John Wesley Powell had a profound understanding of the western territories of the United States (US) and he made a strong effort to influence the geographical boundaries of territories and states that were formed in the 19th century. Had he been successful with those efforts, our state lines would more closely follow watershed boundaries and the nature of the negotiations for water in the west would be significantly different.
Powell was born in Mount Morris, New York in 1834. Powell’s family moved to Ohio then Wisconsin before settling in Illinois in 1851. From an early age he was always interested in history, literature, botany, zoology, and a broad range of natural sciences. In 1852 he became a teacher and attended several colleges but never did receive a degree.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Powell enlisted in the Union Army at 27 years old, serving as a first lieutenant topographer, cartographer, and military engineer. On 6 April 1862 at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, Powell was hit with a minié ball in his right arm, and it was amputated by field surgeons at the elbow. After recuperation, he returned to service and was promoted to the rank of Major before the end of the war (Ross, 2018 and Cope, 2019).
After the war, Powell directed much of his interested and energies to the open territories in the western U.S. The one-armed war veteran organized his first expedition to explore the Green and Colorado Rivers that began on 24 May 1869. The expedition was completed on 30 August 1869 when Powell and five other men climbed out of the canyon. Powell’s second expedition on the Colorado River extended from 22 May 1871 to 7 September 1872. The second trip offered Powell and his team an opportunity to focus on the collection of scientific data and information that included photographs, detailed maps, and observations that were later used for the development of scientific publications.
He became the second director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from 1881 to 1894 (Figure 1). His experiences in the west had huge influences on Powell and he became an ardent advocate for strict water resource conservation policies for the American West’s river systems. He saw this as particularly important at the time since most American policy makers in Washington and in the western territories did not want to accept the basic facts regarding the aridity of the west and the limitations of development due to water.
In 1869 at the Montana Constitutional Convention, Powell stated that “All the great values of this territory have ultimately to be measured to you in acre feet.”, which was not fully comprehended or incorporated into water policy. Another good example of Powell’s prophetic opinions on the management of western water was offered in Los Angeles at the 1893 Irrigation Congress where he stated, “I tell you, gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply these lands.” and that advice was also generally ignored.
In 1891 the USGS published its 11th Annual Report (USGS, 1891) that contained several excellent maps. Perhaps the most famous map from that publication is a map of the arid region of the U.S. (Figure 2) and it is commonly referred to as the John Wesley Powell Map. This map defined the arid region of the U.S. extending west of the 100th meridian to the Pacific Coast Range. Working in the west today, that line is still a good demarcation opening the arid lands of the western U.S.
He resigned from his duties as the USGS Director in 1894 due to the resistance and heavy opposition to his water resource conservation efforts from western politicians. Dealing with the water resource challenges that we have in the west today, particularly in the Colorado River basin, we can recognize the wisdom and good advice that Powell offered. We can also see the consistency of political operators tending to ignore natural resource facts and limitations. Some things do not change.
Now we are primarily dealing with conflicts regarding Colorado River allocations between the upper and lower basins, consisting of states defined by political boundaries and straight survey lines. We are dealing now with many of the problems that John Wesley Powell was trying to warn people about and possibly prevent or reduce the levels of conflict.
Thus, it is interesting to consider the Powell Map versus the state maps that we have and what those implications might have been. We can at least appreciate his capacity to look ahead and the importance of our being able to do so today.
Figure 1. John Wesley Powell at his desk in the
USGS office, ca. 1891.
Figure 2. John Wesley Powell’s Map of the Arid Region of the United States,
published in the Eleventh Ann. USGS Report, Part II, PL LXIX, 1891.
References
Cope, M. 2019. Major John Wesley Powell: 1834-1902. Utah Geological Survey, September 2019.
Ross, J.F. 2018. The Visionary John Wesley Powell Had a Plan for Developing the West, But Nobody Listened. Smithsonian, 3 July 2018.
USGS. 1891. Eleventh Annual Report, United States Geological Survey, 1891.
I hope you are frolicking in the fields of wildflowers picking the prettiest bugs.
I was scheduled to interview for plant pathologist position at Yuma on October 18, 2019. Few weeks before that date, I emailed Dr. Palumbo asking about the agriculture system in Yuma and what will be expected of me. He sent me every information that one can think of, which at the time I thought oh how nice!
When I started the position here and saw how much he does and how much busy he stays, I was eternally grateful of the time he took to provide me all the information, especially to someone he did not know at all.
Fast forward to first month at my job someone told me that the community wants me to be the Palumbo of Plant Pathology and I remember thinking what a big thing to ask..
He was my next-door mentor, and I would stop by with questions all the time especially after passing of my predecessor Dr. Matheron. Dr. Palumbo was always there to answer any question, gave me that little boost I needed, a little courage to write that email I needed to write, a rigid answer to stand my ground if needed. And not to mention the plant diagnosis. When the submitted samples did not look like a pathogen, taking samples to his office where he would look for insects with his little handheld lenses was one of my favorite times.
I also got to work with him in couple of projects, and he would tell me “call me John”. Uhh no, that was never going to happen.. until my last interaction with him, I would fluster when I talked to him, I would get nervous to have one of my idols listening to ME? Most times, I would forget what I was going to ask but at the same time be incredibly flabbergasted by the fact that I get to work next to this legend of a man, and get his opinions about pest management. Though I really did not like giving talks after him, as honestly, I would have nothing to offer after he has talked. Every time he waved at me in a meeting, I would blush and keep smiling for minutes, and I always knew I will forever be a fangirl..
Until we meet again.
Our newly constructed self-propelled steam applicator is designed to inject steam into the soil and raise soil temperatures to levels sufficient to kill weed seed and soilborne pathogens (140°F for > 20 minutes). After the soil cools (< ½ day), the crop is planted into the disinfested soil. We have done some preliminary testing and are very encouraged. Results show that the machine is able to reach target temperatures at reasonable travel speeds, provide uniform temperature distribution across the bed and form nicely shaped beds suitable for subsequent planting. We still have some bugs to work out and identified improvements to make before shipping the unit to Salinas, CA where we will conduct field trials with crops this summer. If you are interested in seeing the machine operate or more information about soil steaming for soilborne pest control, please feel free to contact me.
Check out a video of the machine operating by clicking here or on the image below.
Fig. 1. Initial testing of self-propelled steam applicator video.
Acknowledgements
This project is sponsored and funded in part by the Propane Education and Research Council (PERC), Arizona Specialty Crop Block Grant Program and USDA-NIFA. We greatly appreciate their support.
These types of herbicides are also called contact herbicides. PPO inhibitor means they slow down the production of the protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) enzyme, which is used in chlorophill production. This inhibition also results in the formation of highly reactive molecules that attack and destroy lipids and protein membranes which ultimately affect cell membranes. This result in leaky cells and disintegration of the tissue.
Goal (Oxyfluorfen) is one of the earliest registered of these products (1980) but has only been used widely over the about the last 16 years. This is the only one of these that has problems with “lift off” or codistillation with water. (1)
According to University of CA IPM “In dry bulb onions, GoalTender may be tank-mixed with other pesticides such as bromoxynil, but tank mixes must only be used on older onions with well-developed cuticles to avoid unacceptable crop injury. Unacceptable injury may occur if applied to small onions without adequate cuticle development, and in conditions such as after cloudy or rainy weather. Follow the label closely to avoid crop injury when tank mixing.
Oxyfluorfen has some residual soil activity after application. It controls small broadleaf weeds, some grasses, and nightshade, and controls little mallow (cheeseweed) well ”. (1)
Other PPO herbicides are: Aim or Shark, Chateau, Sharpen or Treevix, ET, and Spartan. They work as contact herbicides and do not move through the plant.
Most of these products don’t have preemergence activity but when used at higher rates Goal and Chateau do.(2) As the plant emerges from the soil and contacts the herbicide it dies, so it is recommended to avoid disturbing soil after the application of these products.
This week in Yuma oxyfluorfen uses:
References
