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<br />through early 1970's. There have been few extreme events during this period <br />with no major sustained drought and few examples of seasons of high climatic <br />variability and stress faith intense precipitation, extreme cold, and high <br />wind. Just as this period of mild weather has led to development of agricul- <br />tural methods and crop varieties that are totally inappropriate for the <br />'normal' weather of continental United States, so also are purported reclama- <br />tion successes untested against normal climatic extremes. <br />The technology of these reclamation efforts in the arid west is only now de- <br />veloping. Reclamation specialists are now considering soil builders that <br />act as binders and may increase potential cation exchange sites. Specific <br />fertilizers that 'accelerate' soil weathering and illuviation can be en- <br />visioned. It may be possible, given sufficient water, to build a reasonable <br />facsimile of an A-horizon using sewage sludge or composted agricultural wastes <br />if the problems of resulting acidity of that material can be met. It may even <br />be possible to develop vaccines and innoculants for A- and B-horizons to re- <br />introduce compatible microorganisms to the soils after reconstruction. How- <br />ever, as each technological fix is developed and relied upon for successful <br />reclamation, then dependency upon that technology becomes compound and the <br />chances and implications of failure through misunderstanding increase expo- <br />nentially. If fault-tree analysis were applied to reclamation plans just as <br />it is applied to nuclear power plants and manned spacecraft systems, no recla- <br />mation plans or ongoing projects could demonstrate a sufficient envelope of <br />safety to meet public demands. It is perfectly possible to say that western <br />