Palouse

The Palouse is a region in the northwestern United States. It includes portions of eastern Washington, the north-central Idaho and, in some definitions, northeastern Oregon. The Palouse is one of the main wheat producing areas of the United States. About 250 miles north of the Oregon Trail located, experienced the region in the late 19th century, rapid growth, so that the population even the area around the Puget Sound - that is to Seattle - surpassed.

Geography and History

The origin of the name Palouse is unclear. One theory explains it by replacing the name of the people of the Palouse (written in early reports, inter alia, as Palus, Palloatpallah, Pelusha ) by French-Canadian fur traders with the French pelouse meaning " land with short and thick grass ." Over time, the spelling changed to Palouse. Another theory assumes that it is first negotiated by the relevant French name for the area, and the name was later applied to the Native American tribe that inhabited the region.

The region of the Palouse has been traditionally defined as the area of the fertile hills and prairies north of the Snake River, which separates it from the Walla Walla Country, north of the Clearwater River, which separates it from the Camas Prairie, north along the border of Washington and extending Idaho, and south of Spokane centered around the Palouse River. Originally from Walla Walla Country south of the Snake River from undeveloped region experienced a strong upswing in population and extent of wheat cultivation in the 1880s. The same with the region is located in the municipality of Palouse Whitman County, about 11 km west of Potlatch, Idaho.

While this definition of the Palouse is most commonly used today, the term will be extended in some cases to the entire region of wheat cultivation. He then includes the Walla Walla County, the Camas Prairie in Idaho, the area of the Big Bend in the central Columbia River Plateau and other smaller agricultural areas in Asotin County and Umatilla County. This wider definition is used for example by the World Wide Fund for Nature, which summarizes the ecoregion of the Palouse grasslands very far.

In any case, the traditional definition of the Palouse is different from the older Walla Walla region south of the Snake River, was demonstrated in the in the 1860s, the feasibility of dryland farming of wheat first. In the 1870s, the region of Walla Walla was rapidly converted into arable land, while the first experiments in the traditional livestock (cattle and sheep) began reserved Palouse. As these attempts proved to be very successful, the region filled rapidly during the 1880s with farmers. In addition, the region was in the 1880s opened up by the railway ( Northern Pacific Railway ), which accelerated the growth. By 1890 almost all the free land of the Palouse was developed for the cultivation of wheat.

In contrast to the region of Walla Walla, which was firmly anchored to the city Walla Walla, formed in the Palouse four centers located within a few miles of each other: Colfax ( the oldest center ), Palouse, Pullman and Moscow. These four centers, along with at least ten smaller sub- centers, produced a diffuse urban settlement pattern, in contrast to Walla Walla Country.

In some definitions of the region and the cities on the border of the Palouse are expected to her, such as Lewiston - center of agriculture of the Camas Prairie - which is responsible for the area of the Big Bend Ritzville and especially Spokane, the main urban center of the region. Spokane is known as the capital of the Inland Empire, an economic region in eastern Washington and northern Idaho, along the border with Canada, which includes the wheat producing areas, the local mining districts and timber production forests of forests in the region. Spokane is also the cultural center and transportation hub of the entire region.

From 1910 it was common for the region's residents identified themselves as residents of the Inland Empire, the wheat belt of the Columbia basin or plain of eastern Washington, Oregon and northern Idaho, even if the former designations as Palouse, Walla Wala, Big Bend, Umatilla Country and Camas prairie were far from common.

Geology

The peculiar and picturesque silt dunes which characterize the Palouse Prairie were formed during the last ice age. Together Wafted of glacial Sandur Plains to the west and south, there are the hills of the Palouse of more or less random humps and hollows. The steepest slopes are oriented to the northeast, and reach up to 45 °. The very fertile loess soils are deep 5-130 cm. Large areas of flat land are merely higher ground as the Palouse Range often wear thick coniferous forest.

Agriculture

The early agriculture very labor intensive and only under heavy usage of the horse and human power was possible. An organized harvesting and Dreschteam in the 1920s consisted of 120 men and 320 horses and mules. When the wheat was ripe, the harvest groups traveled from farm to farm. Beginning of the 20th century, the combine had already been invented, but few farmers had enough horses to pull such a machine, because she needed already on level ground 40 horses and six men operating personnel. For this reason, the Palouse was the use of combine harvesters back in comparison with other agricultural areas in the United States. After the development of a smaller through the combine harvester Idaho Company of Moscow, the use of such machines has become possible. To 1930, 90 % of the Palouse wheat was harvested with the combine.

The next step was the development of the mechanization of the tractor. As with the harvesters, the first steam - and gasoline-powered tractors were too heavy and clumsy to be used on the steep hills of the Palouse. Even the lighter models that were introduced in the 1920s hardly found application so used in 1930 only 20% of farmers in the Palouse tractors.

Environment

Once a vast prairie of medium high, perennial grasses such as blue bunch wheatgrass ( Agropyron spicatum ) and Idaho fescue ( Festuca idahoensis ), the Palouse is occupied by agricultural land as well as fully today. The original prairie is now one of the most endangered ecosystems in the United States because of her only slightly more than one percent are still preserved.

The colonization and agricultural development have the original wildlife displaced for the most part, so that the once numerous mammal and bird species have dwindled down to a few. Intensive agriculture can with the use of arable land to the roadsides little spaces for plant and animal life. Many of the pre-existing streams that did not lead to water the whole year are plowed over today and part of arable land. From year-round waters, which were accompanied by extensive wetlands earlier, some are only seasonally filled with water or deeply incised, the wetlands have disappeared.

Wetland areas provide a significant breeding area of a larger variety of birds space than any other habitat in the United States. A reduction in the number of trees and shrubs along river corridors draws a reduction in the number of birds and finally the bird species by itself. In the Palouse ecoregion as the main part of the bound on riparian forests bird species has disappeared.

The conversion of large areas of agricultural areas in residential development introduces a new biodiversity in the Palouse. Investigations of Professor J. Ratti from the University of Idaho have shown about 40 km ² area, which was converted from arable land in suburban residential development, the number of bird species increased as on a over an observation period of 10 years from 18 to 86.

The intensification of agriculture has effects on both the quantity and the quality of the water available. Reductions in the outflow pathways by straightening lead to short-term occurring floods with large quantities of water. This reinforces the erosion and pulls the falling dry perennial waterbodies. Observed early in the 1930s, soil scientists a significant increase in vertical erosion of watercourses in the region and a widening of the river beds. The deep erosion led by the incision of the rivers and streams to a lowering of the groundwater level of the immediately adjacent wet meadows. This led, for example, on the southern Palouse River to the fact that in 1900, agriculture in the areas was possible that were too wet for it before. The displacement of the perennial grasses by crops decreased infiltration and increased surface runoff so that water from precipitation today in a shorter time from the region drained than before. Once all year round streams are now dry in summer. This has a significant impact on amphibious and aquatic organisms.

As the population grew, towns and villages were founded, which changed the appearance of the landscape. 1910 22,000 people were living in 30 communities that were scattered over the Palouse.

After the introduction of fertilizers after the Second World War, the agricultural income rose dramatically to the two -to four- fold.

Since 1900, 94 % of the grasslands and 97 % of the wetlands in the Palouse ecoregion for arable land, forage and pasture were converted. About 63 % of the natural forest in 1900 still exist today, 7% are passed reforestation areas or bushes. The rest of the former forest was converted to agricultural or urban area.

The effects of livestock grazing on the grasslands of the Palouse and Camas Prairie had only temporary, since a large part of the land was quickly transformed into farmland. Only the canyon country around Snake and Clearwater River and their tributaries, which has a thinner wall, ceiling, is much steeper and has a hotter, drier climate than the grasslands, was not suitable for farming and was a much longer period of grazing in claim taken. This has led to significant changes in the vegetation after itself by the original grasses were replaced by brome grasses and noxious herbs such as knapweed. Both new genera know how to do well, they evolved under similar conditions in Eurasia and were introduced in the late 19th century in the United States.

Conflagrations

Although the discussion about the frequency of fires of the prairie persists in times past, as yet, there is a consensus that fires are less common today than in the past. This is mainly due to the activities of the fire brigades, the system of acting as firebreaks roads and the conversion of grass and forests to cropland. Historians tell of bush fires in the pine strips surrounding the plains, caused by a lightning strike in late autumn, but the extent of the spread of the forest fires on the prairie is not known. The theory that the Nez Perce infected the prairie on fire in order to accelerate the growth of Camassia, could not be demonstrated so far due to lack of historical sources. Until the 1930s, white settlers set fire to prepare the land by slash and burn for settlement and grazing.

Since then, forest fires have become much less frequent, so that the density of trees could grow in the forests and fouling by bushes and trees could penetrate into formerly open areas. Today, when fires occur in the woods, so they can develop to surface fires and also attract greater damage to disposition of the stock by itself.

Others

• The Palouse is the habitat of the giant earthworm Driloleirus americanus from the family of Megascolecidae, one almost a meter long white worm that smells like lilies.
• The area of ​​the Palouse is the main growing area for lenses in the United States.
• The Appaloosa horse breed was bred by the Nez Perce Indians in the area. First, the breed of the white settlers was called Palouse horse, which developed over time Appaloosa.