Establishing Farmstead Shelterbelts Establishing Farmstead Shelterbelts Without dense woody cover, winters can be a deadly gauntlet for many species of farmland wildlife.
Winters can be equally devastating to livestock and the farmer's heating budget.
Farmstead shelterbelts have long been a feature of the midwestern landscape sheltering wildlife, livestock and farmsteads from winter's harsh grip. The so-called dust bowl days of the 1930s prompted land management practices that included strip and farmstead shelterbelts to conserve soil resources. Ensuing decades through the 1970s saw the intensification of agriculture and the drive to put increasingly more land into production. As a result, extensive removal of shelterbelts throughout the nation's agricultural lands occurred. The 1980s, fueled by lessened demand for grain exports, signaled the return to more prudent land management practices which safeguarded our soil, water and wildlife resources.