Restoring Soils to Protect Our Future By Larry J. Schweiger, President and CEO “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”—Franklin D. Roosevelt Larry Schweiger President Roosevelt knew what he was talking about when he issued that urgent warning to the nation’s governors in the mid-1930s. Prolonged drought and fierce dust storms had swept massive clouds of dirt east from Midwestern fields, dumping copious amounts of topsoil more than 300 miles into the Atlantic Ocean and raining dust on the nation’s capital in 1934 and again in 1935. The second of those big dust storms spurred the U.S. Congress to pass the Soil Conservation Act, which the president signed into law on April 27, 1935. Since then, farmers have learned a lot about managing soils better to produce crops for food and fuel. Federal conservation programs have helped them adopt practices and make investments to retain soils and improve downstream water quality. Despite those gains, however, agricultural runoff remains the dominant source of water pollution in this country, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports more than half of the nation’s rivers and streams are now considered degraded.… Read Larry’s full editorial—and take action in support of a wildlife-friendly Farm Bill.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 03:31:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015