Thanks Crabjoe, that really is interesting. I own and live-on a 1/3 acre corner lot. I have no obvious erosion going on here, but several times a year, I take a broom, shovel & large bucket to the road and clean the gutter. I have recovered huge amounts of leaves, grass clippings, pine needles and earth-worm- filled soil that wash down the street during a rain, all of which would otherwise go down the storm drain, into the brook that drains into the Mistic River that drains into Long Island Sound. By the time the Army Corps of engineers dreges this muck out of the Sound, it is generally considered "polluted". If I had the time and energy, which I don't, I could probably fill a pick-up truck several times a year by sweeping the gutters of the 1 1/2 mile loop I live on. What a terrible waste of soil and organic material.

That is interesting. Thanks for the link Crabjoe.

Karen

I've known that agriculture soil loss is immense, and I also know that soil is the number one pollutant in our waterways. Even though I KNEW those things, I I don't think I realized how serious soil loss really was until this past year. A farmer complained about a shallow drain tile that was constructed in his field, his tractor tire had busted the tile and the tractor got stuck in the field.

So I went out to take and look. About 18 years ago, working for a local government agency, we had installed a drain tile in this field to alleviate some periodic roadway flooding. The tile was installed at an average depth of 4', 18 years ago. At first I thought maybe the tile had experienced some frost heave over the years. But after comparing old survey data to new survey data, it was apparent...that farmer had lost an average of 3 FEET of top soil across an entire 120 acre field....

That soil is now in the Illinois River, the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico...

wow, maybe cuz it gets tilled it erodes easier than soil that is a lil compact and has vegetation on it???

yes, its tilling that causes the problem. And leaving soil unvegetated between fall and spring.

Farms that use no-till methods and have vegetated buffer strips along the drainage ways and on the edges of their fields have substantially less soil loss. The sad part is that the things farms need to do to minimize soil loss are fairly simple. Farms know what to do, they just don't want to do it. I don't understand why someone who relies on the soil for their livelihood, wouldn't be more committed to protecting it.

* Posted by joepyeweed 5b IL (My Page) on
Wed, Jan 23, 08 at 10:11

I don't understand why someone who relies on the soil for their livelihood, wouldn't be more committed to protecting it.

It could be almost anything like just not seeing the dirt disappear over time. It could also be subsidies. Take a look at this site, to see if any of these farms you know, that aren't controlling their soil, might be getting tax dollars.

Here is a link that might be useful: Farm Subsidy Database

Every farm gets subsidies... the bigger the farm the bigger the subsidies...

The loss of topsoil has been known about for many years, that was what the "dust bowl" of the 1930's was all about. The USDA Soil Conservation Service was formed at that time to encourage farmers, and others, to practice good tillage, grow cover crops, do many things to protect the topsoil, but today many people think it a waste of time, energy, and money to plant a crop that you will simply plow in, even though people know that it will help stop soil erosion.
Ma Nature tries very hard to keep her soil in place with mulches and cover crops, many plants we consider "weeds" and try our best to eradicate.

"...I don't understand why someone who relies on the soil for their livelihood, wouldn't be more committed to protecting it..."

We could just as easily ask why those of us who rely on arable land for their sustinance wouldn't be more committed to protecting it. Farmers aren't the only reason arable land is vanishing. As the article points out, home building, mall building, parking lot building all takes it's toll on that land. And that's no one elses fault but each and every one of us, myself included, because that's the way we define progress. That's the way we define affluence. And that's part of the way we pay for convenience- with a balloon payment due at the end of the loan ;-)

tj