Who is responsible for controlling soil erosion?
Most of the burden of maintaining the health of our soil is in the hands of private landowners who own 70 percent of our nation’s lands. We must rely on their land use and management decisions to provide us with clean air and water, enhanced fish and wildlife habitat, and visually pleasing rural landscapes. And, so far, they’ve done a pretty good job! The decade between 1985 and 1995 saw remarkable improvements in soil conservation by America’s agricultural producers. Soil erosion has been cut by nearly one-third due to their adoption of practices such as conservation tillage, terraces, and contour farming. More than two million acres of conservation buffers have been installed by landowners in recent years, and about 30 million acres of fragile cropland are now enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program and seeded to grass or planted to trees for periods of 10 to 15 years. Most erosion problems can be economically solved by using proven technology and methods that are available toda
