The Effects of Consumption on Topsoil and Fortress Conservation

Photo shows a desolate area with topsoil not being able
to hold the plants and trees leaving it barren
Photo provided by Pxhere

    The article I decided to read about is on if American topsoil could be brought back from being almost unusable. The article begins with the Cobbs Farm and how the soil is becoming a powdery substance whenever it comes into contact with water. Now a powdery soil leads to the environment around the soil not being able to adapt and be able to gain the nutrients that the plants and trees need in order to survive. The powdery soil also makes it so the roots of the trees aren’t able to grasp anything so the tree therefore won’t be able to grow. This inability to grasp the ground also affects smaller plants since their roots are tiny and need firmer soil to grow. 

    

     This problem also effects humans because due to the heavy winds the soil can be carried into the air and effect the respiratory systems of people around the area. This problem was seen back in the 1930s with the dust bowl where over tilling soil led to the dust storms making some land out west unbearable, and lots of cattle and people were forced to move either further West or back to the East to escape the area. Basically, America used to be the main source of new virgin topsoil that was far more prosperous than the soil in Europe. Europe was being over tilled throughout many generations and with American soil being vastly not used to the potential the Europeans had been using. Yet, after years of the prairies and large forests the clumpy muddy soil is now becoming powdery and all the important microbes and ability to retain water the soil is not able to recover anymore.

This photo portraits the magnitude of what
the powdering of the topsoil could do 
Photo by George E. Marsh

    My previous blog was about the Fortress Conservation, an oversimplified summary is that the fortresses are used to keep the indigenous people and natural animals and plants from coming into an area because the people in charge of the area now do not ant the area to change. The Union for example took over Glacier National Park in order to preserve the beauty of nature, yet they forced the Blackfeet indigenous people of the area. Once they forcibly removed these people from their lands, they took what they could from the location of the “national park” yet were destroying the “Virgin Beauty” of the area. 

     In the circumstances with Yellowstone the Union army were forced to keep the indigenous people from returning and were camped out in the area. This somehow ties into the notion of the soil in the area since with the eviction of the indigenous people the Union miners came in and dug up the landscape or blew it up with dynamite making some of the waters fill with toxins of sulfur mines or making sinkholes with the expansions from the explosives. The ground suffers also from the movement of thousands of tourists treading the soil and making pathways that can’t grow anything. The similarities are slim but with moving an indigenous body that respected the land and only took what they needed it was helping the soil replenish itself and be able to recover from these infractions yet, when they Union and large groups of tourist and miners came it destroyed the balance. 

Photo describes the layout of the farms and how if all this topsoil was 
powder it would be very drastic situation
Photo provided by Pixabay

     These impacts on the environment don’t just effect people nearby to the incidents but also effect people farther away. For the topsoil being loose and powdery this makes it so that farmers aren’t able to grow their quota for the season which may raise prices for certain crops. Not fulfilling this quota also makes the quantity of the product be reduced drastically and the products that are produced from this crop are also diminished. So people in Keene for example would not be able to gain the crops of food they need or they might experience dust storms that are effecting their lungs and make an already bad situation worse. People in Keene could do a great benefit by making this problem known and bring it to elected officials because if it is affecting the people the few people who can change it are the ones with vast power. Having environmentalists as party goers and having them able to access the situation can greatly benefit the people with the food shortages and lung illnesses.