The document summarizes the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, which was caused by years of severe drought that destroyed crops and exposed dry topsoil to powerful winds. Millions of tons of topsoil blew eastward, depositing sediment as far away as the Atlantic Ocean. In response, the Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service) was established in 1935 to address soil erosion and conservation. The document then provides examples of dust storms in 1934 South Dakota and 2011 Arizona to illustrate that dust storms remain an issue. It outlines the NRCS approach of Avoiding, Controlling, and Trapping pollutants using various conservation practices and highlights New Jersey's 2014 Soil Health Initiative promoting the use of cover crops.

1. Christine Hall
State Resource Conservationist
USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
United States Department of Agriculture is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

2. • In the 1920s wheat prices were
high and the precipitation was
generous. Families looking to cash
in moved to Texas, Oklahoma,
Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas
and other mid-western states.
• These homesteaders turned over
5.2 million acres of fertile prairie
grasslands to plant wheat.
• Exposed soil and drought created
conditions that caused 850 million
tons of topsoil to blow away in
just one year (1935).
Photo Credit: Library of Congress, Implements Used
on the Farm

3. From the West to the East
Sediment blew across the entire nation. Sediment from the
Dust Bowl Region settled on ships as far as 300 miles out in
the Atlantic Ocean.
Photo credits:
Dust storm in Dodge City Kansas, 1933
http://www.miamisci.org/blog/the-dust-bowl-man-and-nature-cause-
and-effect/
Dust storm in Hooker, Oklahoma, June 4, 1937. Credit: Research Division
of the Oklahoma Historical Society
Lincoln Memorial in dust cloud March 21, 1935:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/11/remem
bering_the_dust_bowl_of_t.html

4. Our Agency Was Created In
Response to The Crisis on the
Plains
• As part of Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Soil Erosion Service was created in
1933, and the conservation of soil and water resources became a national priority.
• In 1935 Congress passed Public Law 74-46, in which it recognized that "the wastage of
soil and moisture resources on farm, grazing, and forest lands . . . is a menace to the
national welfare," and it directed the Secretary of Agriculture to establish the Soil
Conservation Service (SCS) as a permanent agency in the USDA.
• In 1994, the Soil Conservation Service was renamed the Natural Resources
Conservation Service to reflect the broadened environmental concerns of the agency.

5. South Dakota 1934
Not Just For The History Books
Arizona 2011
Photo Credits:
Dust storm in South Dakota, 1934: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ndfahtml/ngp_farm_harrow.html
Dust storm in Phoenix, 2011: http://framework.latimes.com/2011/07/05/phoenix-dust-storm/#/7

6. A.C.T.
A “systems approach” to address priority natural resource concerns using a
selection of practices that address the concept for Avoiding, Controlling, or
Trapping pollutants, or “ACT.”
• A (Avoiding): Avoidance helps manage nutrients and sediment source
control from agricultural lands, including animal production facilities.
Practices help producers avoid pollution by reducing the amount of nutrients
available in runoff or leaching into priority water bodies and watersheds.
• C (Controlling): Land treatment in fields or facilities that prevents the
loss of pollutants. Many practices such as Cover Crop will also do double duty
by helping with Avoidance as well as Controlling.
• T (Trapping): The last line of defense against potential pollutants at edge
of field, or in facilities to trap or treat. Practices such as Filter Strips, Riparian
Buffers and the suite of wetland practices to enhance and/or restore wetlands
all serve to trap and uptake nutrients before entering water bodies.

7. A.C.T - Control Practices
We can Avoid the
application of nutrients

8. A.C.T - Control Practices

9. • In 2014 New Jersey NRCS created an initiative focusing on increasing the
sustainability and health of our soils.
• Cover Crop is the keystone practice for this initiative
– The cover crops planted must have three or more species from three different
groups (cool season grasses, legumes, forbs, warm season grasses).
The New Jersey Soil Health Initiative

10. Cover Crops
•Warm Season Grass: Millet, Sorghum
Sudangrass
•Warm Season Broadleaf: Sunnhemp,
Buckwheat, Sunflower
•Cool Season Grass: Annual Ryegrass,
Cereal Rye, Oats, Barley, Winter Wheat
•Cool Season Broadleaf: Austrian Winter
Pea, Clover, Hairy Vetch, Radish
http://www.easttexasseedcompany.com/hybridpearlmillet.php
http://stellametsovas.com/blog/tag/buckwheat/

11. 2014 NJ Soil Health
Initiative
As a participant in the Soil
Health Initiative, the NRCS-
NJ Soils Team will establish
a baseline condition and
continue to perform
analyses for the next 3
years to monitor changes in
soil health over time.

12. 2014 NJ Soil
Health Initiative
Quick Facts:
• Set aside $400,000 and
contracted $356,000 in
2014
• 17 Contracts funded
• Aerial seeding attempt
in Central NJ
• Continuing for 2015