Thanks for this article. Something to see next time I am in Maine :)

In modern times, we have learned to be more careful about land uses, to a point. Far too much farmland today is barely balanced between profit and destruction, and only the stability of the weather and expensive oversight prevents desertification. As we see California dry up and burn, the knock-on effects further east to Colorado and Nebraska are already visible. We don't even know what will happen if the Ogallala irrigation systems are turned off now. The artificial microclimates are keeping us from seeing some of the future.