"OAKLEY, Kan. — The need to take better care of America's rural lands came to the nation's capital — literally — on March 21, 1935.

That was the day federal Soil Erosion Service director Hugh Hammond Bennett testified to a congressional subcommittee in favor of boosting farmland conservation, just as a dust storm that had originated in the Great Plains a few days earlier arrived to darken the skies of Washington.

Bennett's testimony helped make a case for creating the Soil Conservation Service, and with it decades of federal help to avoid another Dust Bowl."

Marc Heller reports for Greenwire December 1, 2017. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Prairie protection hits headwinds on Great Plains" (Greenwire) [3]

"Hipster Evangelist Preaches Preservation Of Native Prairies" (Greenwire) [4]