CONTROLLING EROSION

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The only successful and lasting way to fight erosion is with plants. One of the nicest things about using plants is that plants want to fight erosion. In fact, they want to fight erosion even more than you do, and what's more, they know how to do it. Take a blade of grass. Grass depends for its survival upon topsoil, and over the last several million years it has developed ways of holding on to and increasing the earth's supply of topsoil. Grass intercepts raindrops; it forms a tough, tangled mat that prevents raindrops from flowing downhill; its fibrous roots embrace the soil and hold it together. Decaying roots create passageways through which water can penetrate, while transpiration allows the grass to pump water out of the soil before the soil gets waterlogged. At the end of its life, grass falls to the ground, decays, and becomes humus, which is the best of all possible elements in the topsoil. Plants depend upon a healthy soil, and they have learned how to serve and preserve that soil. Every time you drop a seed into the ground, you are introducing an ally with millions of years of genetic experience in fighting erosion and tremendous willingness to put that experience to use.

Temporary cover. The first thing you should think about when you are faced with an erosion problem is a temporary (or emergency) cover. You will eventually want to plant a permanent cover of native plants that will perpetuate themselves and restore the soil. But if you have a lot of bare land and an immediate danger of erosion, you have to act fast. You need some sort of temporary vegetation just to hold things together until the permanent vegetation can get established.

Certain plants have a special capacity for stopping erosion. I wish I could tell you exactly what you should plant on your land — I know it would make your life easier — but I can't. There are too many variables. I know that in the hills above Oakland I can get good results with a mixture of rye, barley, trefoil, mustard, and a few other flowers. But I doubt if this information will help you if you're in Indiana, Georgia, Vermont, or Alaska.

All I can do is give you general advice about what you should look for in an emergency cover plant. For the specifics you'll need local guidance from your Soil Conservation Service, your county agricultural extension agent, your local hermit and organic gardener, or your local seed dealer (who often has a special "erosion-control mix"). Or you can look into some of the books I recommend at the end of this article which give a species-by-species rundown of many valuable erosion-control plants and tell where they can be used.

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