From the Dust Bowl to Kudzu, and the First U.S. Soil and Water Conservation District
By Karl Galloway
Why We Have Soil and Water Conservation Districts
Of the layers of soil that we walk on every day, we are perhaps most concerned with topsoil which, oddly enough, lies just below the surface. This is where seeds germinate, and the healthier and richer it is, the more productive a crop. It was the degradation and loss of topsoil that led to the Dust Bowl, compounding the economic stress of a nation already in the throes of the Great Depression.
Through cultural practices (enforced by legislation) such as Manifest Destiny, American farmers had been moving west into the Midwest and Southern Plains for over 100 years, displacing First Nation peoples and changing the landscape. Their farming practices included plowing up native grasses for their own crops, which exposed the rich topsoil just below the surface. While this produced a rich return, it also exposed the soil to the sun and wind and removed the anchoring roots of the grasses. When drought hit in the early 1930s, and with its natural protection removed, the topsoil was completely dried out and lifted by strong winds, creating “black blizzards” that coated everything in the dust, and left previously rich soil arid and poor.
In response to this environmental and economic collapse, congress created the Soil Erosion Service, which would eventually manifest on local county levels as Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Their objective would be to conserve and improve natural resources within the boundaries of the district including; soil, water, air, wildlife, and forest. A North Carolina man, Dr. Hugh Hammond Bennett, born on a 1500 acre antebellum plantation in Anson County in the Pee-Dee River Basin and well aware of the effects of drainage and erosion, championed the first one, to be called Brown Creek Soil and Water Conservation District.
The First
In the world of soil conservation, Bennett is Babe Ruth. His career spanned over 5 decades and he advised projects in Alaska, Brazil, Cuba, and South Africa, and would eventually become the chief of the United States Soil Conservation Service. His travels drove him to encourage alternate forms of planting to traditional western methods, including terracing, strip cropping, contour plowing, grassed waterways, and crop rotation. Many of these were novel to the inheritors of large scale monocropping and basic plowing, techniques that laid the groundwork for the Dust Bowl.
His career and influence drove the establishment of the Brown Creek Soil and Water Conservation District, the first of its kind, for which he helped draft legislation, specifically NC General Statute 139. While the first district originally only included the parts of Anson and Union Counties within the Brown Creek Watershed, in 1947 they expanded to include Stanly, Montgomery, and Richmond Counties, who would eventually form their own districts. Today, North Carolina has 96 Soil and Water Districts, extending to all 100 counties. Over 80 years later, the Brown Creek Soil and Water Conservation District Board, staff and partnership agencies are dedicated to helping preserve Anson County’s natural beauty and resources, and to continuing Dr. Hugh Hammond Bennett’s legacy.
Blessing and A Curse
The initiatives driven by these districts and their committees manifest in many ways but one, in particular, is emblematic of Bennet’s creativity as well as his original drive to combat the root cause for the development of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts, erosion. As part of his strategies, he encouraged the use of Kudzu, a plant most likely native to Japan, as a bank protector. Used by the Civilian Conservation Corps since the late 1800s, its massive root system and fast-growing nature make an excellent structure to help hold together the steep hillsides and riverbanks that are so emblematic of North Carolina.
Of course, Bennet did not anticipate the voracious growing ability of Kudzu, and the eerie forms that dot our landscape (cars, trees, and houses consumed by the vine) provide a testament to the vine’s incredibly successful campaign of coverage. However, there may be hope for further sustainable interaction among ourselves, the land, and this plant. Groups like The Kudzu Cowboys of Asheville NC are exploring the many uses of the plant. Its vines can be processed for fiber, or pickled, canned and eaten. Its roots, massive tubers that can weigh hundreds of pounds, can be ground for a flour substitute. What is often seen as an invasive species could actually be a bank of resources. Approaching it in such a manner honors Dr. Bennet’s original creativity and drive, even as it informs a more diverse food and resource system, the inverse of which led to one of the worst environmental and economic events our nation has faced. In a story that began with drought and land degradation, Kudzu might provide the kind of diverse and multi-purpose crop that could have avoided that erosion all together.
