{"id":71949,"date":"2017-03-07T23:31:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T06:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/arizona-geologist-publishes-book-about-montezuma-dryland-farming\/"},"modified":"2017-03-08T06:31:08","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T06:31:08","slug":"arizona-geologist-publishes-book-about-montezuma-dryland-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/arizona-geologist-publishes-book-about-montezuma-dryland-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona geologist publishes book about Montezuma dryland farming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The cover of John Bezy\u2019s book \u201cThe Dove Creek Loess: Wind-Deposited Silt and Dry Farming on the Great Sage Plain, Colorado\u201d<\/span>Stephanie Alderton\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Tucson geologist has published a book about dryland farming in Southwest Colorado, with a particular emphasis on Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

John Bezy has written several books about the geology of the Southwest, but this is his first published work related to agriculture. His new book, \u201cThe Dove Creek Loess: Wind-Deposited Silt and Dry Farming on the Great Sage Plain, Colorado,\u201d is the result of about 50 years of on-and-off research into the history of the region\u2019s unique soil and the ways different cultures have used it to grow food even without reliable irrigation. Bezy hopes to sell the book at Montezuma County locations like the Notah-Dineh Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoess\u201d is a geological term for the spongy, wind-deposited soil found all over the southwestern United States. Bezy said his research shows it has always been instrumental to both ancient Native American and modern farmers in the Great Sage Plain, which stretches from Cortez into Utah, and that understanding the soil\u2019s property can help people understand the area\u2019s cultural history.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoess is rich in minerals \u2026 and it holds moisture very well,\u201d he said. \u201cFor those reasons, dryland farmers like it, and even the people who lived in the ruins you see on the Great Sage Plain were able to make a living because of that soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book begins with an introduction to the unique properties of the loess.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability of the Dove Creek loess to act as a giant sponge storing large quantities of soil moisture has made the Great Sage Plain the greatest expanse of dry farmed land in the Southwest\u2013over 1,500 square miles,\u201d Bezy wrote in the book.<\/p>\n

It also includes an overview of farming practices by the different cultures in the Great Sage Plain, from the earliest days of the Ancient Puebloan civilizations to today\u2019s farmers, and how those practices have affected the soil. Bezy argued many farmers use methods that contribute to erosion, like cultivating crops parallel to the slope of the land. But the book also includes sections praising groups like the Natural Resources Conservation Service for their work to prevent the loss of the loess.<\/p>\n

Despite its long-winded name, Bezy\u2019s book is brief, at only 87 pages. It includes several color photographs of the Great Sage landscape, and an index of books and scientific papers readers can go to for further research. Although it\u2019s written from a geologist\u2019s perspective, Bezy said he tried to make his research understandable to non-scientists, so all technical jargon is carefully defined in layman\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n

He hopes to sell the book at the Notah-Dineh Museum, the Anasazi Heritage Center and other local cultural centers, although right now it\u2019s only available by mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019ll be of interest to many people who live in Montezuma County, as well as visitors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n

About the book<\/h4>\n

Title: The Dove Creek Loess: Wind-Deposited Silt and Dry Farming in the Great Sage Plain, Colorado.
\n Author: John V. Bezy.
\n information: Contact the author at (520) 825-2451 or johnbezyinc@earthlink.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geologist John Bezy recounts region\u2019s soil history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[281,21,13,1625],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-71949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-agriculture","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-nature"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71949"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=71949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}