SOIL EROSION ON CROPLAND IN THE UNITED STATES: STATUS AND TRENDS FOR 1982-2003

Abstract: Soil erosion is a natural process. However, accelerated erosion, often driven by anthropogenic activities, impacts agriculture, the infrastructure, and the environment. Cropland is particularly prone to erosion because many farming practices remove the protective vegetative cover. The National Resources Inventory (NRI) provides nationally consistent estimates of soil erosion resulting from water (sheet and rill) and wind processes on the Nation’s cultivated cropland, non-cultivated cropland, and land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The NRI is a statistical survey designed to assess natural resource conditions and trends on non-Federal land in the United States. The NRI is conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in cooperation with Iowa State University’s Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology. Data from the 2003 Annual NRI, the most up-to-date NRI information available, indicate that average soil erosion rates on all cropland and CRP land have decreased more than 38 percent since 1982. In 2003, the soil erosion rate was estimated at 4.5 tons per acre per year, compared to 7.3 tons per acre per year in 1982. Total soil erosion on all cropland and land in CRP declined since 1982 as well. Between 1982 and 2003, total soil erosion dropped from an estimate of over 3 billion tons per year to 1.