Transcript Regional Geographies

Regional Geographies
Agricultural Spaces and Places
Across America
Martha L. Henderson, Ph.D.
April 14, 2005
Agricultural Patterns and
Regional Identity
• Spatial relationships
• Landscapes
Measuring Cultural Indicators
• Material Culture
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Settlement Patterns
Architectural Style and Form
Agriculture
Technologies
Measuring Cultural Indicators
• Non-material Culture
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Belief Systems
Family Identities
Political Beliefs
Language Patterns
Non-material culture takes on physical forms
Landscapes are the representation of the non-material
Hypothesized Cultural Regions
of the U.S.
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1. New England
2. New York Metropolitan
Pennsylvania
South (Lowland, Upland, Mtn, Western)
Upper Midwest
Pacific Southwest
Central Midwest
Pacific Northwest
Rocky Mtn
Alaskan
Mormon
Hawaiian
Interior Southwest
Cultural Regions
Agrarian Landscapes
of the Upland South
• Second wave of European migration to US
• Available land and water – use of public
resources or withdrawal from public domain
• Remoteness
Settlement Patterns
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Scattered small subsistence farms
Few urban or regional centers
Waterways more important than roads
Long distances to markets
Subsistence Farms
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Vegtables: variety
Fruit Trees: variety
Animals: pigs, chickens, dairy cows
Corn – only crop for export
Hunting
Non-Material Cultural Patterns
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Folkways
Conservative
Provincial
Self-sustaining
Protestant
English-speakers
Close patriarchal families
Political Culture
• Moralistic – emphasizes community,
idealism, utopianism
• Individualistic – emphasizes no common
interest
• Traditionalistic – assumes a fixed
hierarchical society of elites and majorities
Political Affinities Map
The Pacific Northwest
• Historical migration from eastern and midwestern U.S.
• Contemporary migration from U.S. and
foreign countries
• Patterns of material and non-material
culture are localized and difficult to
generalize for the entire region
Physical Regions
Climate Regions of the Pacific Northwest
Maritime Climates
Continental Climates
World Climate Regions
Köppen Climate Classification System
• The Köppen Climate Classification System is
the most widely used for classifying the
world's climates. Most classification systems
used today are based on the one introduced in
1900 by the Russian-German climatologist
Wladimir Köppen. Köppen divided the
Earth's surface into climatic regions that
generally coincided with world patterns of
vegetation and soils.
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Pacific Northwest Climates
• The Köppen system recognizes five major
climate types based on the annual and
monthly averages of temperature and
precipitation. Each type is designated by a
capital letter.
• The Pacific Northwest is divided into two
climate types:
1. Humid Meso-Thermal (C)
2. Dry (B)
Washington Climate
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1. Marine West Coast Climate
(C)
C - In Humid Middle Latitude Climates
land/water differences play a large part.
These climates have warm,dry summers and
cool, wet winters.
‘b’ is added to indicate warm summer months.
‘s’ is added to indicate dry summer months
Washington (Olympia) has a Csb climate west of the
Cascades
Marine West Coast Climate
2. Dry Climate (B)
B - Dry Climates are characterized by little rain
and a huge daily temperature range. Two
subgroups, S - semiarid or steppe, and W arid or desert, are used with the B climates.
‘k’ is added to indicate cold and dry.
Washington and Oregon have BSk climate
regions east of the Cascade Mountains
Oregon Climate
Interior Dry Climate
Oregon Climate Regions
with Reference to Agriculture
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Oregon Growing Season by
Region
Significant Climate Conditions
across the PNW
• Pacific (marine) SW weather systems
• Continental (interior) weather systems
• Orographic effect over the Cascade Mountains
“Owning It All”
The Problem of Western Lands
Agriculture
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Arid environments
Large ‘unsettled areas’
Federal goals vs local needs
Treatied lands and associated rights
Changing international and local markets
Transportation routes – Railroads
Water rights over time
Changing technology – fencing and motors
William Kittredge
• William Kittredge grew up on the MC Ranch in southeastern Oregon,
farmed until he was 35, studied in the Writers' Workshop at the
University of Iowa, and became the Regents Professor of English and
Creative Writing at the University of Montana until he retired in the
spring of 1997. He received numerous prestigious awards including a
Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, two Writing Fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Arts, and two Pacific Northwest
Bookseller's Awards for Excellence. He was co-producer of the movie
"A River Runs Through It."
• He is also the author of Western novels of the "Cord" Series, the short
story collection The Van Gogh Field, and a book of essays Owning It
All. With Annick Smith, he edited The Last Best Place: A Montana
Anthology.
Kittredge Geography
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High Plateau
East Side Climate Region (BSk)
Interior Drainage
Fault Block Landforms
Steppe/Grasslands
Remote
Haying
High Plateau
View from Warner Peak
on Hart Mountain looking south west towards Plush
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Lakes at the Base of Hart
Mountain
West Face of Hart Mountain
Historic Agricultural Practices in
SE Oregon: A Time Line
• mid-1800s – small farming operations on
homesteads with marginal success with localized
drainage and irrigation systems
• 1870s – use of public domain land by large cattle
operations (Miller Lux Corporation)
• 1880s-transhumance and long distance sheep
grazing on public and unfenced lands: range wars
• Consolidation of lands and large scale drainage
projects: fencing
Time Line (con’t)
• 1920s - abandonment of small farm
operations
• Continued land consolidation and
conversion to irrigation by large land
owners
• 1930s – Bureau of Reclamation, US Fish
and Wildlife, and CCCs as active agents
• 1970s – Conflict with other water users
Swamp Land Act of 1860
• Allowed public to acquire surveyed and unsurveyed wetlands from public domain for the
purposes of draining land for cultivation – often
section by section
• Total of 60 million acres nationwide
• Large scale ranchers acquired ‘swamp and
overflow’ lands – used for cattle and haying
• http://www.profsurv.com/ps_scripts/article.idc?id=
1239
Drainage and Irrigation
• Methods
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Tiling
Ditching
Land Leveling
Levee Construction
Channeling
Channeled Drainage Below
Hart Mountain
Competing Uses for Limited
Water
Agriculture
Wildlife
Hunting
Recreation
Birding
Contemporary Environment
• Restoration
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Nature Conservancy
US Fish and Wildlife
Ducks Unlimited
Local conservation groups
Restoration (con’t)
• Federal Regulations
– Enforcement of Endangered Species Act
– Protection of habitat areas
– Recognition of Treaty Rights
• State Regulations
– Administration of water rights allocations
– Protection of habitat areas
Sources
• Langston, Nancy. Where Land and Water Meet.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003.
• Vileisis, Ann. Discovering the Unknown
Landscape: A History of America’s Welands.
Washington, D. C.: Island Press, 1997.
• Zelinsky, Wilbur. The Cultural Geography of the
United States. 2nd edition. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 1992.