Managing rangeland soil resources: the universal soil loss equation. Rangelands 7(3

Some of the earliest soil erosion measurements in the U.S. were made by A.W. Sampson and associates in 1912 on overgrazed rangelands in central Utah. These studies and research by Chapline (1929) illustrated how overgrazing allowed erosion to reduce soil fertility and water-holding capacity. Unfortunately, erosion measurement/research on rangeland languished since these early efforts until the 1970's. Concern for the ecological health of rangeland grew with the general concern for the environment that developed during the late 60's and 70's, and excessive erosion was again recognized as being detrimental to rangelands. As a consequence, management plans for rangelands frequently contained analyses on how management alternatives would affect erosion. Since research has provided little information on erosion associated with rangeland, technology from other geographic areas was adapted to estimate erosion on rangeland. In particular, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), which has been used successfully on cropland since the early 60's was adapted to estimate erosion on rangeland. The objective of this paper is to (1) familiarize range scient ists with the research which led to the USLE, (2) familiarize range scientists/managers with the factors considered by the USLE, and (3) discuss some of the problems with extrap olating the USLE research from cropland to rangeland areas