The processes of erosion are fairly straightforward, but being able to counteract the effects of excessive erosion is immensely more difficult.  With this in mind, it becomes important to work towards erosion prevention/reduction before erosion becomes a problem.

            In short, erosion is the movement of soil particles by wind and water.  The amount of erosion that occurs is dependent on two factors:  size of soil particle (it is easier to move a grain of sand than a boulder) and speed of erosive force (wind/water).  Since we have no control on the size of soil particle, this factor is measured and accepted as a characteristic of the area.  With this soil size data, effort can be focused on controlling the speed of the erosive force.  The presence of smaller soil particles (silt) dictates the need to further slow the erosive force.  One of the easiest ways of doing this is by minimizing the occurrence of bare ground.  In general, the presence of plants will cause both water and wind to slow, thus reducing erosion. In some cases, however, just the presence of live vegetation is not enough.  In these instances, cement barriers may be essential to prevent excessive erosion.  For example, the above photograph was taken on the SRER where a wash intersected a dirt road.  In times of water flow, the road (bare ground) begins to erode away.  Over time, the erosion continues until erosion prevention becomes mandatory.  In this example, cement shelves were created to lower the water from the road to the wash bottom.  With out the cement,  the soil below the road would continue to wash away leaving a large steep drop -- leads to more erosion and eventually to a washout of the entire road).  For this module, any practice that increases bare ground will also increase erosion, and vise versa.

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