Preventing the next Dust Bowl: Managing for resilient soils in the Southern Plains

In the 1930’s, the southern Great Plains was the epicenter of the Dust Bowl: an ecological, social, and economic disaster precipitated by harsh, dry weather and poor farming practices. While farming has improved, the weather has become more severe and unpredictable, prompting farmers to develop new techniques to improve their farms’ resilience. One primary approach includes managing for healthy soils—but will this result in markedly improved soil health across the entire region, or will some areas remain vulnerable to a second Dust Bowl?