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Show 64 Dr. HAYES. I have not. Ms. WOOLSEY. You need to do that, so does everybody who is part of the Science Committee. It is a great experience. One of the things we did was fly over actual land in the dry valley area of the antarctic, where there is no snow, there is no water and hasn't been for centuries. And that is what made it so ingrained in my mind that we have to do something about what's going on globally so that we don't end up like that. And actually it is like Mars, there is nothing there but beautiful rock. What would it look like to have science as part of the process that we are doing? You said you want science. What does it look like? Dr. HAYES. There's actually a lot of scientists who specialize in some of these topics; for example, monitoring. Drought monitoring is very important and collecting that data in order to monitor is important. We have regional committee centers around the county who specialize in this issue, and it seems like they should be brought to the table when dealing with climate issues, drought being one of them, climate changes being another, and frequently you don't see them involved in those discussions. The Drought Mitigation Center understands drought, we work all the time with drought. Maybe we should be involved in a panel that is looking into drought policies for the United States. And I could go on and on and on. Ms. WOOLSEY. I agree with you. As a Member of the Science Committee, as a Member of the House of Representatives, as a Member of Congress of the United States of America, there are very few things that we do that aren't totally political. The Science Committee hearings with scientists are the least political experience I have and it is so fulfilling. Because of the honesty and straightforwardness, it is really beneficial. And the reason I love my district is I love the farmers. ALTERNATIVE FARMING So my question to you, would be, Mr. Bowler: Have you thought about alternative farming? I mean would you have just closed your doors or would you have gone into a different kind of farming had you known that this drought was going to be what it is? Mr. BOWLER. Well, as I stated in my statement to begin with, I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in my farming operation and my cattle operations so some of the things I have done trying to eliminate this problem. When I first started the farm, we were using flood irrigation. Flood irrigation in our area wasn't that efficient and used a tremendous amount of water. So we have evolved from in- line sprinklers to side row sprinklers. Now, all of my irrigation is done by pivot sprinklers so I can determine the amount of water needed on the ground. I can determine when it is put on and I can even determine the time of day or night that it runs. And so we have done a lot of things in that area trying to do the best job we can, and taking care of the water that we have. You need to understand that I just can't express to you enough the difference that we are experiencing this year over what we have in the past. Last year, you have heard recorded here that in many peoples' minds, last year was a drought year in our area. |
