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.
Ricardo de Ostos creates speculative fictions that envision architectural projects in shifting environmental and cultural contexts. He lives, works and teaches in London at both, the Architectural Association and The Bartlett School of Architecture. He is the co-director of NaJa & deOstos studio and co-author of 'The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad' (Springer Wien/New York, 2006) 'Ambiguous Spaces' (Princeton Press, 2007) and 'Scavengers and Other Creatures in Promised Lands' (fall 2017, AA).
Sara M. Watson is a writer and technology critic. She is an affiliate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and a writer in residence at Digital Asia Hub. Sara writes and speaks about emerging issues in the intersection of technology, culture, and society. She advocates for a constructive approach to technology criticism that not only critiques, but also offers alternatives. Her writing appears in The Atlantic, Wired, The Washington Post, Slate, Motherboard, and other publications.