The Landscape of Iowa Over Time
Have you ever wondered what Iowa would look like without human development? Let me give you a hint. There wouldn’t be any roads, the city landscape wouldn’t have been flattened to make room for buildings, and all the farmland would still be the natural prairies. It would be very different than what it is now. Some might say it is advantageous, others would say it isn’t.
The natural landscape of Iowa is very favorable for what the early people of Iowa used it for; farming. The soil is very thick, and in some parts of the state, the glaciers have flattened the land to make great use of easy tillage and farming. Although most of Iowa is relatively flat, some parts of Iowa are hilly. To connect all of these different
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When the people of Iowa decided to create cities and towns, they needed to clear forests and prairies to gain space. When the towns were created, the incoming people forced the cities to keep expanding and tearing down the landscape of Iowa. Although most of Iowa became cropland, some of the major cities remained, like, Des Moines. When cities are made the area must be cleared of all the trees and rubbish. Then all the trees cut down must be made into factories and other building to allow the town to grow and prosper. Next, the workers need a place to stay, so their houses were built. With all this new building of the city, it is no wonder why the landscape changed. When technology improved, the cities needed more and more space to live in, so the people of Iowa decided to build up instead of out. This helped to reduce the amount of land that was needed. Instead of going out into the prairie and forested areas, now the buildings can be built on top of one another. Most of the time, when the builders had to expand, it would cut into Iowa's natural …show more content…
Most of Iowa is used for farming and crop land. In some parts of Iowa, the the glaciers came down and flattened the area which resulted in great farmland. Some parts of Iowa are, however, very hilly and rocky. Either way, the way in which we use the land today will affect the world tomorrow. If Iowans do not continue producing corn and soybeans, the result could be devastating. In central Iowa, near Des Moines, the area is very flat and advantageous for a town. Since the landscape of Iowa is diverse in some ways, not all of Iowa can be used for the same purpose. Just this year alone Iowa is estimated to produce over 140 billion pounds of corn. So if anyone asks if you know Iowa, you can now, with confidence, say that you
Egan notes, “No group of people took a more dramatic leap in lifestyle or prosperity, in such a short time, than wheat farmers on the Great Plains” (Egan 42). The revenue from selling wheat far exceeded the cost of producing the wheat, so the large profit attracted people to produce more and more wheat. On top of the high profit from wheat, the Great War caused the price of wheat to rise even more. The supply of wheat rose with the price, but Egan points to information to demonstrate that the rapid increase in production can lead to overproduction, which is damaging to the land. Also, the invention of the tractor also lead to overproduction of the land by creating the ability to dramatically cut the time it took to harvest acres. When the prices for wheat began to fall due to overproduction, this caused the farmers to produce even more output to be able to make the same earnings as when the prices were higher. The government also played a part in promoting the overproduction of the land. The Federal Bureau of Soils claimed that, “The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possessed. It is the one resource that cannot be exhausted, that cannot be used up” (Egan 51). Egan points to factors such as a high profit margin, the Great War, tractors, increased outputs when wheat prices fell, and governmental claims that caused the people to overproduce the land of the Great Plains. Egan then gives examples of how the overproduction destroyed the land. Egan explains that the farmers saw their only way out was to plant more wheat. This overproduction tore up the grass of the Great Plains, thus making the land more susceptible to the severe dust storms of the Dust
The Midwest region of the United States consists of Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Indiana. A major source of the Midwest region of the United States is agriculture. The biggest issue the Midwest faces due to climate change is the effect of flooding on agriculture. Without agriculture the Midwest would not be what it is today. Over the years as flooding has increased planting and crop establishment has been delayed (US Global Change Research Program). Also flooding has changed the types of crops that can now be planted in the Midwest (Ben Chou). The extreme rainfalls and flooding have become more common over the past century and are expected to keep on increasing causing many harms for the Midwest including hurting agriculture (University of Michigan).
We gained the addition of 13 states with such land, there are more natural resources that can be found and more land for people to move to have farms of their own.
When people see new construction or a recently paved road, they often do not realize the sacrifice that was made to create these luxuries. Most people pass some form of construction on the way to their jobs or school every day. This simple fact sparks questions regarding what this area looked like before it was inhabited by humans. Illinois forests have undergone drastic changes in the decades since European settlement. Only 31 % of the forest area present in 1820 exists today. (Iverson Pdf) Tearing down trees to build new structures isn’t bad if done in moderation, in some ways with time and good planning its wonderful. However, anyone that hunts or claims to be an outdoorsman will relate to the incomparable feeling experienced when alone in the woods and far from the hustle of the urbanized world.
The drought, being the single most devastating effect on planting crops in the Great Plains, proved to be a force of devastation for many years. Moreover, since there was little rain it was virtually impossible to plant anything that could survive the harvesting season during the dustbowl. If you have no rain and no moisture
Interior plains is the best landform for farming as soil is the most fertile. In Central Canada it is almost all interior plains. This is one of the best type of land for farming. Also, interior plains land is also very flat. This is helpful because it is easy to lay out crops rather than having an uneven surface, and soil is also very rich in nutrients.
The nature of the Southern Plains soils and the periodic influence of drought could not be changed, but the technological abuse of the land could have been stopped. This is not to say that mechanized agriculture irreparably damaged the land-it did not. New and improved implements such as tractors, one-way disk plows, grain drills, and combines reduced plowing, planting, and harvesting costs and increased agricultural productivity. Increased productivity caused prices to fall, and farmers compensated by breaking more sod for wheat. At the same time, farmers gave little thought to using their new technology in ways to conserve the
The American prairie in the 1800’s was home to many homesteading families. There were also some challenges and limits to some of the people living during that time. In fact, the grass could grow up to 6 feet tall! Mothers would worry about losing their children in the tall grass. The men, women, and children all had different roles in the house. Men would fight, woman would run the house, and the children would help out, go to school, and more importantly, play.
Mississippi has a variety of different soils .The three general soils are 1) the river flood plain, known as the Delta, 2) a loess region, or bands of soils formed in windblown material that adjoins the Delta, and 3) Coastal Plain. The Mississippi Delta is better for growing row crop, while the loess and Coastal Plain region are better for animal production and forestry. The loess and Coastal Plain regions are divided based on similar soils, geology, climate, water resources, and land use called Major Land Resource Areas. The Mississippi Delta’s soil comes from sediments left by flooding various rivers in the region, rather than being a typical Delta formed by the mouth of a river. In the Delta most of the land is farmed, with three-fourths of the cropland to the north. Controlling surface water and drainage are major soil management issues. In the Delta soils are naturally diverse because of their alluvial origin. Particle sizes within the sediment decrease as distance from the originating stream increase. Another factor in Delta soil formation us surface water movement over time, because soils that formed under standing water have different properties than soils formed under moving water. Soils with large amounts of clay particles have unique features. When the soil is dry, small round aggregates form at the surface that look like shotgun buckshot, which is where the popular name for Delta clay soils “buckshot” came from. Soils with large clay content have very slow water filtration rates; this has led to significant aquaculture and rice production in the region. When floodwaters receded in the Delta, strong winds blew some of the dry sediment left by flooded river to the adjacent uplands to form the loess areas. Because of eas...
California geography in the 1860s were wide and flat valleys with a limited population what made what the ideal crop. California physical geography in the 1860s were flat and wide in the valleys which made wheat the ideal crop ideal crop, Before the panic of 1893, wheat was “profitable agricultural commodity” (201).The central valley of California improved agricultural through the development of technology such as “planting, pulverizing the earth, spreading the seeds in one operation, and improvements on cutting and threshing of grain” (pg. 202) California physical geography led to a prosperous agricultural and diversity various types of
Iowa was transformed to a fully functioning state by the pioneers because they saw something wonderful about the land and all of the opportunities that it could bring. On June 25, 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans to set foot onto Iowa soil. They marked the first settlement of white people on Iowa territory. The land had previously been home to approximately 17 different Indian tribes before being founded by Europeans.
Weeks of heavy rain in the Midwest caused rivers to swell and levees to break. Millions of acres of farmland are now underwater, their plantings most likely destroyed. By March, Iowa had tied its third-highest monthly snowfall in 121 years of record keeping, and then came the rain. April’s statewide average was the second highest in 136 years.... ...
...sted of tents and then tents became ranches and farms. Forts and train stations eventually grew into towns and some towns were then able to grow into cities.
Fewer people mean fewer demands on the environment. With growth in human population, the grasses and animal populations humans used for sustenance did not have time to recover, which turned into humans using the earth's natural resources in an unsustainable manner (class discussion 02.14.03). Humans living in agrarian society do not necessarily use the environment's resources in an unsustainable manner, but the greater the population density, the more land will be needed to support that population in a sustainable manner. As resources become more and more scarce, field owners will be less willing to let land lay fallow (class discussion 02.21.03). Humans then found a "tech fix" with the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals.
None of the buildings on the street that I live on here in California have very big lawns, which contrasts dramatically with my old neighborhood because back in Connecticut most houses have almost an acre of land per house. There are multiple trees on my moms property and the backyard is basically up against a forest. Now there 's still a good amount of trees on the street I currently live on in here California, but much less and most of them are much smaller or are palm trees. The houses and apartment complexes