1. Soil Conservation

2. Soil conservation means protecting soils from erosion and nutrient loss. Soil conservation can help to keep soils fertile and healthy.

3. Why is soil important? Soil provides nutrients for plants. Soil also helps to support plant roots so the plants can grow well. Soil also provides a home, or habitat, for many living things. Soil is also very important for storing water.

4. How can soil be damaged or lost? One cause of soil loss is soil damage. Soil can be damaged if it is overused. Overused soil can lose its nutrients and become infertile.

5. What is soil erosion? Soil Erosion happens when wind, water, or gravity transports soil and sediment from one place to another.

6. What human activities affect soil erosion? Construction and Development To make roads, houses, shopping malls, and other buildings, people need to dig up the soil.

7. What can be done to prevent soil erosion? farmers can prevent soil damage if they use certain methods when they plow, plant, and harvest their fields.

8. Contour Plowing Contour plowing -farmers plow their fields along the curves of a slope. This helps slow the runoff of excess rainfall and prevents it from washing the soil away.

9. Terracing Terraces changes one very steep field into many smaller, flatter fields. On very steep hills, farmers can use terraces to prevent soil erosion Terraces keep water from running downhill very quickly.

10. No Till Farming In no-till farming, farmers leave the stalks from old crops lying on the field while the newer crops grow. The old stalks protect the soil from rain and help reduce erosion.

11. Cover Crop Cover crops are crops that are planted between harvests of a main crop. Cover crops can help to replace nutrients in the soil. They can also prevent erosion by providing cover from wind and rain.

12. Crop Rotation Crop rotation-a farmer plants different crops in a field each year. Different types of plants absorb different amounts of nutrients from the soil. Corn and cotton-absorb large amounts of nutrients. Year after planting these crops, farmer plants crops that use fewer nutrients, such as oats, barley, or rye. Some crops used in crop rotation can replace soil nutrients.

13. Windbreaks Windbreaks are rows of trees planted between fields to “break,” or reduce, the force of winds that can carry off soil.