The United States in 1930's experienced what is referred to as the dust bowl in which a combination of poor farming and business practices caused massive wind erosion called 'black blizzards' that resulted in many farmers abandoning their farms in states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and beyond, just as the Great Depression was underway.

The research story here is about one of the initiatives from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal inniatives. This being the creation of a 'shelter belts', more precisely, the planting of more than 220 million trees from North Dakota down through Texas in a seven year time frame to help stabilize soil and rejuvenate farming communities…. Essentially, an act of planning and environmental conservation to be better prepared for a future of farming in the Great Plains.

Sarah Thomas Karle is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture in the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska where she teaches undergraduate courses in landscape architecture.

David Karle is an Associate Professor of Architecture in the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism.