Historical Agriculture and Soil Erosion in the Upper Mississippi Valley Hill Country

"This thought-provoking book demonstrates how processes of landscape transformation, usually illustrated only in simplified or idealized form, play out over time in real, complex landscapes. Trimble illustrates how a simple landscape disturbance, generated in this case by agriculture, can spread an astonishing variety of altered hydrologic and sedimentation processes throughout a drainage basin. The changes have spatial and temporal patterns forced on them by the distinctive topographic structure of drainage basins. "Through painstaking field surveys, comparative photographic records, careful dating, a skillful eye for subtle landscape features, and a geographer’s interdisciplinary understanding of landscape processes, the author leads the reader through the arc of an instructive and encouraging story. Farmers—whose unfamiliarity with new environmental conditions led initially to landscape destruction, impoverishment, and instability—eventually adapted their land use and settlement practices and, supported by government institutions, recovered and enriched the same working landscape. "For the natural scientist, Historical Agriculture and Soil Erosion in the Upper Mississippi Valley Hill Country illustrates how an initially simple alteration of land cover can set off a train of unanticipated changes to runoff, erosion, and sedimentation processes that spread through a landscape over decades—impoverishing downstream landscapes and communities. Distinct zones of the landscape respond differently and in sequence. The effects take a surprisingly long time to spread through a landscape because sediment moves short distances during storms and can persist for decades or centuries in relatively stable forms where it resists further movement because of consolidation, plant reinforcement, and low gradients. "For the social scientist, the book raises questions of whether and how people can be alerted early to their potential for environmental disturbance, but also for learning and adopting restorative practices. Trimble’s commitment to all aspects of this problem should energize both groups."—Professor Thomas Dunne, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara

The Physical Region and Primeval LandscapePhysiographyClimateVegetation and SoilsStreamsConclusionEuropean Settlement and Changes of Land UseEarly SettlementOverview of Historical Agriculture in the RegionHistorical Crops and Other Agricultural Land UseCropsGrazing and Animal HusbandryLand Use Management from the Time of Settlement to the 1930sA Revolution in Agricultural Land ManagementConservation AgenciesThe Continuing Soil Conservation RevolutionA Composite of Erosive Land Use over the Historical PeriodThe Systematic Effects of Historical Agriculture on the Physical LandscapeThe Role of Modified Hydrology (In Particular, the Role of Rills and Gullies)Increasing Hydrologic Change and Soil Erosion in the Hill CountryEffects of Soil Conservation on the Physical LandscapeSediment Budgets over the Historical PeriodZones of Physical Processes within Stream Basins of the Hill CountryTributariesUpper Main Valley (UMV)Lower Main Valley (LMV)Stream Erosion of High Terraces and High Banks Upland Gully Erosion and its EffectsHillside Gullies and Their FansThe Appleby FarmThe Zink FarmHigh Terrace Gullies and Their FansThe Buffalo and Black River TerracesProksch CouleeRatz GullyThe Peterson EventThe Tributaries: Zone of Early, Complex Changes of Process and FormVillagesFairwater, MinnesotaSimilar VillagesOther Locations and FunctionsFarms and FarmsteadsRoads, Railroads, Bridges, and Communication LinesMills, Reservoirs, and Water PowerFish HabitatThe Upper Main Valleys: Zone of Later Complex Changes of Process and FormVillagesElba, MinnesotaCoon Valley, WisconsinFreeburg, MinnesotaFarms and FarmsteadsThe Lower Main Valleys: Zone of Perennial SedimentationVillages and TownsChaseburg, WisconsinBeaver and Whitewater Falls, MinnesotaSoldiers Grove and Gays Mills, WisconsinGalena, Illinois and Potosi, WisconsinElkport and Garber, IowaVillage Creek, IowaIon, IowaRushford, MinnesotaArcadia, WisconsinFarms and Farmsteads of the LMVRoads, Bridges, and Communication LinesMills and ReservoirsThe Great Flood of August 2007 and its ImplicationsThe StormMass MovementsUpland SlopesGulliesTributaries Upper Main ValleyLower Main ValleySediment Yield or EffluxConclusionsConclusionsIndex

Stanley W. Trimble, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, was a research hydrologist with the USGS 1973-1984. He is the author of Man Induced Erosion on the Southern Piedmont (SWCS, 1974, 2008), editor of Encyclopedia of Water Science (CRC, 2008) and co-author (with Andrew Ward) of Environmental Hydrology (CRC, 2004). He was co-editor of Catena, 1996-2006.