Discover the Ice Age secret locked in the rich depths of the Palouse. Long thought to be “volcanic” soil, the real story begins instead with the rupture of Ice Age dams. Find more Nick at: kcts9.org/nick-rocks
Kevin Pogue was my geology professor at Whitman 20 years ago. He took us on all sorts of field trips around that area to see what we were learning in person. It was one of my favorite classes! Sparked an interest in geology that I still have today!
This is a great little series but I would suggest you add more tags and properly categorize them so they are easier to find. Right now this is listed under "pets and animals".
Did you know Nick Zentner has longer lectures on the Central Washington University site?? Since the covid 19 he has been giving lectures from his backyard at home. You can find that at his site… Nick Zentner. I love geology and enjoy learning from him. Have a good one Bobbi!!!
As delicate and fine as loess is, I wonder what the result of the long term continued cultivation will be - how fast is the top soil being lost. Shame to see another Dust Bowl happen. Though, at a hundred feet deep, I suppose that may be a few generations down the road still.
Our family has been farming in the Palouse (around Colton, WA) since about 1860 when the area was first settled by westward moving immigrants. For about the past 50 years we have been using no-till farming practices. Today, my brother farms about 3400 acres, much of it owned and some of it leased. All of it is no-till farming. No-till keeps the roots of the previous crop intact, and the new crop is planted directly into that undisturbed soil. This practice greatly mitigates or eliminates soil erosion on the steep hills. No-till also does much better at retaining the moisture in the soil and building up the soil than past conventional cultivation practices. We also plant bluegrass on some of the hills (from the top to about half-way down the hill. This eliminates erosion and provides a crop of harvested grass seed each year (once it is established). No-till becomes more popular every year, but there is still substantial conventional tillage farming in the Palouse. Those farmers have to employ other practices to limit erosion and save moisture. For the past 75 years (from 1933 - 2008, wheat yields from Whitman County, in the heart of the Palouse, were tracked) wheat yields per acre increased an average of 2.9% per year for those 75 years. This can largely be attributed to improved farming practices over those years. Farming practices continue to improve to the present day.
