Seirer_180430_8503318.jpgRestored Grassland A spring day breaks over the Cimarron National Grassland near Elkhart. The national grassland is a product of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Prodded by plentiful rain and high grain prices in the 1920s, much of the usually parched southwest Kansas land in the valley of the Cimarron River was tilled. But when drought came in the following decade, the thin, sandy soil was lifted by wind, creating clouds of dirt as the bare fields eroded. To clear the air and stop the erosion, Congress in 1932 passed laws allowing the government to purchase vulnerable land and return it to native grasses, which have extensive root systems that hold soil in place. Thousands of acres in the Great Plains were rescued by the program. The Cimarron National Grassland, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, includes 108,175 acres in Morton and Stevens counties

A spring day breaks over the Cimarron National Grassland near Elkhart. The national grassland is a product of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Prodded by plentiful rain and high grain prices in the 1920s, much of the usually parched southwest Kansas land in the valley of the Cimarron River was tilled. But when drought came in the following decade, the thin, sandy soil was lifted by wind, creating clouds of dirt as the bare fields eroded. To clear the air and stop the erosion, Congress in 1932 passed laws allowing the government to purchase vulnerable land and return it to native grasses, which have extensive root systems that hold soil in place. Thousands of acres in the Great Plains were rescued by the program. The Cimarron National Grassland, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, includes 108,175 acres in Morton and Stevens counties