#soil conservation

Farmersville, Texas Post Office

Soil Conservation in Collin County by Jerry Bywaters (1941)

Plains farms need trees: Trees prevent wind erosion, save moisture ... protect crops, contribute to human comfort and happiness

Most of my day was spent on foot replacing the winter kill on an erosion control project we planted last year. This little river is the culprit of eating everything around it. She's not a fast or mighty river, but a slow old soul who will nibble at the banks till they collapse. We've had an exceptional dry year so far, so it's pretty shallow right now. We have multiple tree lines on either side of the river, unfortunately the west side of the river didn't fair winter well and roughly 200 odd saplings had to be replaced on that side. (This planting had a mix of cottonwood and lilac to stabilize the bank.)

Also confused at WHY there was a random boxelder in the cottonwood row? Like nursery people? You messed up a little bit on one of our bundles of stock. Haha. Oh well, he was still alive, minus a little winter burn. I left him in the row. Random odd guy out, but he's good. Spacing is simalar to cottonwood, so he'll be fine where he is.

On the east side of the river, the land owner keeps some of his cows. Can you tell the wind never stops blowing in North Dakota? This is actually a natural phenomenon you see everywhere here, if I'm not mistaken the actual "scientific term" is called creep and slump, no joke. Pretty scientific sounding, huh? Phone poles, trees, fences, older buildings, ect will always be leaning because of the constant wind. Which yesterday, we were working in 20mph winds with 30mph gusts. (Our prevalent winds are from the north and from the west. This fence was affected by the west prevalent wind. The winds are a major key in how we plan plantings.)

Also, back from the west side of the river. The find of the day was a broken arrowhead! (Also collected a busted up coyote skull. But didn't take a picture of that.)

Just from a different planting we did later in the day, this was a government funded windbreak. Again, just replacing winter kill. The row we were working on was of oak, which it did surprisingly well considering oak are difficult to establish. They require specific care before they can even go into the ground. (You need to "sweat" your oaks before being planted.) I didn't take a picture of the row we were working on, but of the hills in the background. The camera didn't do them justice, but they're one of my favorite parts about living where I do. The hills are home to vast natural Bur Oak and Aspen forests.

Here, I went and stole some pictures off of one of our tourism pages. Here's a better picture of the hills. (Not mine, but from a public website.) So yeah, I get to see this on my daily drive, haha. So whoever tells you North Dakota is flat, and has no trees obviously hasn't been off the main highways.

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