Duane Bozarth wrote:
Larry Caldwell wrote:

In article ,
(Duane Bozarth) says...

...they can grow trees.

Nope...never were trees and if it were to go back to fully
unsettled, the ones here would be gone after the first grass fire, never
to be re-established owing to arid climate and repetitive fires.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Out here in the west, our trees don't burn. NOT!

Yes, but fire isn't/wasn't as prevalent/frequent on specific piece of
ground as in the prairies. With the flat unrestricted plains, estimates
were that any given area burned on the average of every 5-10 years.

Fire isn't the only cause, much of it is the soil pH is not particularly
suited for trees' benefit and the continuous wind contributes as well to
stunting growth of those which do survive. All in all, it isn't a very
good place to be a tree.

The only reason the prairie wasn't wall to wall timber was that the
buffalo killed all the trees. You should see them around a tree
sometime. They hate trees. If they can't shove them over, they dig the
roots up or peel the bark off.

You should see them lounging in the shade of those around some of the
water holes enjoying the shade on a hot summer day...

They do, like elephants, enjoy a good pushing contest, though, you're
right. Corral fences are a challenge.

...
...I also have trouble thinking of someplace that grows grass as
arid. It takes a lot of water to grow grass.

Depends of the type of grass, naturally as well as the soil. The sandy
soil will support much more vegetation on minimal rainfall than heavier
soils. If we had clay soils of the type in much of the east, it would
be near-desert.

There is a mini-ecological crisis going on right now in the prairie
states, where trees are encroaching on any land that is not under the
plow. ...

Don't have to google, can look out my window...

'Tis true, but as noted, a good burn will fix it. The prime difference
is twofold--first, early settlers and particularly in the Dust Bowl
days, farmers planted trees around their farmsteads and thousands of
miles of windbreaks. These now propogate w/ the aid of birds, etc., and
some can get established. Particularly bad are the red cedar and
tamarisk. Problems are, of course, enhanced the farther east one goes
as rainfall goes up and wind goes down.

Duane, where you at? I grew up in ND and spent a lot of time in and out
of those mile long shelter belts planted back in Dust Bown Days. Every
time I go back home it seems more and more of them are dieing off. Guess
they've hit the end of their life.
Have you ever seen a map of the country showing where the Federal Gov't
helped the farmers plant shelterbelts? National Geo did an article years
ago. It's a strip, maybe a couple hundred miles wide, at most, running
from the Canadian Border to Oklahoma or Texas or somewhere's down there.
Amazing to think about when looked at from that scale. Driving east west
across ND you can almost see the line, on either side, by the sharp
decrease in the number of old shelter belts.
In later years more trees were planted closer up around the buildings
with less and less out in the fields. When I was spending summers on a
tractor, in the 60's, many farms had a single row of trees every few
hundred yards across the fields. But when prices for wheat went sky high
for a few years those trees went and the wheat was planted right up the
sides of the road ditches. Maximum yield.