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Total Soil Loss
Cultivated cropland remains the primary source of both
sheet and rill erosion and wind erosion as estimated by USLE and WEQ. In
1997, as in 1982, cultivated cropland is responsible for at least 96% of
the total soil loss while making up less than 75% of the acres on which
the loss is estimated. Non-cultivated cropland, pastureland and
Conservation Reserve Program Land (CRP), which account for the remaining
25% of the acreage in the estimates, produce a minor percentage of the
erosion.
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Overall, total soil loss as a result of sheet and rill
erosion declined from 57,031,100 tons/year in 1982 to 43,310,800 tons/year
in 1997, a reduction of 24%. In the same time frame, the acreage included
in the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) sheet and rill erosion estimates decreased by less than 2%.
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Soil Loss due to wind erosion, as estimated by the Wind
Erosion Equation (WEQ),
declined from 125,228,400 tons/year in 1982 to 114,364,100 tons/year in
1997, a reduction of less than 9%.
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