Nice pictures...I agree that alot of the area looks desolate. There was a special on the History Channel about the dust bowl druing the 30's.. when millions or billions of pounds of top soil blew away from the West. The Gov't incorrectly told farmers to settle and utilize the land.. then when there was a rain and the native grasses and plants were removed, the top soil blew away in windstorms that sometimes lasted 10 years. Thus creating many desolate areas, or surface of Mars type of terrain. Once it started to rain again and with the help of the dept of Ag, they tryed to re-plant the native grass, and bushes. They even showed how they planted a "Wall of Trees" for many miles to try and form a wind break... not sure how that worked out.

P.S. No Varmit Hunting on School Property , Now go put in applications in all of the big buck states, they have schools too.