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~J <br />the mountains bordering the high plains <br />zl <br /> <br />These conclusions are supported by <br />archaeologic work (Benedict 1973a, 1973b) <br />showing that native peoples <br />abandoned the high plains and foothills and moved their game-based cultures <br />to the mountains during the altithermal drought period of 6000-7000 years <br />ago. After that time they reoccupied the high plains, presumably following <br />increased ability of those sites to support herbivors upon which they relied. <br />However, naich more investigation of paleoclimatic History of the high plains <br />will be necessary before one can postulate that existing soils can or cannot <br />form under today's climatic conditions. <br />If conditions in the high northern great plains today do not favor soil for- <br />mation at any but greatly reduced rates in comparison to those during which <br />the bulk of the soils formed, then ecosystems that include these fossil soils <br />can merely cycle nutrients between existing soil minerals, soil biota, and <br />sparce plant cover in a delicately balanced and easily perturbed fashion. If, <br />on the other hand, soils today form as rapidly or more rapidly than at other <br />times in the past when plant succession may have been stymied, then it follows <br />that perturbation of the soil evolution will start the successional clock over <br />but that reclamation is theoretically possible. <br />