What was done
The Great Sand Hills region of southwestern Saskatchewan is home to the largest array of dunes on the Canadian Prairies.  Within this region the authors documented the temporal and spatial extent of the last major period of dune activity, based on optical ages of sands retrieved from natural blowout exposures and from shallow pits, comparing the timing of this activity with moisture trends reconstructed from dendroclimatic records.

What was learned
Wolfe et al. report that "severe drought in the late 1700s, preceded by at least a century of below-average precipitation, resulted in widespread sand-dune activity over much of the Great Sand Hills region," which continued for approximately 80 years, after which "stabilization began in the late 1800s and has continued throughout the 20th century."

What it means
Throughout the Little Ice Age, climatic conditions were such as to favor dune formation and activity in southwestern Saskatchewan.  As soon as the earth began to recover from this cool climatic interval, however, the dunes began to stabilize and, in the words of Wolfe et al., they "have been restabilizing throughout the 20th century," during which time the planet has experienced, in the view of the world's climate alarmists, the most dramatic warming of the last two millennia, which they typically characterize as being extremely detrimental.  The citizens of Saskatchewan, however, may well see things in a different light.