Stabenow recalls her mother was there on Black Sunday
July 15, 2013 | 06:45 PM
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., recalled today that her mother was an Oklahoma farm girl when the worst dust storm in American history occurred on April 14, 1935, and she noted the improvements to American conservation since then.
In a speech to the National Association Conservation Districts, Stabenow recalled that her mother, now 87 and living in Michigan, was a 9-year old girl on a cotton farm in western Oklahoma. Stabenow said that her mother told her that they used a windmill to draw electricity.
Black Sunday “wasn’t just a movie for her,” she said.
But Stabenow noted that those Dust Bowl conditions led Congress that year to pass the Soil Conservation Act and the next year the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, which established the Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service). It also allowed the government to pay farmers to protect the soil, and gave USDA the directive to conserve soil on the High Plains.
Last year, Stabenow said, the United States experienced the worst drought since the 1930s, but the nation did not see the same environmental problems that occurred then.
The reason, Stabenow said, was the advances in soil and other resource conservation. Soil conservation has declined 40 percent since the 1980s, wetlands have increased since 1997, in 2011 a record number of acres were enrolled in conservation programs and last year USDA worked with 500,000 farmers to implement conservation measures.
One of the big benefits of the soil conservation district system, she said, was the combination of federal and local partnership. The National Association of Conservation Districts was founded in 1946, a year after World War II ended, she noted.
The conservation provisions in the new farm bill, which are similar in the House and Senate bills, would reduce the conservation programs from 23 to 13, make the use of programs more flexible, strengthen the Environmental Quality Incentives Program for wildlife habitat, and establish a 1.5 million grasslands enrollment option in the Conservation Reserve Program.
The Senate bill, Stabenow noted, provides flexilbity for the Conservation Stewardship Program and provides “mandatory money,” not “fake money.” The conservation title would also make it easier to establish regional partnerships, which would help the Great Lakes region.
Stabenow also noted that Hugh Hammond Bennett, the founder of the Soil Conservation Service, famously said, “Take care of the land and the land will take care of you.”
In a speech to the National Association Conservation Districts, Stabenow recalled that her mother, now 87 and living in Michigan, was a 9-year old girl on a cotton farm in western Oklahoma. Stabenow said that her mother told her that they used a windmill to draw electricity.
Black Sunday “wasn’t just a movie for her,” she said.
But Stabenow noted that those Dust Bowl conditions led Congress that year to pass the Soil Conservation Act and the next year the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, which established the Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service). It also allowed the government to pay farmers to protect the soil, and gave USDA the directive to conserve soil on the High Plains.
Last year, Stabenow said, the United States experienced the worst drought since the 1930s, but the nation did not see the same environmental problems that occurred then.
The reason, Stabenow said, was the advances in soil and other resource conservation. Soil conservation has declined 40 percent since the 1980s, wetlands have increased since 1997, in 2011 a record number of acres were enrolled in conservation programs and last year USDA worked with 500,000 farmers to implement conservation measures.
One of the big benefits of the soil conservation district system, she said, was the combination of federal and local partnership. The National Association of Conservation Districts was founded in 1946, a year after World War II ended, she noted.
The conservation provisions in the new farm bill, which are similar in the House and Senate bills, would reduce the conservation programs from 23 to 13, make the use of programs more flexible, strengthen the Environmental Quality Incentives Program for wildlife habitat, and establish a 1.5 million grasslands enrollment option in the Conservation Reserve Program.
The Senate bill, Stabenow noted, provides flexilbity for the Conservation Stewardship Program and provides “mandatory money,” not “fake money.” The conservation title would also make it easier to establish regional partnerships, which would help the Great Lakes region.
Stabenow also noted that Hugh Hammond Bennett, the founder of the Soil Conservation Service, famously said, “Take care of the land and the land will take care of you.”
