After the civil war what were the consequences of the growth on the western landscape?

Following the Civil War, much of the west was given over to cattle grazing. Much of the land was overgrazed. Many trees were cut down. The west has a much dryer climate than the east. It took centuries to grow many of those trees. The trees have not grown back. The railroads brought farmers and wheat. Some of the wheat is still grown. Some turned the land into a giant dust bowl. The sale of water rights has created desert conditions where none existed previously. Water rights gives someone downriver the right to divert water from streams and send it through an aqueduct to a distant place. So as a result much of the west has been losing population for many years due to misuse of the environment.