Background Material on the Colorado Grazing Roundtable

10 pages. Contains endnotes

Sustainability of the Great Plains in an Uncertain Climate

The potential for social adaptation to climate change on the Great Plains is examined and a framework offered for sharpening the inquiry into regional agricultural sustainability. The future of Plains agriculture in a worsening climate depends on several factors, but a key characteristic is whether the system is fundamentally adaptable (able to change form and function markedly under new conditions) or resilient (likely to attempt to maintain normal operations via disaster relief and other social maintenance schemes in future droughts). In a cumulative climate deterioration, adaptive strategies are likely to yield less abrupt social dislocation, but debate over the sustainability of Plains agriculture even in the absence of climate change demonstrates the need for a concerted, collaborative examination of regional development trends by Plains researchers

THE DUST BOWL HISTORICAL IMAGE, PSYCHOLOGICAL ANCHOR, AND ECOLOGICAL TABOO

T he Dust Bowl is an enduring image in the collective consciousness of Americans. Experience and intuition suggest that a few historical events and eras, and their symbols, endure as important cultural memories or benchmarks. The concept of collective cultural myths or symbols is difficult to define or even to examine. Nevertheless, there is compelling prima facie evidence that the American Dust Bowl is a powerful historical symbol; perhaps not one with the power of Frederick Jackson Turner\u27s frontier, but certainly one that focuses attention whenever issues of Great Plains culture and agriculture arise. In the light of the stringent theoretical and methodological ideals adopted by contemporary social science, it is hard to argue that powerful myths and symbols shape the collective American consciousness. There exist no widely accepted standards for proving that an image is enduring, or evidence that knowing about it adds to our understanding of cultural character or behavior. From the perspective of the social scientist, cultural images or collective memories are fuzzy concepts, partly, I think, because we who use them fail to demonstrate how these images translate into environmental attitudes and behaviors. If the myth/symbol is to be regarded as an important concept, we must identify processes by which it affects, for instance, the interactions of nature and society. In this paper I have asked if Dust Bowl symbolism has anything to do with people\u27s use of the Great Plains, if it affects their behavior, or, more telling, if it has played a role in cultural and technological adaptation to the Plains environment. My answer to these questions is yes. I support my conclusion with two behavioral mechanisms through which the image might translate into environmental behavior

Sustainability of the Great Plains in an Uncertain Climate

The potential for social adaptation to climate change on the Great Plains is examined and a framework offered for sharpening the inquiry into regional agricultural sustainability. The future of Plains agriculture in a worsening climate depends on several factors, but a key characteristic is whether the system is fundamentally adaptable (able to change form and function markedly under new conditions) or resilient (likely to attempt to maintain normal operations via disaster relief and other social maintenance schemes in future droughts). In a cumulative climate deterioration, adaptive strategies are likely to yield less abrupt social dislocation, but debate over the sustainability of Plains agriculture even in the absence of climate change demonstrates the need for a concerted, collaborative examination of regional development trends by Plains researchers

THE DUST BOWL HISTORICAL IMAGE, PSYCHOLOGICAL ANCHOR, AND ECOLOGICAL TABOO

T he Dust Bowl is an enduring image in the collective consciousness of Americans. Experience and intuition suggest that a few historical events and eras, and their symbols, endure as important cultural memories or benchmarks. The concept of collective cultural myths or symbols is difficult to define or even to examine. Nevertheless, there is compelling prima facie evidence that the American Dust Bowl is a powerful historical symbol; perhaps not one with the power of Frederick Jackson Turner\u27s frontier, but certainly one that focuses attention whenever issues of Great Plains culture and agriculture arise. In the light of the stringent theoretical and methodological ideals adopted by contemporary social science, it is hard to argue that powerful myths and symbols shape the collective American consciousness. There exist no widely accepted standards for proving that an image is enduring, or evidence that knowing about it adds to our understanding of cultural character or behavior. From the perspective of the social scientist, cultural images or collective memories are fuzzy concepts, partly, I think, because we who use them fail to demonstrate how these images translate into environmental attitudes and behaviors. If the myth/symbol is to be regarded as an important concept, we must identify processes by which it affects, for instance, the interactions of nature and society. In this paper I have asked if Dust Bowl symbolism has anything to do with people\u27s use of the Great Plains, if it affects their behavior, or, more telling, if it has played a role in cultural and technological adaptation to the Plains environment. My answer to these questions is yes. I support my conclusion with two behavioral mechanisms through which the image might translate into environmental behavior

Key Trends in Population and Land Use in the West

9 pages (includes illustrations and maps). Contains 1 page of references

Western Land Use Trends and Policy: Implications for Water Resources

Under the Western Water Policy Review Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-575, Title XXX), Congress directed the President to undertake a comprehensive review of Federal activities in the 19 Western States that directly or indirectly affect the allocation and use of water resources, whether surface or subsurface, and to submit a report of findings to the congressional committees having jurisdiction over Federal Water Programs

People as Part of Ecosystems

30 p. : ill. ; 28 cmhttps://scholar.law.colorado.edu/books_reports_studies/1049/thumbnail.jp

Review of At Odds with Progress by Bret Wallach

Geographer Bret Wallach\u27s stated goal in this book is to show that environmentalism is rooted in a fundamental human love for the land. He argues that we are at odds with progress and that this aversion is illustrated through efforts to protect the land from exploitation. But, .Wallach argues, our loyalty to the land is cloaked in disguises of efficiency, social welfare, and scientific ecology. This argument is pursued through a series of personal reflections on places: northern Maine, southern Appalachia, Wyoming desert, San Joaquin oil fields, the national grasslands, and Texas High Plains. Wallach obviously loves these lands, and feels them threatened by the free market\u27s insatiable yearning for profits and an industrial imperative which he says override other human values. Though Wallach paints stereotypical pictures of corporate profiteers arrayed against conservationist farmers, the argument rings true as he describes how American conservationists like Pinchot clothed a deep loyalty to the land in a pragmatic gospel of efficiency, social welfare, or, more recently, ecological balance. This sort of dissonance among beliefs and values probably affects most resource managers, who gravitate to professions in touch with the natural world only to find that they must cloak their environmental ethics in practical terms to make bureaucratic headway

Evaluating the Effects of Climate Changes on Grasslands

Determining the effects of climate change on cold region grasslands requires the integration of knowledge from the biological, physical and social sciences. That integration is dependent on new methods, technologies and facilitation techniques ! that allow evaluation and management of complexity rather than focusing on simplification. Specifically, grassland response can be defined as the interaction of 10 basic sectors: (I) wenther and climate (Including chemical factors}, (2) winter, (3) soil properties, (4) assemblages of organisms, (5) energy, (6) economic viability, (7) individual human behavior, (8) cultural and community viability, (9) organisational penalty, and (10) political, legal, policy, and regulatory Influences. These sectors are interactive and interdependent, and none should be ignored without thoughtful consideration. Often scientists, educators, land managers and policy makers tend to overlook the interactions and fail to recognize that management for sustainability depends on their integration. Viewing ecosystems in all of their biological, physical and sociological complexity is critical for informed decision making regarding the effects of climate and other global changes. When policy and management decisions are made, scientific knowledge must become an integral part of the process. We must accept the modern reality that decisions will not be made in isolation from numerous constituencies with varying viewpoints about how ecosystems will be managed. Analyses will require they be done in ways that ensure the decision processes based thereon are open to and comprehensible by not only scientists, policymakers and managers, but often the public at large