I would like to recommend reading the paper entitled "Sandstorms are sweeping across the Middle East. What's going on?" According to this paper,

• More and more sandstorms are hitting countries in the Middle East, with officials blaming climate change and poor water management.
• The region loses about US$13 billion annually because sandstorms damage buildings, powerlines, and other vital infrastructure, kill crops, and interrupt transportation.
• Some nations are working to fight the dust storms, with Saudi Arabia committing to planting 10 billion trees and Abu Dhabi launching a web-based modeling system that provides near-real-time maps of concentrations of atmospheric dust.

Dear Dr. Jorge Morales Pedraza

thank you very much for your reply. about Saudi Arabia to planting10 billion native trees means one million per week. about 50 million trees a year. Is this really possible in the dry desert of Saudi Arabia? has the water requirement of these trees been calculated? In Iran and Khuzestan, which have more suitable conditions, in the warmer months, seedlings need to be irrigated 3 to 4 times a month. Almost every seedling needs about 1 cubic meter (1000 lit) of water in a year. Thus, 50 million trees in a year need 50 million cubic meters of water. If the amount of water needed to produce seedlings in the Nursery is added to this amount of water, a very large volume of water is needed each year. This amount will double for the second year and triple for the third year. Will this volume of water be easily supplied in the dry desert of Saudi Arabia? It seams, this is impossible with such a large scale! . We have to wait for the result.

A very interesting question. As a premise, it must be stated that the Middle East is mainly arid and semi arid and hence makes it vulnerable to natural stresses, like for example climate change. It seems that the rise of sandstorms in the middle east region, from my own humble research, focused on water resource management, derives, to a great deal from water mismanagement. This not only in terms of surface water, but also of ground water. This mismanagement has in many regions of the middle east averted, for example, enough water supply to allow for natural regeneration of wild vegetation, including trees. It has also provided for the delocalization of plant based agricultural activities to other more water 'rich' regions. However, such agricultural activities, in some cases, have for example continued to use flood irrigation, instead of, for example drip irrigation. However this mismanagement of water resources has many root causes, one of them being technology for water extraction i.e. water pumps. These have been introduced extensively in some parts of the Middle East, and as a result have upset underground aquifer replenishment capacities. There is also another major root cause, that of the demographic boom in the Middle east that increased by over 80 % between 1990 to 2019. This put fresh water under great stress and created a large competition between water supply for the population, for agricultural and for natural vegetation. There is also, and understandably, a resistance to use 'recycled water' both for domestic use as well as for agricultural. Further, economic development, in some parts of the region, have also contributed to this situation of fresh water stress, as per the increase in fresh water consumption. These clearly are only some of the root causes found.

Dear Dr. Martin Hilmi

Thank you very much for your wise and logical answer. As you know, Although some of these problems have been exacerbated by climate change, but we must think deeply about improper water management. this bad situation of water resources is dangerous for the future. Because it may lead to regional conflict. Hopefully water scientists will find a solution before it's too late.

Dear Dr. M. Khosroshahi, thank you for your kind reply to my post. Indeed climate change has affected and will affect deeply the situation in the Middle East. I read recently read about how the region contributes to climate change and how it is being ravaged by climate change. The publication is provided by the world bank (World Bank. 2022. Blue skies, blue seas: air pollution, marine plastics, and coastal erosion in the Middle East and North Africa, Washington D.C.) and provides for some very interesting findings, for example the region does not tend to decouple economic growth and green house gas emissions in specific, there are considerable unsustainable water management practices and intensifying water stress, etc. These findings made me reflect considerably and i recalled what a project colleague of mine at the time told me, way back in 2010, in terms of water management. These are not his exact words, but convey the meaning of what he said: ' in terms of water management well over two thousand years ago we had developed not only our own water technologies (underground water canals), but also a very effective management system for such water'. We were working in the Kerman region of Iran. Further and interestingly, while working in Iraq back in 2018, a farmer told me very much the same ' well over 4000 years ago we had learnt to use properly the water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers: we had worked out good irrigation systems and a good management system: water was shared between people, agriculture and natural vegetation'. Moreover while working in Egypt in 2015 a project colleague from the ministry of agriculture told me ' my father never had to buy fertilizer for his plot of land, then after the Aswan dam was built, he had to spend a lot of money on fertilizer. Sure its great to have light in the house at night, but only to see better how poor we are'

Dear Dr. Martin Hilmi

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation, I am also happy that you have seen Kerman, Iran. Kerman province is also one of the provinces that faces sand and dust storms. Please see the above photos.

The dust storms are directly caused by our grazing and dry land farming in marginal areas, and that then has an effect of stopping the rainfall in that area, which causes more dry conditions so you start a never ending cycle of droughts and dust storms.

The Saudis accepted my proposal in 2010 to end their dust storms, by setting aside 200 million acres of the source of their storms, as Ecological Restoration preserves, that you can read about at https://www.ecoseeds.com/cool.html

This year, they are starting the replanting of trees, at the rate of one million a week until 10 billion are planted. The dust is the most powerful weather changer on the planet, able to kill Category 5 cyclones like GONU at https://www.ecoseeds.com/GONU.html

We need to look at dust storm source areas like a blown tire on a car, and patch it up with the local native plants. And set those land aside as preserves, and no farming or grazing allow in those areas ever again. These desert areas are the best place to sequester CO2 before we burn the fossil fuels, and the oil companies by replanting these areas, could end up selling us Carbon Neutral fossil fuel products.--Like Occidental sold Carbon Neutral oil to India last year.

Dear Dr. M. Khosroshahi,

Thank you for sharing the photos of Kerman region. From the photos, sadly, matters seem to have got very bad. When i was there in 2010, matters were not looking good, but now i can see matters have got worst, only in about 12 years! All very sad. I read with great interest what Dr. C.C. Dremann provided and indeed set aside and planting local native trees seem to be the answer.

Iran would be the perfect country to have your oil and gas producers make the investment like Saudi Arabia, and preserve large areas as Ecological Restoration Preserves, and utilize the desert area and replant them to sequester the carbon in that oil and gas, so that they could sell that product to Europe, so Europe could become Carbon Neutral instantly instead of waiting another 20-30 years.

All kinds of benefit in replanting the native plants in our Northern Hemisphere deserts--eliminates dust storms, insulates the soil that then cools the air, stops heat from the sun from being trapped by the CO2 in the air, increases rainfall, and lowers the air temp. so that rain clouds can form. Plus, when you revegetate barren deserts for every 5 hectares you replant, you can create another hectare that you can use for farming again.

If you add replanting the Pseudomonas host plants that create the rain clouds for us, then you have the frosting on the cake to be able to increase the annual rainfall in a desert area, to about a meter a year. See article at https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/does-rain-come-from-life-in-the-clouds

I have been watching the dust-rain cloud interaction for 20 years, and replanting the source areas of the dust will make life better for all, because the smallest amount of dust, like 40-80 micrograms per cubic meter, can cause a drought and stop the rain clouds from forming, and can impact areas hundreds of kilometers away, as you can see from today's NAAPS image -- see https://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/shared-bin/display_image.cgi?URL=/aerosol_web/globaer/ops_01/arabia/current.png

What the dust is doing now, is to stop the Indian monsoon moisture from creating rain clouds. Then, that creates and maintains the deserts between 15 and 40 degrees north latitude, whereas that whole area should be receiving about 1-2 meters of rain each year. What could be done is to replant "Rain cloud landing strips" so the moisture can maintain rain cloud formations, and two of those Ecological Restoration preserves are shown above for Iran. Iran is a perfect example of the connection between native vegetation and rainfall--where native vegetation exists along the Caspian, you have 1-3 meters of rainfall. No vegetation, then your total rainfall total drops off a cliff.

Mohammad Khosroshahi -- Regarding the Saudi tree planting, I got that project started between 2002 and 2010 with my proposal at https://www.ecoseeds.com/cool.html and it began with setting aside of the 200 million acres of Ecological Restoration Preserves. The main trees that would be planted would be the native desert trees--and at the same time you replant the native grasses, native shrubs and wildflower understory. That way, you plant seedlings that can get along with the natural rainfall, and do not need massive amounts of water to get established, unlike cultivated trees like date palms, citrus and the rest. A similar project is the Great Green Wall of native tree planting along the edge of the Sahel that is being funded by European banks at https://www.greatgreenwall.org/about-great-green-wall and there are several YouTube videos about the project, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4BJ67S_bds

You can watch the daily water vapor loop at https://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/indian/movies/m5wvbbm/m5wvbbm_loop.html

The water vapor in summer on its way from India to Africa, goes over the Arabian peninsula, and where there is native vegetation, rain clouds form. And no vegetation, then wind, dust and the world's highest Heat Indexes is making everyone suffer, just because of the lack of native vegetation.

View the dust Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud action of stopping the rain at https://www.accuweather.com/en/ir/tehran/210841/satellite-wv/210841

The dust cloud plus the lack of native vegetation has created an island of "No-Rainfall", even though there are tons of moisture wanting to come and cool everyone down and help grow your agriculture fields and fill your dry wadis with water, and then the fish and shellfish can return.

I gave that Dust Cloud a name so we can start talking about it, and the Sahara has is own 3-4 Dust Clouds that are unnamed so far.

It is very similar to the Ozone Hole that we needed to seal up, and the Dust Cloud is a "Rainfall Hole", that we also need to seal up.

ِDear Dr. Craig Carlton Dremann

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. I have used your useful content before. The question is why the deserts of Arabia have not had any cover until now. Certainly, they did not have suitable natural conditions. How much rain do these deserts have to support vegetation? It is not possible to grow vegetation without irrigation. The water needs of this huge area, how and where should be provided.

another, The water vapor that reaches these lands from the sea is out of reach due to the lack of climbing. For example,Iran had good conditions for creating forests due to having two mountain Alborz and Zagros, . The presence of Hyrcanian forests is due to Alborz mountains. If it were not for this mountain, Iran would be like Arabia. Anyway, I wish not only the deserts of Arabia but also the deserts of Iran and the deserts of the world to become green.

In Iran, we have many problems to irrigate the small area of ​​plantations, so how will water be provided in Saudi Arabia to irrigate the huge area of ​​forestry?

Most "deserts" in the Northern Hemisphere are being constantly created by our domesticated grazing animals and our dry land farming of marginal areas, that maintains the barren low-vegetation dust-producing conditions. The desert exist, not because of the lack or rain, but because of the lack of vegetation, especially the Pseudomonas host plants.

Tunisia at the Sidi Toui National Park is a good example of natural revegetation without water or sowing seeds, where a fence was built and domesticated grazing animals were excluded. That area went from blowing Sahara desert-sand, to stable vegetation, just from the dormant native seeds still in the soil. You do not need water to get local native plants to grow back, only need three things:

1.) Native seeds in the soil. If they are not there, then they need to be added so you get 100% cover in six month with no extra water. Start with annual native grasses and annual native wildflowers, because those are the best colonizers.

2.) Soil nutrient levels above the threshold needed for the target native species.

3.) Soil organic levels in the up 10 cm above the threshold for the target native species.

Before I would start ANY tree planting project, I would get a "primer coat" of annual native grasses and annual wildflowers, mainly to get the soil nutrients and organic matter levels up to what the larger plants like trees and shrubs will need to survive. A lot of projects start from the top down, but my successful work in the California desert taught me, work from the ground up, and get a solid native cover of natives in six months or less with natural rainfall.

For each target species, you need to know with soil test from the top 5 cm of soil, what those nutrient and organic matter threshold are. I have done some painting about those nutrient threshold, at https://www.ecoseeds.com/art.html

When replanting a 100-mile pipeline in the sagebrush desert north of Reno at

https://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html, learned that each species of native has those threshold levels, and if they are exactly at or above that level, if you miss it by a few parts per million, the seedlings will sprout and then die of starvation, as you can see at https://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html -- box on the left not mulched or fertilized, box on the right was.

So, with 1.) A flora checklist of an area,

2.) Knowing what the nutrient and organic matter thresholds are for your target species,

3.) Starting with native annuals,

4.) Permanently excluding domesticated grazing animals and farming,

5.) Setting aside the land as an Ecological Restoration Preserve,

6.) If dormant native seeds are not in the soil, have bulk quantities available of the local genetic ecotypes.

I am confident that we can start covering the lands that produce the dust storms, and at the same time cool the planet and sequester the carbon, before we burn those fossil fuels. The oil companies would have a very good incentive to fund some research in that direction, so they could sell Carbon Neutral products in the future.

Seems that these are the natural division, so we can start naming and talking about the different dust clouds.

Three years ago, this question was asked: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_land_clearance_causes_climate_change_and_how_it_could_better_manage/

and the details were -- It is clear that land use can affect the climate through the absorption or emission of greenhouse gasses and by altering the properties of the land surface. Modifications in land cover can prompt changes in surface radiation, temperature, moisture that can further affect the atmosphere (Bonan, 2008 and Pielke et al., 2002).

https://www.cgd.ucar.edu/events/20130729/files/Bonan-2008.pdf is "Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests"

And a more recent Pielke article is at https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1399&context=natrespapers about "Impacts of Land Use/Land Cover Change on Climate and Future Research Priorities".

What I am suggesting for the Dust Cloud areas of the planet, is that we reverse-engineer these studies of how land cover changes, end up producing desertification and dust storms. And add back the native plants and permanently end the dust storms and not allow the Dust Clouds to form.

Dear Prof Craig Carlton Dremann

Thank you very much for your kind and valuable answers. Based on my forty years of work and research experience in Iran and my visits to the deserts of China and Kazakhstan, my opinion is briefly as follows, and I would like to be able to use your guidance and experience as a joint research project.

As I wrote before, water supply is essential in desert areas, even native plants need sufficient moisture both to establish and to continue living. Why haven't native plant species been established in these areas? Only in the areas where there was vegetation before and were destroyed due to animal grazing or change of use, it is possible to restore it by removing the destruction factors. Otherwise, water and humidity must be provided. Many desert areas have problems with drinking water, so how can they provide the necessary water for growing plants on a large scale. We will be very happy to experience this work in our country.

The reason why native plants are not growing in barren desert areas, is NOT the lack of water, but that 1.) People are still grazing and farming those areas. And, 2.) the local native seeds are no longer in the soil. And a third reason is, 3.) The soil nutrients and organic matter are below the thresholds needed for the native seedlings to survive. So even if you sowed 1,000 kg. of native seeds per hectare, those seedlings would not survive and you would still have a barren desert.

And the fourth reason, could be that a project started by planting trees first, instead of establishing a solid cover of the annual natives first.

There are massive dry farmed agriculture fields in Iran--and if cultivated grain can grow, so can annual native grasses and wildflowers in those same areas, with the natural rainfall. Iran has a total of 14,448,101 agriculture ha, and the irrigated land is 8,447,010 ha (58%) and rain-fed area is 6,001,091 ha (42%). I would establish test plots, planting the natives nearby or within those rain-fed 6 million hectares--if the rainfall feeds the grain it will be good enough for wildflowers too.

Total hectares for Iran is 165 million hectares. A goal for Ecological Restoration, to produce more rainfall for the 6 million rain-fed hectares would be another 24 million hectares adjacent to those six million rain-fed, like Saudi Arabia, permanently set aside as Ecological Restoration preserves.

However, you WOULD need to water native plants, if you are going to try and start from the top down, like plant 10 billion trees in Saudi Arabia BEFORE you get the annual grasses and annual wildflowers established FIRST.

However, if you go from the ground up--planting a solid annual native-cover first, then everything falls into place, like puzzle pieces. The pictures of my pipeline taken 25 years later at https://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html -- shows that the shrub component moved on its own, we did not sow that. Before you get the shrubs and trees to grow in a desert, you need that "primer coat" of annual natives--the grasses and wildflower first.

And then to make ecological restoration even more interesting, there are plants that live, when there is zero rainfall and zero moisture in the soil, by absorbing moisture from the air, like the California tarplants. In California every summer we have a normal "drought" with a six month period of zero rainfall, from mid-May to mid-October. But there are annual and perennial native plants mostly in the sunflower family, that sprout in spring at the last of the spring rainfall, then grow, flower and make seeds with zero rainfall and with zero moisture around their roots in the summer.

How do they do that? They absorb moisture with their leaves from the air. I have attached a picture of the sunflower family plants growing without any rain OR soil moisture this summer in my current project in Woodside, California.

If you could post a link for a checklist flora of Iran, there are a lot of Middle Eastern, North African and SW Asia natives that have been introduced to the USA that I am familiar with, that would be great colonizers that could be planted in test plots.

Also, what would be needed is a soil testing lab that could do the soil tests and organic matter soil tests, and put the data in a bar graph format, based on thresholds that are set for what levels are needed individual native plant. And the area(s) where the test plot(s) are to be done, must be areas where all grazing by domesticated animals is permanently excluded forever.

I would love to be part of a joint research project, and it seems very reasonable that the Iran Ministry of Petroleum should be very interested in funding a project that could produce a Carbon Neutral product for them to sell in the future, to all of their clients who want to become Carbon Neutral themselves.

Mohammad Khosroshahi -- For Iran from http://irancompgovproject.blogspot.com/2010/08/land-use.html

wherever grazing is currently being done, are potential areas to replant the local native cover.

Mohammad Khosroshahi ...To stop the dust, you need first to have invented methods to replant natives quickly and on a large scale. The other half of that process, is to compensate the people who have been grazing those areas, when they need to take those animals off permanently.

The net take home after expenses in the arid Western USA is only $1 per hectare per cm of annual rainfall, so when the Ministry of Petroleum pays for the seeds and materials for the ecological restoration, that annual cost of paying the locals to protect and help with the plantings instead of grazing them, needs to be an included expense. Example from www.confluence.org of the massive grazing done at 37N and 47E.

Another example from Iran at 37N 48E, where the rain clouds are trying to cut the dust, but the lack of native vegetation and the heat from bare soil is stopping that progress. Massive grazing animal trails, cutting into the hillside and eating everything down to dust.

Today's Pakistan floods are a direct result of the monsoon being stalled by the man-made "Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud" that I wrote about 10 years ago at https://www.ecoseeds.com/dust-cloud-causes floods.pdf

Pakistan flood photo and story at https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/29/asia/pakistan-flood-damage-imf-bailout-intl-hnk/index.html

Mohammad Khosroshahi -- I did not realize you has two separate questions that are very similar. Do you want the followers of one switch to one or the other?

To answer your question earlier, about replanting in the "desert hot spot" (image attached and cropped)--several problems that would be difficult to impossible to overcome:

1.) Trees and shrubs were being planted out as seedlings, that need a lot of water to survive--Instead need to plant in very small test plots, annual native grasses and wildflowers, especially ones that are weedy and that grazing animals dislike.

2.) No organic matter on the surface.

3.) Probably no soil tests to determine the thresholds for the native seedling's survival.

4.) Area looks like a dry lake bed, or abandoned agriculture soil, which would be very difficult to revegetate. Could be better to use equipment to punch straw in as a vertical mulch, which is how we do it here in the California Mojave desert.

5.) The "test" planted area is way too large--looks like several hectares? My test plots for each seeding treatment was only one by two meters--if I could not get 100% native cover in six months in a 1 x 2 meter plot, we did not use that method on any larger scale.

--here are the native plant families to look at in very small scale test plots:6.) Based on the details in the flora listed inBook Iranian Atlas of Desert Fauna and Flora

Apiaceae

Brassicaceae

Chenopodiaceae,

Fabaceae

Papaveraceae

Poaceae and

Zygophyllaceae (Peganum harmala).

You are very lucky to have Peganum as a native plant, because the grazing animals will avoid it, and it makes a good amount of stabilizing-cover in poor soils. Very easy seed to harvest in bulk quantities, which is another key to success.

prof Craig Carlton Dremann

I am currently traveling. I will explain more when I come back. This dust center has greatly affected the Ahvaz city . This big project, which was implemented in an area of ​​120,000 hectares for 5 years, was successful and the work is still going on. In a part of the surface of the center, dust was prevented from entering livestock. In a part of the project area where the dust was sever, humidification was done. The water needed for this work was supplied from the Karun River, these parts were floodplains before. In another part of this areas, seedling operations were done. Now many native species have grown in the area. In this area, the soil seed bank is very good and If the environmental conditions to be suitable, native species will resume their growth.

Mohammad Khosroshahi -- Thanks for your reply. I am still voting for NOT watering, zero water for any desert restoration project, and starting with the annual natives and the colonizing perennial herbaceous plants like the Peganum as the "primer coat".

And get that native cover down, like my sagebrush desert project, at close to 100% native cover in a year or two. Also, always starting with very small scale test plots first.

Your impressive size of 120,000 hectares showed that large scale is possible, but our goal to stop the blowing dust needs to be about five to ten times that number each year in each country with that problem. That is how we got our own 1930s Dust Bowl under control in less than 10 years--vegetation cover, and more vegetation cover. And that includes the blowing dry lakebed issues too, the cows and vehicles must be permanently removed. . If you could post a current picture of the 120K hectares, where the local seed bank contributed, that would be very interesting.

Also, the issue of how those 120K hectares are "preserved" for the future does not seem to be addressed, nor the issue of the grazing animals, if not permanently removed, and the owners compensated each year for the loss of their use of that land for forage? Like my project north of Reno, you could come back in six months and see everything eaten to the ground again--especially in a drought, a beautiful restoration could be sacrificed to the needs to local people for survival.

Prof Craig Carlton Dreman

I do not have access to the photos now. Although the attached article is written in Persian language, but you can see the scientific names of the native species of the dust centers of Khuzestan province.

https://irannature.areeo.ac.ir/article_116781_4dc836eb2b5f58b91eede7caadbd462a.pdf

Conference Paper Introducing some methods for land degradation and dust storm...

Thanks for the article with the list of plants, and PDF slide show. There are a lot of good native colonizers in that list, and I was very concerned that exotic plants were being suggested for planting, like Prosopis juliflora and Eucalyptus.

The planting of exotics has caused massive and almost complete eradication of the California native understory and is the main starter-fuel of our annual wildfires-- the introduction of exotic plants that covered 99.99% of our State in less than 7 human generations. Exotics are usually very easy to get in--and then when you realize the huge error, impossible and too expensive to get out.

This last week's of floods in Pakistan underline the importance of eliminating the Dust Clouds, so the monsoon moisture is not blocked and stalled. See today's image of the blocking of the moisture, and there is a lot more rain to come.

Today, September 6, Pakistan is out of the monsoon track, as the Dust Cloud shrouds that country again. Notice the rain clouds trying to sneak around the bottom of the Cloud headed towards Arabia.

Today, September 7 -- the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud is keeping the monsoon rains from raining in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. A strip of native vegetation could allow the moisture to have a track to move westward. Image from the loop at https://rammb-data.cira.colostate.edu/tc_realtime/loop.asp?product=16kmgwvp&storm_identifier=io902022&starting_image=2022io90_16kmgwvp_202209070845.gif

Dear Mohammad Khosroshahi

I would like to recommend reading my paper entitled "The key role of water resources management in the Middle East dust events".

Article The key role of water resources management in the Middle Eas...

According to this paper, the excessive water withdrawal through the dam construction projects could be considered as the main reason of large reduction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers water resources and high dust activity in the Middle East during the last decades.

Dear Dr. Hamidi

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this discussion. I cannot access your article Please send me a copy of your good article if it is possible.

regards

Here is an example from Libya from wikipedia, on how all of the deserts around the world should end up looking like, with the native wildflower blooming and keeping the dust from ever getting airborne. Every square meter should have some native plant cover, even if it is only a few cm tall.

Dear Prof Craig Carlton

thank you very much for sharing nice photo.

This area does not seem to be a desert area even though it is located in the dry belt of the planet. The morphology of the land shows that this area is mountainous Therefore, it should not be the dust source area.

This is an example of the vegetation that should exist in ALL of the Northern Hemisphere deserts that have become barren wastelands and the sources of our atmospheric dust, caused by humans grazing those areas to dust or plowing for dry farming.

If you go and look at the grass phytoliths in those barren areas soils, you can determine what native grasses originally grew. And by radiocarbon dating the soil, you can determine how many years ago, when the native plants were eaten to dust.

If it was less than 300 years ago, like here in California, you have a chance to have dormant native seeds still in the soil. However, the seeds in the Sahara seem to have a longer lifespan, maybe 500-1,500 years, because of the regrowth of the native plants when the fences were put around the Sidi Tour Park in Tunisia, as shown above. In less than 10 years, the dust and blowing sand was covered with vegetation, without sowing any seeds.

An easy way to start this project, which does not require a lot of money, is to do what I call "Ex Situ Test Boxes". You take soil from the site and put it in 30 x 30 cm by 8 cm deep plant trays or boxes with drain holes, and take them back where you can water them every day. Have a Control No. 1, where you see what dormant seeds are there. And for Control No. 2, do some soil tests and add missing nutrients to see if that encourage the dormant seeds to sprout better.

I have found that seeds have an ability to know when the nutrient levels are not correct for seedling survival, so can stay dormant for decades or sometimes centuries before an animals poops on them to get them started properly, or some nutrient rich dust blows and settles on them.

Once you find the "sweet spot" for the nutrient levels, then try sowing some local native seeds in other test boxes, starting with annual wildflowers as you first later of colonizers which can rapidly start the healing of the moveable bare dirt surface, and stop the dust from getting airborne immediately.

Each species of native plant has a nutrient threshold it needs for seedling survival, so look where the natives are already surviving in poor soil conditions, and start with those species first. That is how I was successful in replanting the desert north of Reno 30 years ago, start with the colonizers at https:www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html

Another method to instantly stabilize the dust prone areas, and start the restoration of the native plants, is from the mosses up.

By mixing fertilizers with water, some organic matter (compost, aged manure, plant waste products, etc.) plus psyllium as a tackifier, you can start the process of the mosses growing and stabilizing the soil first. If you wanted to accelerate that process, you could add some crushed dried moss pieces to your slurry, as is described at Article Hydroseeding tackifiers and dryland moss restoration potenti...

Today (October 9) The Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud...is keeping all of the rain clouds from Nepal to Sri Lanka, from moving westward to rain on the lands from Pakistan, Iran, Syria, and westward to Egypt and Sudan. Replanting the native plants, could build a route for all of those rain clouds to travel unmolested by the atmospheric dust.

Dear Craig Carlton Dremann

thank you so much for your useful information. Yes. This dust will affect parts of Iran and the Iranian Meteorological Organization has already warned about this subject.

Yesterday, the humidity was very high in Khuzestan province (southern Iran) and electricity was cut off in parts of Ahvaz city (the capital of the province). In the winter of 6 years ago in this city, due to dust and high humidity, the electricity in this city was also cut off and there was a lot of damage to the water and electricity system

Coalition of 16 Countries to “End the Dust Cloud’s Reign, so it can Rain.”

Afghanistan, Bahrain, India (Thar desert), Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, and Yemen.

These 16 countries need to start ending the “Pakistan-Arabia” Dust Cloud’s reign, so it can rain. We need to form a “Dust-Cloud Coalition” between all of these 16 countries, to discuss the choice that each country needs to make right now.

All of these 16 countries have a choice to make as soon as possible--Have hot deserts getting hotter and drier with dust storms, and in the summer an unbearable Heat Index for the next 1,000 years? Or replant the native plants, and get rid of the “Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud” that you can clearly see in today’s image?

You can see how each of these countries are important parts of this massive barrier to the movement of rain clouds, stopping the rain that want to come to these 16 countries, and the rain clouds getting stalled and cause flooding in India and Pakistan.

And it will take all of these 16 countries working together, to tear down unnatural this barrier. The only reason this Dust Cloud exists, is the lack of native plant cover on the soil, so the soil does not get airborne, and the native plant cover insulating the soil to cool the air, it is that simple.

Saudi Arabia has started replanting their lands with a total of 10 billion trees, and it is up to the rest of the 16 countries to start an annually-funded native planting program in their countries this year, on any kind of scale possible. Even one solid hectare of native wildflowers and native grasses with no bare soil showing, would start the learning process on how to do native plantings on square kilometers in the future.

Especially countries producing fossil fuels, your oil and gas industry could add a few dollars to each barrel sold, to fund the planting of natives to create carbon offsets, to be able to sell a Carbon Neutral product to Europe, India and China.

You can see what that atmospheric dust is doing today, stalling the rainclouds over India, just like when they got stalled over Pakistan in mid-June. Nearly 15 percent of Pakistan's rice crop and 40 percent of its cotton crop were lost in this year's flooding, and $40 Billion in damages.

All of that suffering of the floods in Pakistan was caused by the “Dust Cloud” stalling the rain clouds, instead of those rain clouds moving westward and northwestward to produce gentle rains for the other 16 countries.

When your country allows your barren ground to create dust storms, you impact on all of your neighbors around you for thousands of miles in each direction. Why not be a good neighbor, and start replanting those local native plants, and stop the soil from ever getting airborne to destroy people’s lives: from heat and drought and floods?

The “Dust Cloud” has been ruling these 16 countries for 5,500 year with heat, droughts and floods. It is now time for the ruling Dust Cloud to abdicate, and time for the “Gentle Rains” to Reign for the next 5,500 years?

Now available, the Saudi Green Initiative's first newsletter

This newsletter will keep you updated on the latest SGI news and spotlight the most important climate action efforts in Saudi Arabia.  Did you hear? This year, the Middle East Green Initiative Summit (7 November) and the Saudi Green Initiative Forum (11-12 November) will take place in tandem with COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Every desert country in the Northern Hemisphere could start their own Green Initiative, and eliminate the dust and increase their rainfall to a meter or more a year. All it takes is the money from their oil industries, like the Saudis, and the desire to restore a country, from a marginal arid desert to the native grassland savannah it once was, in the not too distant past. See the website that got the SGI started 20 years ago at https://www.ecoseeds.com/cool.html

TODAY at COP27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO8PcbxOu0Y the Saudis have expanded my 2002 proposal at https://www.ecoseeds.com/cool.html to replant native plants in Arabia, and have invited the entire Middle East AND North Africa AND Pakistan AND India AND China, etc. to join this process, as one of the ways to store carbon and produce a Carbon Neutral future. They are giving presentations on YouTube for the next two weeks.

Yesterday at CO27, the Saudis expanded their vision to include 24 countries and renamed the project to be the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) to combat desertification. Last week it was the Saudis proposed planting 10 BILLION trees, today it is 50 BILLION across the whole region.

Spearheading regional afforestation One of the goals of MGI is to plant 50 billion trees across the region. The Kingdom is spearheading regional cooperation to achieve the target, with the initial governance framework agreed by founding member countries during a ministerial meeting in Riyadh in October 2022.  The ambitious afforestation project will rehabilitate 200 million hectares of degraded land, helping reduce emissions by 2.5% of current global levels. Planting 50 billion trees will also combat desertification, reduce dust storms and protect against the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of land degradation, something that countries across West, Central and South Asia, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa are especially vulnerable to.

Do you live in one of the 24 countries, and how will you start your own planting?

You can register to view the Saudi Green Initiative gallery from now until November 18 at https://registration.saudigreeninitiative.org/gallery?utm_campaign=cop27-highlights-9-nov-ar&utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&utm_term=highlights

The above registration is only if you are at the conference in Egypt.

There is a whole Youtube channel for this project at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNWExCIXVFsQFz9pWla0PjQ

The next meeting of the Middle East Initiative will be at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhR4fgmg0P0

You might check and see if your country has joined the Middle East Green Initiative, and then there should be more money for replanting the dust-source areas of your country. I know Kuwait is because his Excellence the Crown Prince spoke at the opening day of the COP27 session this week.

Dear Craig Carlton Dremann

Thank you very much for your information. Yes, from Iran, the vice president will participating in the COP27 session this week.

Mohammad Khosroshahi ...Has Iran adopted the "Middle East Green Initiative", which is a separate group of 24 countries, from the COP27 meeting?

Craig Carlton Dremann

this is the news which i read in the newspaper,

The vice president will be present at the climate change conference from November 14 to 16 and in addition to making a national statement, she will hold bilateral meetings with the ministers of neighboring countries and the heads of international organizations on the sidelines of the meeting.

Mohammad Khosroshahi -- Any plans announced to start the planting of billions of trees in your country?

Mohammad Khosroshahi --Here is a screen shot from the YouTube video of the "Saudi Green Initiative" that got started last year, planting 10 billion trees at the rate of the one million trees per week. Then, at COP27 the 24 countries got together at the "Middle East Green Initiative" to now plant 50 billion. If the Saudis are still going to do 10 billion themselves, that means each of the 24 would start growing and planting about 1.6 billion each--heard anything about, how your country will start your planting?

ِDear Craig Carlton Dremann

What is the names of these seedlings and how old are them?

It is unimaginable to me that they can plant 10 billion trees in such a short time in a dry land with little rainfall and extremely high evaporation. At one time, Saudi Arabia wanted to export wheat to the world and exploited its fossil waters. Now with which water can he produce 10 million seedlings and plant and irrigate them. I hope he succeeds in this important work.

Those look like several year old native acacias. If you read their original plan, was to start the planting in the cities so that there would already be water available, and these native Acacias are very drought tolerant to begin with, so should be planted during the winter without much trouble.

So what about your country, if you are one of the 24 that is also going to plant another 40 billion trees, what part of your government would be doing that work?

If the Saudis were trying this alone, they would have lots of items to check off and correct before this 50 billion trees planting project would run smoothly. But by gathering 24 countries together, everyone could try some small scale test plots with different species, and then share information on the best methods that all of the countries could use.

It took me two years of tests plots to invent methods to replant that 100-mile pipeline without any irrigation at https://www.ecoseeds.com/grertbasin.html --And when I did, then we got 100% successes every time we planted any project in the future.

If I were going to plant a billion trees, like your country and 24 other countries are proposing to do with the new "Middle East Green Initiative" I would want to get some basic knowledge about each species, like in the wild, what is the nutrient and soil organic matter threshold are for each? That is how our 100-mile planting of the native seeds was successful 30 years ago--find that threshold, and then test the soil where we were planting, and add what each species needs to survive. Much more important that any watering needs, if they do not have the food, then no amount of water will keep them from dying. Here are the thresholds of one species of native grass we planted for that project.

This first set of thresholds is for a plant that lives in 20-25 cm of annual rainfall.

That organic matter number, that is needed for the survival of each native species' seedlings, for the top 5cm of soil, is extremely critical for replanting desert areas wherever you get less than one meter of annual rainfall. Also, if you are even a few ppm below the nitrogen and phosphorus thresholds, then the chances of your seedlings surviving is much lower.

Here is the general thresholds for my area on sandstone soils, which normally gets between 50 and 60 cm of annual rainfall. You can see as the annual rainfall goes up, so do the nitrogen and potassium minimum thresholds.

Can you confirm that Iran has NOT done two things--Did NOT join the Middle East Green Initiative even though Ali Salajegheh, the head of Iran’s environment agency attended COP27. And it has not ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement? Iran is the world’s sixth-highest greenhouse gas emitter and one of the only countries that has not ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement, a treaty that if signed symbolizes a nation’s commitment towards curbing climate change. Story at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/10/irans-climate-efforts-derided-as-mena-nations-take-action

Your head of Iran's environment agency has co-authored a lot of papers https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Ali-Salajegheh-2073666388 on watersheds and river flows, but is not on RG yet.

Dear Prof Craig

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. As you know, Iran is heavily affected by the dust of neighboring countries. More than 80% of dusty days in Khuzestan province in Iran are affected by external dust. Therefore, cooperation with the countries of the Middle East to reduce dust is a necessity. Experts and researchers have always emphasized this cooperation. Before Selajeqhea, Mrs. ِDr. Ebtekar had done some activities in this matter. Of course, Iran also plans to plant 1 billion seedlings in the next 4 years. at the end, I must mention this point. In many countries, including the countries of the Middle East, the rate of desertification is faster than what they are doing to combat with it. This progress of desertification is more influenced by human factors. Therefore, if we have proper management in the field of natural resources and environment and we can prevent the destruction of water and soil resources, it will be much more effective than doing work to combat desertification (certainly,I don't deny the combating desertification, but I emphasize the importance of the issue). For example, I have a question for you, in your opinion, it didn't have effect of the construction of dams in Turkey on the intensification of dust storms in neighboring countries? Can you tell Turkey not to build these dams? I conducted a research project related to the factors affecting dust storms, and the result showed that the climate has 33% influence on the intensification of dust, and the rest is related to human factors.

In connection with the methods of combating dust storm centers in Khuzestan province and their restoration, see the following source

Conference Paper Introducing some methods for land degradation and dust storm...

There are many, huge problems with the Conference paper:

1.) the Atriplex lentiformis and Prosopis juliflora are NOT native to Khuzestan, and once exotics like that are introduced, they will be impossible to get rid of, and they will forever keep the local native vegetation from ever growing back in those areas. Our North American Prosopis is a major problem wherever it has been planted, along with our own Southwest.

2.) The native Tamarix is a famous water-sucker here in the Southwest, lowering water tables.

3.) The spacing was 5 meters apart, with nothing for native ground cover in between.

4.) The very worst issue, was the 225 million cubic meters of water to flood irrigate the 11,160 hectares. When you replant local natives, NO water is needed because you start with the annual colonizing plants that do not need irrigation. If planted trees and shrubs can grow WITH irrigation, then the colonizing local natives, like Peganum, can grow with natural annual rainfall.

5.) Only after you have a solid cover of the colonizing natives, then you plant very small seedlings of trees and shrubs along with fertilizers and organic matter to match their needs.

Prosopis cineraria would have been a much better choice, because that is native from Iran to India, whereas the article at http://apps.worldagroforestry.org/treedb/AFTPDFS/Prosopis_cineraria.PDF talks about how invasive the P. juliflora is?

Range map of the P. cineraria. I would go one step further, and use local native species, AND local genetic ecotypes.

Prof Craig--No huge problems with the Conference paper

The water you wrote was done to moisten the dry flood plains. the above photos is part of a dried up flood plain. these flood plains have been dried by the construction of dams in upstream and decrease in rainfall. These areas have become centers of dust. In order to control dust, these centers must be wet during the storm season. For this purpose, with accurate calculations, a channel will be created to transfer water from the Karun River to these areas. This action has been very effective in reducing dust storms.

yes, the Atriplex lentiformis and Prosopis juliflora are not native to Khuzestan. Prosopis juliflora has been used since 40-50 years ago to stabilize sand dunes in Khuzestan and they have responded very well. and now it is used as a leading species in critical areas of wind erosion where there is no vegetation or the possibility of other species growing is less.

Of course, some of other species have also been used in the dust centers of Khuzestan, although some of them is not native but they have grow well,

Nerium oleander

Parkinsonia aculeata

Phoenix dactylifera

Conocarpus erecta

Prosopis juliflora

Albizia lebbeck

Ziziphus spina-christi

Tamarix aphylla

Craig Carlton Dremann

Of course, exotics will do very well, that is the huge, huge problem. For example in one State, Texas, where mesquite is native to (P.juliflora): In Texas, landowners spent $25 million over a 10-year period to clear only 300.000 ha of mesquite trees, a fraction of the 22 million ha of Texas.

And ANY planting should be done with natural rainfall, NEVER need to divert rivers for your project.

ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION is just that, helping the natural environment heal itself and putting back what belongs there, not introduce something from far away, that is well known to be a major problem in its own natural habitat.

All the humans need to do, is just fix the damages they made in the past, like sowing local native seeds where they are needed and adding organic matter and nutrients that were removed by grazing animals hundreds, to thousands of years ago in the case of the Middle East.

I think you know exactly what the answer is to your question here--Ecological Restoration of the areas that create the atmospheric Dust Clouds, just like the USA did to stop our 1930s Dust Bowl conditions.

One of my cousin's father started the Sharp Brother's native seed company in Kansas to do that work, grow out the native grass seeds in bulk quantities to plant and stop the dust from blowing. Their motto was "Locally Adapted"

And for the sake of Iran's natural environment, the only plants that should be planted are the local native genetic ecotypes, the ones that are "Locally Adapted" otherwise future generations may curse your current work for eternity.

By planting ANY exotics, you seem to fix one environmental problem but will leave all of the future generations of Iran with another kind of permanent environmental damage for eons into the future, for all geologic-time, that they will be unable to fix or repair.

Prof Craig-- I understand your concern and I have to tell you, the cultivated area of this species is very limited. More than 22 provinces of Iran are located in the territory of desert areas, only in a very small part of Khuzestan and Hormozgan provinces, Prosopis species has been used very little. This species has not been used in any other province. Currently, the planting of this species has been stopped in Hormozgan. In Khuzestan, other methods and other species are used, but in critical areas, this species is used in small quantities, although no problem has been observed so far in Khuzestan. In Iran, almost all the desert provinces, according to the climatic conditions, irrigation of seedlings is done at least 1 year to at most 5 years. Of course, less irrigation is done in wet years. In any case, in desert region, irrigation is done for native and non-native species in the hot seasons.

You wrote "ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION is just that, helping the natural environment heal itself and putting back what belongs there---NEVER need to divert rivers for your project."

It is correct. Bringing water to floodplains and wetlands is their natural right that has been taken from them.

For your information: The programs that are planned to control and reduce dust storm in Kuzestan province are: as follows

management and grazing program

Soil moistening

Planting forests and bushes (mixed cultivation)

Soil Enrichment

Windbreak on the edge of fields

Tree plantation along the main roads

Tree planting along side roads

Water storage tanks

Runoff collection methods

Mulching

In the selection of operations, the following points have played a role in prioritizing the programs:

• Be close to nature and be inspired by the nature of the region.

• Economically, it has the lowest cost.

• Executive organizations have the ability to implement the program.

• The success of the operation has a high percentage.

• The results of operations are continuous and stable.

• Be consistent with the potential of selected ecological units.

• Be compatible with the social structure of the residents and contribute to improving their living conditions.

• Not interfering with the main landuse of the area

Mohammad Khosroshahi -- Comments on your checklist--

• Management and grazing program--YES, like the Saudis on the 200 million hectares of "Ecological Restoration Preserves" have permanently remove domesticated grazing and feral grazing animals like camels.
• Soil moistening--Create more rainfall by planting Pseudomonas host plants, and do that naturally. Unless the area was a wetlands in the past, no need to add water now.
• Planting forests and bushes (mixed cultivation)--Only after you have 100% native cover with colonizing plants like annual native grasses and wildflowers.
• Soil Enrichment--Absolutely, know what the soil nutrient thresholds are for the native colonizing plants, and make sure your planted area is at least at or above that threshold.
• Windbreak on the edge of fields--In areas where native trees were originally part of the native cover.
• Tree plantation along the main roads--The same, where native trees were part of the original native cover.
• Tree planting along side of roads--same, where native trees formerly grew.
• Water storage tanks--For what purpose?
• Runoff collection methods--Rooftops for home use would be important. More important would do like the Saudis in putting in check dams in the wadis, like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Baydha_Project picture attached.
• Mulching--Absolutely critical. If you just put the correct amount of mulch down, then nature could start the process all by herself, as she did at the Sidi Toui National Park in Tunisia.

In the selection of operations, the following points have played a role in prioritizing the programs:

• • Be close to nature and be inspired by the nature of the region.--YES, always use and replant local native genetic ecotypes, from within about 100 KM. of a project. If needed in bulk, hand harvest seeds and have commercial seed growers bulk it out. The conversion is one kilo will produce 100 kgs. in one growing season of annual grasses and wildflowers.
• • Economically, it has the lowest cost. That is impossible, because to do ecological restoration of these Dust Cloud areas, nobody has done it yet long enough or on any large scale, using only local native plants, so the step by step process is now known yet, or how to make it efficient.

Doing this kind of restoration, is like building a computer in 1950 with radio tubes filling a whole room. You have some idea of how to put it together, but until millions are built in the future, there is no knowledge or economic incentive to make this restoration work be done at the lowest cost.

You need to skip the "lowest cost" issue for now, and spending ALL of your budget to concentrate on achieving the kind of performance standards my project need to produce, in very small scale test plots first: 100% native cover in six months, with natural rainfall and no extra water or weed management.

• • Executive organizations have the ability to implement the program. Yes, once you have invented some methods in your small scale test plots, that can give you 100% native cover in six months, there needs to be annual budgets to copy and paste those methods on hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions of hectares, so that you can make a significant impact is a short amount of time.
• • The success of the operation has a high percentage. That is exactly why your small scale test plots MUSt produce 100% native cover in six months with natural rainfall and no additional water.
• • The results of operations are continuous and stable. Of course, my planting north of Reno along the 100-mile pipeline is still 95% native cover after 30 years.
• • Be consistent with the potential of selected ecological units. You need to explain what this means. Maybe you need to plant the correct plants that originally grew there?
• • Be compatible with the social structure of the residents and contribute to improving their living conditions. NO, you are going to need to make major changes on the social structure of the communities, because it was their abuse of the land that caused those conditions that Iran will be spending hundreds of billions of dollars to fix.
• If you are going to plant an area, you need to remove ALL of the grazing animals, and have those people be paid an income by the native plantings that they help protect, creating Soil Sequestration Carbon Credits that the National Iranian Oil Company can then use to sell Carbon Neutral oil to Europe and Asia.
• • Not interfering with the main land use of the area--Of Course that is impossible, because it was the land use and their injuries that you need to stop, and offer an alternative source of income, via restoration and protection-- like replanting the local natives to produce the carbon credits for the National Iranian Oil Company to use for selling Carbon Neutral oil.
• Iran, like the Saudis, will need to set aside large areas that will be "Ecological Restoration Preserves" 200 million hectares in KSA so far.
• No mention of who would fund the hundreds of trillions of Iranian Rials, and like the Saudis, it should be the National Iranian Oil Company, to generate the carbon credits they need. Then Iran could become the world leader in selling Carbon Neutral oil to Europe and Asia. By doing this, might help Iran to continue to sell oil for a longer time, since Europe and Asia really would like to get to Carbon Neutral without having to go completely off oil so quickly.
• Iran selling carbon neutral oil, by replanting their whole country with local native plants, would be perfect! A common phrase across the Western world is the saying , you would have a "match made in heaven."
• I think you should get funding from the National Iranian Oil Company, and let's get the party started in a huge way in Iran, like the Saudi's 200 million hectares?

We have good result in controlling dust centers in Khuzestan province during the past 5 years. What do you think about China's Kubuqi Desert? Is the desertification control operation in that desert compatible with your idea in Saudi Arabia? Kubuqi is a successful example of desert greening in the world.

"Green" is an excellent goal, but we should never repair one issue like the Dust Clouds by doing more permanent damage to those ecosystem by planting exotics OR non-local natives.

And I am glad that you agree that the only solution to the Dust Clouds is vegetation.

However, my 2002-2010 proposal for Saudi Arabia is only being met half-way.

• The 200 million hectares in KSA were set aside as Ecological Restoration Preserves, starting in August 2010.
• Grazing animals were permanently removed
• That is where I left it in August 2010 when I got the email my proposal was adopted and the preserves set aside.
• If you read my original proposal at https://www.ecoseeds.com/coool.html I do not suggest the shrubs and trees first. The native grasses and wildflowers need to come first, and before that, the organic matter and fertilizers.

Today's Dust Cloud map (December 2022) is showing the winter shift which is renewing the southern Dust Clouds, Senegal-Niger and Chad-Sudan.

At the same time the Afghan-Syria Dust Clouds weakens, and planting a native cover over the barren parts of Iran, would allow that moisture trying to move east from Italy, Greece and Turkey, which could solve at least two problems. End the Dust Clouds and increase your annual rainfall, maybe as much as one meter per year. Do not need to be planting trees and shrubs that need watering--Could be small annual natives, native wildflowers and low growing native herbaceous perennials like Peganum, only 10-20 cm tall, but making a solid cover to insulate the soil from the sun, and holding the soil from blowing.

Until Iran and its neighbors plant back their native wildflower and native grass cover, it will always experience for eternity, droughts along with lots of Dust Clouds from its own bare soil getting blows, and from its neighbors.

Just by sowing some native wildflower seeds, you could convert Iran from a Dust Cloud and drought-impacted Hell-on-Earth, back to a lush and beautiful garden that it once was, not so long ago.

Many dust centers, including wetlands and floodplains, have dried up, while they used to have water. If water reaches these areas, there is no need to plant plant species and they will grow green. See the pictures below. Also, some permanent rivers are also dry. They have become seasonal. Of course, both climate change and improper water management have contributed to their drying

A number of native and natural species in sand dunes of Iran (Khorasan province)

Greening of seeds in the soil (soil seed bank) in the place of water accumulation caused by the passage of machines.

That last picture is great, that there is a dormant native seed bank to work with, even in what looks like a Mars-like barren landscape.

And you could start betting those dormant seeds sprouting by artificially adding extra rainfall to that area to produce native cover, by cloud seeding with aircraft.

But this process in Iran has many parts that are still not in place, when compared to the Saudis Green Initiative they started last year in their own country:

1.) Ecological Restoration paid for by the oil ministry. Where is the money going to come from in Iran?

2.) Desert lands to be restored need to be set aside as Ecological Restoration Preserves.

3.) All domesticated grazing animals permanently removed. From your earlier list, you were not going to kick the grazing animals off permanently, that were causing the damages.

4.) Cloud seeding part of the Saudi plan, and needs to be used to get these dormant native seeds sprouting, so they can naturally increase the rainfall in the future.

5.) Do not see any effort in locating and increasing the native Pseudomonas host plants of Iran, and adding them to any future planting projects. Read https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/does-rain-come-from-life-in-the-clouds

6.) No economic tie-in with oil production, to create Carbon Neutral fossil fuel products to sell to Europe and Asia. If you look at the Saudi Green Initiative, each of their projects is calculating how much carbon will be sequestered. Then, those carbon credits or offsets, could be attached to barrels of oil, and sold to customers as Carbon Neutral, so the clients will not need to go to Carbon Zero to get to Carbon Neutral in the future.

7.) Oil Ministries need add a 10% Ecological Restoration fee to each barrel of oil, to get the Carbon Sequestration started, and eventually could convert that fee to make each barrel Carbon Neutral. Why should Iran or any other country drain its oil reserves, and not have anything to show for it, because they just sold their produce as a commodity on the open market.

8.) A 10% fee to do the Ecological Restoration needed for your people to be able to grow your own food and to reverse the effects of Global Warming by replanting the native plants along with the native Pseudomonas host plants, is a very reasonable expectation to have accomplished when the last barrel is pumped out of any oil producing country?

9.) Having an intact and functioning native ecosystem should be the highest National Security goal of any country, especially each one where the ecosystem was completely destroyed such a short time ago, that there are still dormant seeds in the soil, that with just a little more rainfall, could sprout and cover that land and bring it back to what it was not too long ago. Or paying the local people to plant back the natives at a higher annual income, than they would make by feeding those plants as forage to animals--the carbon credit value may greatly exceed the forage value.

Adding the Sidi Toui National Park example from Tunisia, only 10 years.

Here is today's rain clouds that want to rain on Iran today...but is being blocked by the barren soils in Iraq, Kuwait and Iran itself.

If ALL of the three countries worked together to get a nice native cover on their barren soils and desert lands, then that moisture track could get going again.

We need to stop fighting among ourselves, and realize our real enemy is not other humans, it is the desertification and environmental destructions of our lands, that will guarantee for our citizens to unnecessarily suffer consequences in the future. Ecological restoration is our only true National Defense.

See the Image from https://burstofbutterflies.com/portfolio/mother-earth/

Craig Carlton Dremann -- "We need to stop fighting among ourselves, and realize our real enemy is not other humans, it is the desertification and environmental destructions of our lands that we allow to continue, that will guarantee for our citizens will unnecessarily suffer consequences in the future".

very nice paragraph and also your idea. I hope that mankind reach such a level of excellence of thinking that he knows ; we are all one human species and we must live together on a common planet and "Ecological restoration of our precious earthly homes, is our only true National Defense".

Mohammad Khosroshahi -- Thanks for your comments.

Somalia this month shows clearly what can happen to a country that has a Dust Cloud blocking rain clouds--famine and death. And unfortunately, Iran has two Dust Clouds blocking your rain.

Moisture for the rain clouds for Somalia starts in SE Asia, goes past India, then disappears between India and Saudi Arabia because there are no trees to cool the barren desert soil surface to produce the rain clouds, plus the Dust Cloud heat up the air and change the dew point so clouds cannot form.

Then, when that moisture finds the trees just West of Somalia, then the rain clouds form and the rain starts again.

Mohammad Khosroshahi --Any motivation in Iran after COP27 to start funding the Ecological Restoration of your country to fix the four items, that had the Saudi Government set aside 200 million hectares and adopt my proposal to start planting 10 billion trees at https://www.ecoseeds.com/cool.html in August 2010 ??? That at COP27 was expanded to 50 billion trees to be planted in 24 countries!

1.) End dust storms.

2.) Increase annual rainfall, maybe go from a few cm to one meter per year.

3.) Sequester carbon for help cure Global Warming.

4.) Cool the maximum temps. with the native plant cover insulating the soil.

Iran with its National Iranian Oil Company could add one more item--

5.) Plant enough native grasses, wildflowers and native trees, to produce enough carbon offsets, to be able to sell Carbon Neutral Oil and gas.

I am hoping that your country decides to become the leader in that respect, just like Occidental Petroleum began that opportunity when they sold 2 million barrels of Carbon Neutral oil to India a year ago.

The leading cause for the increase in the frequency and intensity of dust storms in the Middle East is climate change and periodic droughts. Human activities such as improper management of water resources have played a significant role in intensifying this process in recent years. Please find our article in this regard:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1875963721000355

Mohammad Khosroshahi -- Resolved, until the replanting with local native plants to cover the sources of the two Dust Clouds and have preserved those lands as Ecological Restoration Preserves where no human disturbances allowed, no off-road vehicle travel, no grazing, no farming.

And until that work is COMPLETED to produce 100% local native cover to keep that soil from ever getting airborne again. And until your National Iranian Oil Company starts funding that effort on a massive annual large scale, then the great grandchildren of the people of Iran will still be discussing this topic several hundred years from now.

Planting exotic and invasive trees and shrubs will only destroy your ecosystem, not fix it.

So the plan needs to be:

1.) start like the Saudis did when they adopted my plan in August 2010 at https://www.ecoseeds.com.cool.html and set aside those hundreds of millions of hectares where the Dust Clouds originate RIGHT NOW, and encourage your neighbor to your East and West to do the same to fix their portions of the two Dust Clouds which are impacting on the region. If the Saudis could do it 12 years ago by setting aside 200 million hectares that cause their Dust Cloud, what is stopping the government of Iran?

2.) Instead of the people with farms and grazing animals being kicked off of the new preserves, they get paid to do the Ecological Restoration work instead, at a higher rate than what their net take-home pay was when ranching or farming, for the next 100 years.

3.) I did a painting of Arabia and what grew on what is now desert soil blowing in the wind, and what plant families need to be planted back, at https://www.ecoseeds.com/art4.html Painting No. 62,

Title: "SPATIAL EXTINCTION of 22 plant families native to Arabia, exterminated by the domesticated cattle and camels beginning about 7,000 years ago, since they were domesticated and moved into Arabia, and ate the Pseudomonas-host plants, causing the monsoon moisture to stop producing regular rain clouds, and when the animals grazed the land to dust, that created the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud to form, which further eliminates the formation of rain clouds, and the spatial extinction occurred in the following families-Bean, Borage, Buckwheat, Caper, Cucumber, Dogbane, Goosefoot, Grass, Iris, Lily, Mallow, Milkweed, Mint, Morning glory, Mustard, Nightshade, Parsley, Poppy, Rose, Sedge, and Sunflower-The spatial extinction may have occurred all over Arabia in only a few hundred years about 5,500 years ago, but the painting extends that time frame, and the new ecological concept of "spatial extinction" does not mean that individual species are extinct, but they are extinct over large areas of their original ranges, and it is hoped that this spatial extinction trajectory is reversed and Ecological Restoration begins."

Prof Craig Carlton Dremann--Iranian Oil Company does not provide special assistance for dust control projects. The costs of these projects are provided by the relevant ministries.

The conditions of 7000 years ago cannot be restored either in Saudi Arabia or in Iran. You can see the salt lake of Qom in the picture. In 7000 years ago, this lake was full of water and people lived next to it, and now the ancient effect of these places is known. Even the Qom salt lake was connected with the Miqan salt lake of Arak. At that time, the amount of rainfall was about 350 mm, and now it is not more than 100-150 mm and it is seen as a salt lake. You wrote in the previous post that with the Saudi Arabia green initiative, the amount of rain may increase from a few centimeters to 1 meter. This amount of increase in rainfall is impossible.

The Iranian oil company should be paying for the replanting of the native vegetation across the whole country, so they could use the soil carbon credits produced by the native plants, to be the world's leader as the first oil producing nation to sell "Carbon Neutral oil".

That would help get Europe to become carbon neutral, without having to go to "Zero Carbon" as the current UN model is planning. Would be a huge benefit to both--Iran keeps selling oil without buyers cutting back, and buyers keep buying oil that is already Carbon Neutral by replanting the whole country of Iran with its native plants.

Also, once you increase the rainfall of Iran, back to the one meter or more that fell before grazing wiped out the grasslands and left only the scattered shrubs with bare ground in between, those dry playas could fill with water again.

A good first step, is to complete the Confluence.org photos of Iran, only 49 out of 171 are completed.

The photos for Iran at Confluence.org like at 33N and 51E shows a lot of Ecological Restoration potential with scattered native shrubs still holding the soil. And even more native vegetation that Saudi Arabia has for most of the Arabian Peninsula, because their grasslands were grazed to dust many thousands of years ago.

Whereas Iran lost its grasslands in less than 1,000 years, and in many places, probably only a few hundred years ago.

The Iranian Oil Company needs to make the investment, to turn that desertification around and plant back the native meadows and native trees, and utilize the soil Carbon Offsets produced by those native plants, to sell the Carbon Neutral Oil, that Europe will be begging for in the future.

And all the people of Iran very soon, will also be begging for those native grasses and native trees, to increase the annual rainfall for their agriculture and grazing animals, and be able to wash dishes and clothes, take showers and flush their toilets.

The salt lake of Qom could very easily be filled with water again, if a fence was put around it and the local native plants replanted and allow to grow unmolested by grazing domesticated animals.

Just to the SW are fields of rainfall-fed grains around the town of Baquerabad, so by adding back the native cover to the land around the lake you can get it to fill with water again. Just like what happened at Tunisia's Sidi Toui National Park, keep the animals out and the native plant regrow.

Those Baquerabad grain fields could be contracted to grow out local native seeds in bulk, to replant the proposed Ecological Restoration Preserve, that work paid for by the Iranian National Oil Company. And the grain straw used to add organic matter to the soil of the preserve.

You photo of the salt lake playa, shows a stable surface that will not get airborne as long as it is not disturbed. I gave a presentation this year to the DANA (Dust Alliance North America) group of Atmospheric Dust Researchers here in the USA, at https://www.ecoseeds.com/dust-mitigation-native-plants.pdf with details about planting native plants to stop the dust sources of the Lordsburg Playa, which is a salt lake playa in New Mexico. The surface of that playa was stabilized by the NM Dept. of Transportation, by maintaining fencing around the playa's surface and never allowing animals or vehicles to enter to break up that stable surface. My presentation to fix the dust issues surrounding the playa, is to plant local native plants around the edge, where grazing animals has disturbed the soil and cause erosion into the playa surface, which then got airborne.

This photo shows the high salinity of the water in a salt lake in Iran. As you see, the swimmers do not sink into the water and they are lying on the water.

Around the playas, where the salinity is less and the soil is moist, there are some saline plants, but in recent years, due to the drop in the underground water level, the native plants have disappeared or are very reduced.

In our playas, as long as animals and vehicles are not allowed, then the surface layer becomes solid again, and does not get airborne. All that is needed is prohibit vehicles and animals, and the surface will heal itself. Also, try the method of creating Ecological Restoration Preserves surrounding the playa, like they did for the Lordsburg, New Mexico one, then in only one year by replanting the native plants a large amount of the bare soil surround the playa was stabilized. Do not spend a lot of time planting the saline plants that need ground water--keep the animals and vehicles off, and set aside the lands surrounding it as Preserves and replant the natives there. And ask the National Iranian Oil Company to start funding this work, so you can get sufficient annual fund to do something on a huge scale.

Think of these playa areas in three layers:

1.) The dry salt lake surface, fence off the vehicles and animals so the salt crust can heal and stop getting airborne.

2.) The lands surrounding the dry salt lake surface, replanting with the local native plants, to produce as close as 100% native cover, and protected from grazing animals as Preserves.

3.) Ideally, between those plants in the lands surrounding the playa, you should also have a layer of soil bacteria, fungi and mosses that will lock in that surface, and never allow it to get airborne in the future.

A lot of studies in the arid US West by Jayne Belnap of our USGS of the microbiotic soil crusts at https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/references/public/AZ/Introduction_to_Microbiotic_Crusts.pdf and that soil crust might be much easier to get established than planting trees and shrubs, and would cover the dust-source areas more completely across the entire soil surface.

That is exactly what I am getting to cover the soils in my project in Woodside, California to produce, like this picture shows.

Here are shrubs without the soil crusts, and without any native grasses or native wildflowers either to hold down the soil. That bare soil in between the shrubs could get airborne very easily. Image from the Microbiotic crust study mentioned above.

Shrubs with soil crusts in between. That soil is never going to get airborne, unless some grazing animals or a vehicle comes and breaks that crust up?

Some floodplains and dry wetlands that were wet previously, have played an important role in livestock grazing in some suitable months of the year, Without destruction the soil surface. while at present they have become dust sources.

In such areas, the most important issue is the availability of water and soil moisture to reduce dust.

The Saudis were faced with this exact same situation, to graze or not to graze--and ended up banned all future grazing on the 200 million hectares of their Dust Sources lands--when in August 2010 they adopted my proposal to set those lands aside as Ecological Restoration Preserves. And then, last year they started planting the 10 billion trees to permanently stabilize that soil with native plants on those lands. It was very controversial at the time to stop the grazing, but an ecological necessity.

Each country with Dust Cloud Source lands--must stop grazing or plowing those vulnerable lands ever again in the future--AND at the same time, start replanting the local native plants and get the biological soil crusts to get established again. Why the Saudis took that action, dust storm hitting the capital Riyadh.

Two issues that could turn that nice green meadow of native annual vegetation into a blowing dust area, could be much more significant that the lack of water.

1.) These are annual plants, not perennials, so if they are grazed while they are supposed to be producing seeds for the next generation, then you could have no more future generations if they are unable to produce viable seeds.

That is exactly how I get rid of the annual weed seedbank here in California, let the plants sprout, and keep cutting off their seed heads so they do not produce any more viable seeds. You could easily test this possibility by taking soil from the top 10 cm and put it in containers and water daily to see if there are still viable seeds in the soil.

2.) Grazing over time, can lower the soil nutrient and organic matter thresholds needed by the native seedlings for their survival. Again, can be tested by putting 10 cm deep samples of soil into containers, and add fertilizers and organic matter in pots, and have a control of the soil with no fertilizers and organic matter.

That is what happened when we planted out first test plots in the desert to replant the gas pipeline north of Reno. The seeds sprouted great, then died of starvation at 3 cm tall because a century of grazing had removed too many nutrients and organic matter from the top 2 cm. where the seedlings were trying to sprout. See https://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html

These annual native seeds, unlike our cultivated crop seeds, seem to know when the soil nutrients and organic matter levels are too low for their seedling's survival, and can stay dormant for 100s of years until those minimum conditions are met.

Look what is happening today, December 21, 2022--A ton of moisture is flowing eastward towards Iran and a separate stream flowing over Saudi Arabia as I write this answer. In both cases, there is enough moisture to form rain clouds, but no rain clouds forming, because both countries did not have enough native vegetation cover to change the dew point, so that rain clouds could form and produce precipitation. The sheep ate it down to the dust, then the dust gets airborne and suppresses the formation of clouds as a separate action.

Saudi Arabia knows they need to replant the natives, to end the dust storms and increase the rainfall, and got started by planting one million trees per week last year, for a total of 10 billion.

So when is Iran going to get started, planting the natives to end the dust storms and increase the rainfall. The moisture today is flying overhead and wasted, just because both countries do not have enough native cover on their lands, to form rain clouds. The Saudis have started the fix for their country, when is Iran going to start?

A real pity, we are supposed to be a smart species, we know what we need to do--why does it take so long to get started?

we have better conditions than Saudi Arabia. We have 14 million hectares forests in Alborz and Zagros mountains. Also, we have about 60 million hectares of good and medium range. A large part of Iran is mountainous. The most dust that affects Iran are dust from outside the borders that enters Iran through Iraq-Syria-Saudi Arabia and so on. Of course, we also have internal dusts, which are controlled every year in some of these areas.