Rooted in Grass: Reorganization of an Agricultural Community

Abstract

"Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and cope with increased variability. The resilience network and the Citizen Science Collaborative is interested in understanding how the dynamics of institutions respond to, and are part of the dynamics of ecosystems. In this paper I examine the response of local communities in southeastern MN, to the large scale agricultural disturbance that took place in the region during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

"The driftless area in SE Minnesota is characterized by steep hillsides, and highly erodible alluvial soils. More sensitive than the flatter upland areas, the blufflands region suffered massive erosion before the advent of soil conservation practices in the mid 1930's. Soil erosion in the region was so bad that in some areas whole towns were buried by deposited sediment.

"Bluffland streams today continue to suffer the impacts of previous land use. Alluvial deposits from prior to the 1930's continue to dominate stream channels, obscuring the impacts of current land management on these aquatic systems. Studies in this area have shown that biological indicators are not able to easily distinguish among different land management practices.

"Farming communities in the blufflands are now actively interested in restoring their aquatic resources to pre- settlement conditions. Watershed partnerships and interdisciplinary farmer support groups have formed with the hope of protecting watersheds in the region. This paper examines the relationship between these farmers and the ecosystem of which they are a part. What tools have farmers developed to better monitor their impact on the landscape? Can popular biological monitoring protocols such as macroinvertebrate monitoring help them to proceed? Biological tools such as macroinvertebrate monitoring have potential to increase local knowledge of stream systems if people to understand the spatial and temporal scales at which these systems are responding. Individuals hoping to monitor changes may be disappointed if they hope to observe a local biological response within a short time period. Changes at larger spatial and temporal scales can only be monitored if communities can communicate and monitor through institutions such as watershed partnerships."