Desert Gardens

» Rosemary Drisdelle - Hot spots of deserification

I know that desertification is a global problem, but I suspect it's worst in Africa. Is that true? In North America, we've figured out what's going on, but have we effectively put a stop to it here?

Rosemary Drisdelle
birds.suite101.com

» Robert Dailey - Hot spots of deserification

Hi Rosemary,
Unfortunately, we haven't. The state of Texas alone is losing about 1 percent of arable land per year, and this has been going on since the 60's.
Arizona is diverting most of its fresh water (fron the Colorado River)to urban centers.
Very two or the largest U.S. rivers, the Rio Grande and the Colorado, rarely make it to the sea these days.
The Mississippi River, which has become a Great Ditch, has been taking topsoil from the Upper and Lower Midwest, as well as the Missouri and Ohio Rivers and depositing it off the Continental Shelf south of New Orleans. Along with that runoff comes agricultural fertilizers and chemicals, which have created large areas of "dead water" in the Gulf of Mexico, water that has been de-oxygenated. Since nothing can live in those vast moving areas of water, it is called a "dead zone."
There are some small, fledgling organizations doing some great work. University extension services are keenly aware of the problems, and their adjunct organizations, county agents and master gardeners, are also aware, and working on small-scale projects. The New Mexico Xeriscape Conference, which occurs every year in Albuquerque, NM, is working hard to make the public aware, as are organizations in Colorado, Arizona, Texas and parts of the Midwest.