Soil and its influence on rural drought migration: Insights from Depression-era Southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada

Population and Environment

Volumn 33, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 304-332

  McLeman, Robert A ^a   Ploeger, S Kate ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Agricultural soils; Climate change; Drought; Great depression; Great plains; Historical analogs; Migration

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL SOIL; DROUGHT; ECONOMIC HISTORY; GIS; GREAT DEPRESSION; HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; RURAL AREA; RURAL POPULATION; SOFTWARE;

CANADA; SASKATCHEWAN; SWIFT CURRENT;

EID: 84861226879     PISSN: 01990039     EISSN: 15737810     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11111-011-0148-y     Document Type: Review

References (108)

1. Acton, D. F., Padbury, G. A., & Stushnoff, C. T. (1998). The ecoregions of Saskatchewan. Regina: Great Plains Research Centre.
2. Adger, W. N. (2006). Vulnerability. Global Environmental Change, 16(3), 268-281.
3. Aid, C. (2007). Human tide: The real migration crisis. London: Christian Aid.
4. Alfsen, K. H., DeFranco, M. A., Glomsrød, S., & Johnsen, T. (1996). The cost of soil erosion in Nicaragua. Ecological Economics, 16(2), 129-145.
5. Amacher, G. S., Cruz, W., Grebner, D., & Hyde, W. F. (1998). Environmental motivations for migration: Population pressure, poverty, and deforestation in the Philippines. Land Economics, 74(1), 92-101.
6. Bailey, A. W., & Wroe, R. A. (1974). Aspen Invasion in a portion of the Alberta Parklands. Journal of Range Management, 27(4), 263-266.
7. Bates, D. C. (2002). Environmental refugees? Classifying human migrations caused by environmental change. Population and Environment, 23(5), 465-477.
8. Bilsborrow, R. E., & DeLargy, P. F. (1991). Land use, migration, and natural resource deterioration: The experience of Guatemala and the Sudan. Population and Development Review, 16(Supplement: Resources, Environment, and Population: Present Knowledge, Future Options), 125-147.
9. Blaikie, P. (1985). The political economy of soil erosion in developing countries. London: Longman.
10. Bronick, C. J., & Lal, R. (2005). Soil structure and management: A review. Geoderma, 124, 3-22.
11. Bryant, C., Smit, B., Brklacich, M., Johnston, T., Smithers, J., Chiotti, Q., et al. (2000). Adaptation in Canadian agriculture to climatic variability and change. Climatic Change, 45(1), 181-201.
12. Butzer, K. (2005). Environmental history in the Mediterranean world: Cross-disciplinary investigation of cause and effect for degradation and soil erosion. Journal of Archaeological Science, 32(12), 1773-1800.
13. CARE International. (2009). In search of shelter: Mapping the effects of climate change on human migration and displacement. Washington, DC: CARE International.
14. Charmaz, K. (2004). Grounded theory. In S. N. Hesse-Biber & P. Leavy (Eds.), Approaches to qualitative research: A reader on theory and practice (pp. 496-521). New York: Oxford University Press.
15. Cohen, B. (2003). Urban growth in developing countries: A review of current trends and a caution regarding existing forecasts. World Development, 32(1), 23-51.
16. Cunfer, G. (2005). On the Great Plains: Agriculture and environment. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
17. Curran, S. (2002). Migration, social capital, and the environment: Considering migrant selectivity and networks in relation to coastal ecosystems. In W. Lutz, A. Prskawetz, & W. C. Sanderson (Eds.), (Vol. Supplement (pp. 89-125). New York: The Population Council.
18. De Haan, A., Brock, K., & Coulibaly, N. (2002). Migration, livelihoods and institutions: Contrasting patterns of migration in Mali. The Journal of Development Studies, 38(5), 37-58.
19. Derksen, D. A., Thomas, A. G., Lafond, G. P., Loepkky, H. A., & Swanton, C. J. (1994). Impacts of agronomic practices on weed communities: Fallow within tillage systems. Weed Science, 42(2), 184-194.
20. Deshingkar, P., & Start, D. (2003). Seasonal migration for livelihoods in India: Coping, accumulation and exclusion. London: Overseas Development Institute.
21. Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Viking.
22. Dick, R. P., Sandor, J. A., & Eash, N. S. (1994). Soil enzyme activities after 1500 years of terrace agriculture in the Colca Valley, Peru. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 50(2), 123-131.
23. Dominion Bureau of Statistics. (1936). Census of the prairie provinces, population and agriculture. Ottawa.
24. Eisler, D. (2006). False expectations: Politics and the pursuit of the Saskatchewan myth. Regina: Great Plains Research Centre.
25. Environment Canada. (2011). National climate data and information archive. Electronic resource, accessed 18 May 2011 at http://climate. weatheroffice. gc. ca/climateData/canada_e. html.
26. Evans, S. M. (1979). Canadian beef for Victorian Britain. Agricultural History, 53(4), 748-762.
27. Ezra, M., & Kiros, G.-E. (2001). Rural out-migration in the drought prone areas of Ethiopia: A multilevel analysis. International Migration Review, 35(3), 749-771.
28. Findley, S. E. (1994). Does drought increase migration? A study of migration from rural Mali during the 1983-1985 drought. International Migration Review, 28(3), 539-553.
29. Ford, J. D., Keskitalo, E. C. H., Smith, T., Pearce, T., Berrang-Ford, L., & Duerden, F. (2010). Case study and analogue methodologies in climate change vulnerability research. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 1(3), 374-392.
30. Fratkin, E., & Roth, E. A. (1990). Drought and economic differentiation among Ariaal pastoralists of Kenya. Human Ecology, 18(4), 385-402.
31. Fung, K.-L. (2000). Atlas of Saskatchewan. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan.
32. Geist, H. J., & Lambin, E. F. (2004). Dynamic causal patterns of desertification. BioScience, 54(9), 817-829.
33. Gilbert, G., & McLeman, R. (2010). Household access to capital and its effects on drought adaptation and migration: A case study of rural Alberta in the 1930s. Population and Environment, 32(1), 3-26.
34. Glantz, M. H. (1991). The use of analogies in forecasting ecological and societal responses to global warming. Environment, 33(5), 10-33.
35. Gottschang, T. R. (1987). Economic change, disasters, and migration: The historical case of Manchuria. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 35(3), 461-490.
36. Government of Saskatchewan. (1940) Department of Agriculture: Wheat production statistics for Saskatchewan Crop District 3 (South Central). Regina.
37. Government of Saskatchewan. (2011). Summary of Agriculture in Saskatchewan [electronic resource]. Accessed 9 March 2011, http://www. agriculture. gov. sk. ca/Saskatchewan_Picture.
38. Gray, J. H. (1967). Men against the desert. Saskatoon: Modern Press.
39. Greene, R. B., & Hairsine, P. B. (2004). Elementary processes of soil-water interaction and thresholds in soil surface dynamics: A review. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 29, 1077-1091.
40. Gregory, J. N. (1989). American Exodus: The Dust Bowl migration and Okie culture in California. New York: Oxford University Press.
41. Gregory, P. J., Ingram, J. S. I., & Brklacich, M. (2005). Climate change and food security. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society London: Biological sciences: Series B, 360(1463), 2139-2148.
42. Grove, A. T. (1951). Soil erosion and population problems in south-east Nigeria. The Geographical Journal, 117(3), 291-304.
43. Gutmann, M. P., Deane, G. D., Lauster, N., & Peri, A. (2005). Two population-environment regimes in the Great Plains of the United States, 1930-1990. Population and Environment, 27(2), 191-225.
44. Henry, S., Piché, V., Ouédraogo, D., & Lambin, E. F. (2004). Descriptive analysis of the individual migratory pathways according to environmental typologies. Population and Environment, 25(5), 397-422.
45. Hugo, G. (1996). Environmental concerns and international migration. International Migration Review, 30(1), 105-131.
46. Hunter, L. M. (2005). Migration and environmental hazards. Population and Environment, 26(4), 273-302.
47. Hurt, R. D. (1981). The Dust Bowl: An agricultural and social history. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
48. Leighton, M. (2006). Desertification and migration. In P. M. Johnson, K. Mayrand, & M. Paquin (Eds.), Governing global desertification (pp. 43-58). Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
49. Lockeritz, W. (1978). The lessons of the Dust Bowl. American Scientist, 66(5), 560-569.
50. Magness, J. R., Markle, G. M., & Compton, C. (1971). Food and feed crops of the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Interregional Research Project IR-4 New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.
51. Marchildon, G. P. (2005). The Great Divide. In G. P. Marchildon (Ed.), The heavy hand of history: Interpreting Saskatchewan's past (pp. 51-66). Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, University of Regina.
52. Marchildon, G. P., Kulshreshtha, S., Wheaton, E., & Sauchyn, D. (2008). Drought and institutional adaptation in the Great Plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan, 1914-1939. Natural Hazards, 45(3), 391-411.
53. Marsh, G. P. (1864, 1965). Man and nature. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
54. Martin, C. (1973). Dominion lands policy. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
55. Massey, D. S., Axinn, W. G., & Ghimire, D. J. (2010). Environmental change and out-migration: Evidence from Nepal. Population and Environment, 32(2-3), 109-136.
56. McGowan, D. C. (1975). Grassland settlers: The Swift Current region during the era of the ranching frontier. Regina: Great Plains Research Centre.
57. McLeman, R. (2006). Migration out of 1930s rural Eastern Oklahoma: Insights for climate change research. Great Plains Quarterly, 26(1), 27-40.
58. McLeman, R., & Hunter, L. M. (2010). Migration in the context of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change: Insights from analogues. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 1(3), 450-461.
59. McLeman, R., Mayo, D., Strebeck, E., & Smit, B. (2008). Drought adaptation in rural Eastern Oklahoma in the 1930s: Lessons for climate change adaptation research. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 13(4), 379-400.
60. McLeman, R., & Smit, B. (2006a). Migration as an adaptation to climate change. Climatic Change, 76(1-2), 31-53.
61. McLeman, R., & Smit, B. (2006b). Vulnerability to climate change hazards and risks: Crop and flood insurance. The Canadian Geographer, 50(2), 217-226.
62. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: Synthesis. Washington, DC: Island Press.
63. Montgomery, D. R. (2007). Dirt: The erosion of civilizations. Berkeley: University of California Press.
64. Mortimore, M. J., & Adams, W. M. (2001). Farmer adaptation, change and "crisis" in the Sahel. Global Environmental Change, 11(1), 49-57.
65. Morton, A. S. (1938). History of Prairie settlement. Toronto: MacMillan.
66. Murchie, R. W., Allen, W., & Booth, J. F. (1936). Agricultural progress on the Prairie frontier. Toronto: MacMillan.
67. Myers, N. (2002). Environmental refugees: A growing phenomenon of the 21st century. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society London: Biological sciences: Series B, 357(1420), 609-613.
68. Natural Resources Canada. (2011). GeoGratis data: Canada land inventory: Land capability for agriculture. Online geospatial database accessible at http://geogratis. cgdi. gc. ca.
69. O'Brien, K. L., & Leichenko, R. M. (2000). Double exposure: Assessing the impacts of climate change within the context of economic globalization. Global Environmental Change, 10, 221-232.
70. Ovuka, M. (2000). More people, more erosion? Land use, soil erosion and soil productivity in Murang'a district, Kenya. Land Degradation & Development, 11(2), 111-124.
71. Parry, M. L., Canziani, O. F., Palutikof, J. P., van der Linden, P. J., & Hanson, C. E. (2007). Contribution of Working Group II to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
72. Perlin, J. (2005). A forest journey: The story of wood and civilization. Woodstock, VT: Countryman Press.
73. Pimentel, D. (2000). Soil erosion and the threat to food security and the environment. Ecosystem Health, 6(4), 221-226.
74. Polsky, C., & Easterling, W. E. (2001). Adaptation to climate variability and change in the US Great Plains: A multi-scale analysis of Ricardian climate sensitivities. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 85(1-3), 133-144.
75. Preston, D., Macklin, M., & Warburton, J. (1997). Fewer people, less erosion: The twentieth century in southern Bolivia. The Geographical Journal, 163(2), 198-205.
76. Reid, S., Smit, B., Caldwell, W., & Belliveau, S. (2007). Vulnerability and adaptation to climate risks in Ontario agriculture. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 12(4), 609-637.
77. Reilly, J., Tubiello, F., McCarl, B., Abler, D., Darwin, R., Fuglie, K., et al. (2003). U. S. agriculture and climate change: New results. Climatic Change, 57(1), 43-69.
78. Repetto, R. (1986). Soil loss and population pressure on Java. Ambio, 15(1), 14-18.
79. Robertson, G. W. (1974). Wheat yields for 50 years at Swift Current, Saskatchewan in relation to weather. Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 54, 625-650.
80. Roncoli, C., Ingram, K., & Kirshen, P. (2001). The costs and risks of coping with drought: Livelihood impacts and farmers responses in Burkina Faso. Climate Research, 19, 119-132.
81. Saskatchewan Archives Board [Department of Agriculture records]. (1935). Re-establishment assistance (ag statistics), 1934-35. Settlers effects shipments. Dossier R-266 III. 10, Regina, SK.
82. Sauchyn, D. J., Stroich, J., & Beriault, A. (2003). A paleoclimatic context for the drought of 1999-2001 in the northern Great Plains of North America. The Geographical Journal, 169(2), 158-167.
83. Schroeder, W., & Huebert, H. T. (1996). Mennonite historical atlas (2nd ed.). Winnipeg: Springfield.
84. Sivakumar, M. V. K., Das, H. P., & Brunini, O. (2005). Impacts of present and future climate variability and change on agriculture and forestry in the arid and semi-arid tropics. Climatic Change, 70(1-2), 31-72.
85. Smit, B., & Skinner, M. (2002). Adaptation options in agriculture to climate change: A typology. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 7(1), 85-114.
86. Smit, B., & Wandel, J. (2006). Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability. Global Environmental Change, 16(3), 282-292.
87. Smith, H. N. (1947). Rain follows the plow: The notion of increased rainfall for the Great Plains, 1844-1880. Huntington Library Quarterly, 10(2), 169-193.
88. Smith, D. E. (Ed.). (1992). Building a province: A history of Saskatchewan in documents. Saskatoon: Fifth House.
89. Staple, W. J., & Lehane, J. J. (1954). Weather conditions influencing wheat yields in tanks and field plots. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Science, 34, 552-564.
90. Statistics Canada. (2011). Wholesale market prices for selected agricultural products, 1867 to 1974. Electronic resource, accessed 18 May 2011 at http://www. statcan. ca/english/freepub/11-516-XIE/sectionm/M228_238. csv.
91. Swinton, S. M. (1988). Drought survival tactics of subsistence farmers in Niger. Human Ecology, 16(2), 123-144.
92. Tacoli, C. (2009). Crisis or adaptation? Migration and climate change in a context of high mobility. Environment and Urbanization, 21(2), 513-525.
93. Tan, K. H. (2009). Environmental soil science (3rd ed.). New York: CRC Press.
94. Thébaud, B., & Batterbury, S. (2001). Sahel pastoralists: Opportunism, struggle, conflict and negotiation. A case study from eastern Niger. Global Environmental Change, 11, 69-78.
95. Thompson, J. H. (1998). Forging the Prairie West. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
96. Tiffen, M., Mortimore, M., & Gichuki, F. (1994). More people, less erosion: Environmental recovery in Kenya. Chichester: Wiley.
97. Tobias, J. L. (1983). Canada's subjugation of the Plains Cree, 1879-1885. Canadian Historical Review, 64(4), 519-548.
98. Toth, B., Corkal, D. R., Sauchyn, D. J., Kamp, G. V. D., & Pietroniro, E. (2009). The natural characteristics of the South Saskatchewan River Basin: Climate, geography and hydrology. A dry oasis: Institutional adaptation to climate on the Canadian Plains (pp. 95-128). Regina: Great Plains Research Centre.
99. Town of Herbert. (1988). The Herbert story to 1987. SK: Herbert.
100. Trimble, S. W. (1985). Perspectives on the history of soil erosion control in the eastern United States. Agricultural History, 59(2), 162-180.
101. Turton, D., & Turton, P. (1984). Spontaneous resettlement after drought: An Ethiopian example. Disasters, 8(3), 178-189.
102. UNHCR. (2009). Climate change, natural disasters and human displacement: a UNHCR perspective (p. 14). Geneva. Retrieved from http://www. unhcr. org/4901e81a4. html.
103. Warren, A., Batterbury, S., & Osbahr, H. (2001). Soil erosion in the West African Sahel: A review and an application of a "local political ecology" approach in South West Niger. Global Environmental Change, 11(1), 79-95.
104. Westing, A. H. (1994). Population, desertification and migration. Environmental Conservation, 21(2), 110-114.
105. Widdis, R. (2009). American resident migration to Western Canada at the turn of the 20th century. In G. P. Marchildon (Ed.), History of the Prairie west series: Immigration and settlement, 1870-1939 (pp. 347-371). Regina: Great Plains Research Centre.
106. Worster, D. (1979). Dust Bowl: The southern plains in the 1930s. New York: Oxford University Press.
107. Yan, T., & Qian, W. Y. (2004). Environmental migration and sustainable development in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Population and Environment, 25(6), 613-636.
108. Zimmerer, K. S. (1993). Soil erosion and social (dis)courses in Cochabamba, Bolivia: Perceiving the nature of environmental degradation. Economic Geography, 69(3), 312-327.