How Do Humans Contribute to Soil Erosion?

Poor Farming

• Poor farming techniques, such as not allowing the soil to lie fallow and using cropping methods that rob the soil of nutrients, can contribute to erosion. Poor farming can compact certain layers of soil, making them less able to retain rain water and thus more prone to runoff. Pesticides and fertilizers may add to soil erosion as well: leaching the solid of vital nutrients and rendering it more vulnerable to the elements. Poor farming techniques appear more often in the Third World than in developed countries; Third World farmers often use substandard farming techniques, and aren't subject to the same rigorous governmental controls to which farmers in the United States must adhere.

Logging

• Trees and plant life hold the soil together through their root systems, while sheltering soil from rains and runoff with their leaves. Rapid deforestation uproots these protecting forces, leaving the soil vulnerable to the elements. In areas which experience heavy rains, deforestation can quickly create runoff, eroding the soil and leading to huge deposits of silt downstream. According to MongaBaycom, deforestation and the resulting soil erosion in Madagascar is so bad that astronauts can see the runoff from space.

Over-Grazing

• Poor grazing techniques create erosion problems the same way as other human activity: by removing the protective qualities keeping the spoil in place. Sheep, cattle, and other farm animals graze a given area clean: removing the plant life that holds the soil in place. Responsible herding techniques prevent overgrazing and allow the plant life a chance to recover, but by allowing herds to graze an area dry, ranchers increase the impact of erosion.

Construction

• Construction sites that do not practice erosion control increase the amount of runoff that leaves the area, according to an August, 2000 report from the U.S. Geological Survey concerning construction sites in Wisconsin. Because construction often involves moving large amounts of earth and building over exposed soil, it contributes greatly to erosion. In addition, much of the soil being moved is topsoil, which contains vital nutrients and leaves the earth beneath it vulnerable to gullies and cuts when it is removed. The runoff also contains oils and chemical pollutants, which cause environmental harm when erosion spreads it beyond the construction site itself.