Highly erodible land

In 1982, cultivated highly erodible land (HEL) accounted for nearly 60% of total erosion on US cropland (USDA-NRCS, 1992). HEL is land that has an erodibility index of eight or more. The erodibility index of a soil is determined... 

Use of conservation tillage was one of the primary ways United States farmers met Conservation Compliance requirements of the 1985 Farm Bill. More than 75% of conservation plans for fields with Highly Erodible Land mandated some level of crop residue cover achievable through the use of conservation tillage. 

If this product is applied to highly erodible land, the 66 ft buffer or setback from runoff entry points must be planted to crop, seeded with grass or other suitable crop. 

There is also a disincentive (nicknamed Sod Buster ) contained within the Food Security Act of 1985 which penalizes farmers who plow on highly erodible land that was not cropland prior to 1985. The penalty being that a farmer will not be eligible for federal farm funding programs. If the farmer had already received such financial assistance for that year, then he must pay it back. The Act set a deadline of December 31, 1989, for farmers to get an SCS approved conservation plan, and until 1995, to have it in effect. Since the deadline has not yet arrived, no penalties have been exercised. 

For each county in the 10 states evaluated, all cropland soil types in land capability classes (LCCs) I—VIII are identified. For each individual soil type, acres of that particular soil type, field topology characteristics (percentage low and high slopes), erodibility, and tolerable soil-loss limit are obtained from the USD A. These data are used in the rain and wind erosion equations described later. In each of the states analyzed, the following crop rotations are considered (where applicable) continuous corn, corn-soybean, corn-winter wheat, corn-spring wheat, continuous winter wheat, winter wheat-soybeans. 

When the Atlantic Ocean began to open, about 180 MY bp, the Southern New England land surface had high relief, as shown by block faulting of sediments in the Connecticut Valley, which persisted into the Jurassic. Between the mid-Jurassic and early Cretaceous this relief was reduced to no more than about 100 m (McMaster and Ashraf, 1973, and other references given therein). The eroded surface produced then is now the Fall Zone surface (Flint, 1963) and its northern bound is the Fall Line. 

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