Soil Erosion Service

The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 included funds to fight soil erosion. Causes of the dust bowl included concentrated agriculture practiced by so-called sodbusters (farmers who replaced fields of native grasses with wheat and other crops). Some of the grassland was previously used for livestock. Most sodbuster activity came between 1905 and 1915. By the 1920s rainfall had decreased and crops failed. The soil turned to dust and formed the black blizzards of the Great Plains for about 10 years. Soil Erosion Service became a service under the Department of the Interior in 1933. Hugh Hammond Bennett served as SES' first chief, serving until 1951. SES was transferred to the Department of Agriculture in 1935. After the Flood Control Act of 1936, SES added watershed management projects. ==Gallery==

File:Bennett.jpg|Hugh Hammond Bennett served as the first chief of the Soil Erosion Service till 1951 File:US_Nations_First_Watershed_Project.jpg|US Nation's First Watershed Project by the Soil Erosion Service. From left to right, John Bollinger, a farmer and planner with the Soil Conservation Service, Dr. Hugh Bennett, retired chief of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, Marvin Schweers, Wisconsin state conservationist, and Herbert Flueck, Minnesota state conservationist, photo take July 19, 1955. Hugh H. Bennett in Wisconsin, October 25, 1946.jpg|Chief Hugh H. Bennett, Mrs. Bennett, and regional conservator A.E. McClymonds view conservation work on the Frank Milsna farm, Manske Ridge on the Coon Creek Demonstration Project in Vernon County, Wisconsin, on October 25, 1946 Dust Bowl - Dallas, South Dakota 1936.jpg|Dust Bowl in Dallas, South Dakota in 1936 with buried farm machinery Dust storm in Spearman,Texas, Wea01422.jpg|Dust storm in Spearman, Texas in ==See also==