs, which subsidize production of ing with other conservation and agricul- the plow, which proved disastrous when wastage” and stressed “the need for because of his undaunted dedication, the senators to move from the great more than two dozen crops, including tural groups to seed America’s farm a decade of high rainfall in the 1920s increased practical information.” Congress had authorized funding for a mahogany table to gaze out the win- wheat, rice and cotton. Few people realize future with an environmental ethos. was followed by drought in the 1930s. “What,” Bennett asked, “would be small group of experimental field sta- dows on the baleful storm. “Everything that the legislation is also the largest single “The Farm Bill is such a powerful And many farmers, as a matter of pride, the feeling of this Nation should a for- tions that demonstrated how farmers moved along quite nicely thereafter,” source of federal funding for conservation tool to help fight some of the threats to planted their crops in neatly tailored, eign nation suddenly enter the United could prevent soil erosion. But Bennett recalled Bennett years later. on private land in the United States: $20 agricultural lands and to help farmers unbending rows. This practice of disre- States and destroy 90,000 acres of land, wanted more support and money. The soil conservation act of 1935 billion in the past five years alone. and ranchers continue their traditional garding contours and hillsides often cre- as erosion has been allowed to do in a Called to testify before the Senate created the Soil Conservation Service, For nearly 15 years, The Nature Con- lifestyles,” says Adrienne Wojciechowski, ated furrows for rain and wind to wash single county?” Public Lands Committee, Bennett and Bennett became its first chief (a servancy has been working with Con- a federal policy advisor with the Con- away the soil’s nutrients. Fueled by such Bennett, the son of showed that then, like now, a little bit of position he held until he retired in gress to steer funding from the Farm Bill servancy. “Farming and conservation practices, erosion was silently scraping 1951). The agency started up field toward landscapes with high conserva- have a lot of mutual goals, and we want away the country’s farmlands. offices throughout the country to help tion value. The last Farm Bill, passed by to see those lifestyles and economies con- But the folly of such practices wasn’t farmers develop plans to save soil. Congress in 2002, provided record fund- tinue while protecting our natural unanticipated by everyone. In 1928, Young boys and men, hired by President ing for the environment. This year, Con- resources at the same time.” Hugh Hammond Bennett, the original Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, 1940s 1950s

COPING WITH EXCESS Crop prices slump as a result of increased WARTIME DEMAND The Soil Conservation Service, a federal competition from conservation program headed up by “Big” Hugh Hammond recovering postwar Bennett, educates farmers about soil conservation and economies in Europe improved farming techniques. But conservation concerns and Asia. In response, take a back seat when farmers ramp up production to meet U.S. federal officials PHOTOGRAPHS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP) © BETTMANN/CORBIS; WALLACE KIRKLAND/TIME LIFE the demands of war with Germany and Japan. create programs to PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES; BETTMANN/CORBIS cope with excess com- modities such as pota- toes and wheat. One program, the Soil Bank, aims to boost prices by taking 29 million PHOTOGRAPHS [LEFT TO RIGHT] © ARTHUR ROTHSTEIN/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; FRANCIS MILLER/TIME LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES acres out of production for conservation.

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would help farmers create terraces, handy and legal way to bring farm fami- crops to feed troops and a hungry farmers on the plains had tilled up grass- half saw their numbers drop significantly. When the Farm Bill came up for reau- replant trees for wildlife habitat and lies like Nickelson’s some desperately world market, tilling up acres of land lands they had idled for conservation Populations of the lark bunting and thorization that year, a small coalition of control gullies. By mid-1936, the service needed economic relief—in the form of that had been idled for conservation. so they could produce wheat for the grasshopper sparrow declined across the environmental groups, spurred by the was overseeing 147 demonstration proj- financial aid to farmers who agreed to After the war ended, conservation con- Russians and reap the high prices caused Midwest by more than 50 percent. dismal state of habitat and water quality ects, 48 nurseries, 23 experiment sta- idle land—at a time when 40 percent of tinued to rust in the corner of the by surging demand. In 1982 alone, 3 billion tons of soil erod- on farmlands, presented Congress with a tions and more than 10,000 full-time the American population still lived on nation’s toolshed. While Congress did a “The pressure was on to maximize ed across the nation, according to the pragmatic strategy that would change employees who were responsible for farms. As Nickelson remembers, when few things, such as creating soil banks production, and there was a push from Natural Resources Conservation Service. the future of conservation. Rather than supervising the efforts of 23,000 Works the checks arrived in the mail, it was like that put some farmlands off limits for lenders to encourage growth and expan- The recently formed Environmental lobby the House and Senate agriculture Progress Administration workers. Christmas. In subsequent farm legislation five- or 10-year stretches and paying sion,” says Don Reeves, a farmer in Protection Agency had begun conduct- committees, which were stacked with “It was a good thing they did that, throughout the 1930s, Congress funneled farmers who let hunters onto their con- Nebraska’s Platte River Valley, an area ing studies on water quality and found farming interests and old-timers, to “save because farmers started changing their more money to farmers who would servation acreage, for the next 30 years he calls “God’s favorite country.” “Con- that agricultural practices were con- the birds,” the coalition unveiled a plan practices,” says Nickelson. “Farmers replace soil-depleting crops like corn and history pretty much wrote an empty servation was way down on anybody’s tributing to the pollution of rivers and to save the government money. didn’t like being told what to do; they wheat with cover crops like grasses or chapter on conservation in agriculture. list. There was scarcely any attention streams. Ironically, this environmental For the previous 50 years, Congress thought they were losing their right to do legumes. While the conservation benefits The lean times for conservation paid to the impact on the environment.” damage, paired with what became a had been paying farmers not to farm, as a what they wanted with their land. But of these initial programs were modest, intensified in the 1970s. Russians were glut of farmland in the 1980s, drove way to control supply and prices. But they didn’t have a choice, and I think all legislators hailed them—and the political facing food shortages, and the U.S. secre- BACKPEDALING ON CONSERVATION taxed the farmers and environmentalists to team these short-term “set-asides” were expen- of them thought it was a good thing, too. capital they inspired—as a great success. tary of agriculture encouraged American landscape and took a toll on wildlife. Of up and create a lasting achievement for sive. When Maureen Hinkle, a lobbyist Soil conservation made a big difference.” Then World War II hit, and farmers farmers to “plant fence row to fence the 23 grassland bird species being closely both conservation and agriculture in for the National Society, and The legislation was also, of course, a rushed to cash in on high prices for row.” Within a few years, a quarter of all monitored from 1966 to 1979, nearly the form of the 1985 Farm Bill. her cohorts realized that giving farmers

1960s & 1970s

FENCE TO FENCE Russian grain purchases boost the price of crops, leading the U.S. agriculture secretary to call for American farmers to “plant fence row to fence row.” A study finds that 26 per- cent of the farmers in one national conservation pro- gram plowed up newly established grasslands as soon as their conservation contracts expired.

PHOTOGRAPHS [LEFT TO RIGHT] © ROBB KENDRICK/AURORA; BETTMANN/CORBIS; ROYALTY-FREE/CORBIS

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a 10-year contract would be less expen- wetlands for cultivation. better protections for grasslands, wet- in America is privately owned; anyone NOW, HISTORY HAS CAUGHT UP TO THE FUTURE. says Stephen Frerichs, a consultant on sive for taxpayers than annual payments, “It was a major turning point,” says lands, range and endangered species. who cares about the environment can’t be Looking ahead to 2007, the Conservancy agricultural policy to the Conservancy. which varied from year to year, they Stephen Lovejoy, an agricultural econo- The country’s changing demograph- content to bank on the country’s public is hoping to build on momentum gained “We work with a lot of farmers; we thought, “bingo.” mist at Michigan State University. “Now ics—today farmers make up only 1 per- lands as sufficient habitat reserves or bas- for conservation in the 2002 Farm Bill. know they care about conservation, but “What sold the agricultural commit- we had legislation that said we want to cent of the U.S. population—has invert- tions for cleaning water, air and soil. That might be difficult, given there is they have to make money first. We prefer tees that day was not wildlife,” says protect not just soil productivity but ed the political calculus that has driven Without partnerships with agricul- less money in the pot to go around this to work with the ag committees instead Hinkle, who is now retired. “It was eco- wildlife habitat and water quality.” the marriage of conservation and agri- tural landowners, the environmental year. Some environmental groups want of going after their constituents.” nomics and production control.” Since then, the environmental pro- culture in the United States. Members of movement can’t thrive, says Eisenberg. the government to redirect money cur- The Conservancy’s agriculture The bill created the Conservation tections afforded by the Farm Bill have Congress from farming states now rely “Whether or not you agree with farm- rently given to farmers for commodity experts have drafted a list of recom- Reserve Program, which took more continued to grow, along with an on environmental programs as a critical ing practices, there is no denying the payments on rice, wheat, corn and the mendations they hope Congress will than 36 million acres—an area about increasingly robust lobby for conserva- enticement for support from suburban reach of the Farm Bill to positively like. They hope to use that money to implement. The Conservancy wants the the size of Iowa—out of agricultural tion. In 2002, riding on the tails of the and urban legislators. affect landscapes.” fund the conservation components of Agriculture Department to fund science- production. The bill also provided new largest budget surplus in history, Con- “For conservation to succeed in this the legislation. based assessments of existing programs regulatory teeth. Under the new “sod- gress packed $74 billion, distributed country, you need to occupy the center The Conservancy is pursuing under the Farm Bill and target conserva- buster” program, farmers of highly over five years, into the Farm Bill, with and work with the people on the land a less confrontational approach. tion funding at ecologically critical erodable land were required to imple- $17 billion for conservation alone. The whose interests are affected by your The reason environmental areas to generate the biggest conserva- ment a conservation plan within a bill includes a host of initiatives that the goals,” says Jeff Eisenberg, a former poli- groups were able to secure such tion gains for each dollar spent. In addi- decade or lose government subsidies. Conservancy and other groups have cy advisor at the Conservancy who now large gains for conservation tion, the Conservancy hopes Congress And a “swampbuster” program simi- helped to create in the past two works for the National Cattlemen’s spending in the past is because of will create incentives for farmers to larly penalized farmers who drained decades, initiatives that have resulted in Association. Sixty-one percent of the land our partnerships with farmers, more actively manage wetlands and 1990s

PROTECTING WETLANDS AND WILDLIFE The 1996 Farm Bill creates the Wetlands Reserve Program, which provides incentives for farmers 1980s to restore wetlands that have been drained. The bill also kicks off cost-sharing schemes to support farming practices that protect water quality, slow groundwater pollution and benefit at-risk species such as the greater prairie chicken. The new Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program provides farmers with 75 percent of the cost of restoring farmland to wildlife habitats.

THE FARM BILL GOES GREEN Environmentalists team up with farmers to support a new Farm Bill containing significant PHOTOGRAPHS [LEFT TO RIGHT] © BETTMANN/CORBIS; RAYMOND GEHMAN/CORBIS incentives for conservation. The bill, signed by President Reagan in 1985, launches the Conservation Reserve Program, which provides farmers with payments to take out of rota- tion environmentally sensitive and erosion-prone lands for 10 to 15 years. About 36 million PHOTOGRAPHS [CLOCKWISE FROM TOP] © JIM BRANDENBURG /MINDEN PICTURES; MICHAEL FORSBERG (2) acres are set aside in 2006.

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reserve lands. Idle farmlands could offer that range from Ducks Unlimited to the not one has chosen to go into agriculture. additional conservation gains—such as Farm Bureau, lobbying members of con- “A farmer’s life is a very, very hard wildlife habitat and cleaner air and gressional agricultural committees with life,” she says. “The government should water—if farmers actively managed the statistics, charts and numbers that show absolutely be helping the farmer with land using prescribed burns, seasonal the success of existing programs. programs that help the land and help flooding or techniques that suppress It’s too early to know whether politi- the farmers to stay there. We have to invasive weeds and pests. cians are likely to endorse any of the learn to take care of our environment. I “We recognize that federal funding Conservancy’s recommendations. don’t think we’ll ever have a Dust Bowl is tight,” says the Conservancy’s Congress will begin drafting the Farm again because of the improved farming Wojciechowski. “Our focus is on how Bill this spring; for now, legislators are practices, thank goodness. But, oh, I can we improve the programs we in a period of information gathering. don’t think anyone who didn’t live it presently have—how do we get them to can know how bad it was; it’s some- be greener with smaller tweaks; how can BACK ON THE LAND near Smoky Valley thing you just don’t like to relive.” we get increased funding where it is Ranch, Maxine Nickelson is left alone needed; and how can get more environ- with her black-and-white photos from REBECCA CLARREN writes from Portland, mental conservation bang for our buck?” her childhood and memories of the land: Oregon, about agriculture and the envi- To that end, the Conservancy is work- When her husband died a few years ago, ronment. Her work appears in Salon.com, ing with a diverse coalition of groups she quit the farm, and of her four children, High Country News and Orion Magazine. C TN ZER/ S HEL I H © CHR RAP OG T O H

P 2000s

LEARN HOW FARMS CAN AID WILDLIFE CONSERVATION @ NATURE.ORG/MAGAZINE

PROMOTING PRIVATE CONSERVATION The 2002 Farm Bill significantly boosts conservation and environmental programs. For example, the budg- et of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program is increased from $200 million in 2002 to $1.3 billion today. The amount of acreage sup- ported by the Conservation Reserve Program rises from 36.4 million to 39.2 million acres. Emphasis shifts away from counting the number of acres under conservation toward improving the quality of protections through practices such as terracing fields, reducing the amount of soil tilled and creating buffer zones along stream banks.

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