What was the Dustbowl and could it have been avoided?

I know that some sort of anthropogenic climate disaster destroyed the agriculture of a region of the United States, but what sort of disaster was it? Did it have something to do with erosion or deforestation or both and thus could've been avoided?
 
the North American Great Plains are subject to cyclical drought / wet decades. It seems to have a 30 year cycle

Basically the worst affected areas in the late 1920s and early 1930s were west of the 100th Meridian, in the high plains, where the land is dry steppe, unlike the wetter praire to the east

in short, when settled, late 1880s and early 1890s, it was a wet period that lasted until the early 1920s, before gradually becoming drier and drier and then entering drought. The farmers stripped off the top layer of matted grass that had been there for centuries, plowed it, grew wheat like crazy, a bubble developed as land was farmed more and more intensely because of high crop prices during World War I, farmers got into debt and had to keep farming like crazy to grow enough to get enough to hopefully meet bills while the price continued to fall, the climate continued to dry (reduced yields per acre) and then it got REALLY dry

Remember, they didn't really understand climate science at all during this period, and pre settlement records were sparse and only now do we really understand somewhat the climate history of North America

more can be found here
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=greatplainsresearch

http://www1.american.edu/ted/ICE/dust-bowl.html
 
the North American Great Plains are subject to cyclical drought / wet decades. It seems to have a 30 year cycle

Basically the worst affected areas in the late 1920s and early 1930s were west of the 100th Meridian, in the high plains, where the land is dry steppe, unlike the wetter praire to the east

in short, when settled, late 1880s and early 1890s, it was a wet period that lasted until the early 1920s, before gradually becoming drier and drier and then entering drought. The farmers stripped off the top layer of matted grass that had been there for centuries, plowed it, grew wheat like crazy, a bubble developed as land was farmed more and more intensely because of high crop prices during World War I, farmers got into debt and had to keep farming like crazy to grow enough to get enough to hopefully meet bills while the price continued to fall, the climate continued to dry (reduced yields per acre) and then it got REALLY dry

Remember, they didn't really understand climate science at all during this period, and pre settlement records were sparse and only now do we really understand somewhat the climate history of North America

more can be found here
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=greatplainsresearch

http://www1.american.edu/ted/ICE/dust-bowl.html
Thank you, I will read into this later.
 
Could the government have intervened?

Calling for a temporary suspension of loan repayments until the market stabilised might have avoided a Grapes of Wrath situation, no?
 
The government initially made things worst by encouraging more extensive planting as a response to falling prices in the depression.
A good book on the Dust Bowl is Timothy Egan: The Worst Hard Time.
 
IIRC, things didn't settle down until the drought eased, when contour plowing and other mitigations were introduced via federal schemes...
 
Could the government have intervened?

Calling for a temporary suspension of loan repayments until the market stabilised might have avoided a Grapes of Wrath situation, no?

This was a era when there was still lots of opposition to government intervention for prevention. ie: When the flood of 1927 overwhelmed the ability of the Mississippi basin states to deal with the emergency a Federal relief bill was labeled a radically dangerous action. After Congress voted the relief fund President Coolidge, who had opposed the bill, dodged responsibility by handing over the funds to the American Red Cross.
 
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