What is Soil & Water Conservation? Why is it so important?

I am doing a 300 word essay on Soil&Water Conservation, and I need ideas...how could I start it off...?

• Well, at our school we have annual Soil&Water Conservation Essay Contests, and this year its also for a grade in English.How could I start it off, and where could I get information on ...show more

• Answer:

  the way to manage the soil is by planting and treating it correctly with out chemicals and planting a diversity of plants . to plant one specie means that too many plants require the same chemicals and also secrete the same chemicals and so polute the soil. And one prevents this by diversification.their are specific plants that produce nitrogen like an Acacia tree or the marijunana fiber plant which is not the illigal drug version but there are many others. only use manures and animal urine to fertilise,one can plant plants for mulch on the edges of vegetable plots to be chopped down for green mulch many weeds have natural properties that are good for insect repellents another priceless pest control is the silky and bantum chickens which dont rake the ground but only run and eat 70% of all walking and jumping insects and they also leave quit a lot of manure behind ,if you have enough of them guiny fowel and partridge will do almost the same job snakes kill rats.iguanas eat a variety of pests the top part of the soil where the topsoil is being produced houses a world or microbiotic life. Conventional plowing breaks open the soil and throws every thing up to dry in the sun, killing all this. a new and very old concept is -no till farming- which plants in a mulch cover. Mulch is organic material green or dry that covers the ground,the thicker the better the composting process will turn it in to black topsoil the humidity is preserved underneath and promotes the devellopment of worms(their exists no better compost than their excrements)and a variety of micro biotic life which together with the mulch produce more topsoil. the mulch also keeps the ground temperature even and guards against the impact of the rain ,which would other wise brings salt to the surfave if on unprotected land Mulch also prevents the soil from drying out because of the sun and, lay it open to wind erosian. One should always shape the land inicially and make it bowel shaped (if small)terassed if on a slope with an edge around it so that it becomes receptive as aposed to repellent of the water that falls on it and to prevent erosion. if on the flats it should be self draining.but with cannals also bringing water flows into the land from higher up. I have connected cannals to road gutters to bring more water in. soil management should be a component of a larger concept which includes ,waterharvesting (to zero run off)and form as well as pest control and diversity of plants WATERHARVESTING the natural way of nature is to evaporate moisture for clouds and this gets blown to places with less water any way ,what obstruct the clouds from getting to deserts ,tend to be mountains that are in the way, but generally speaking ,the normal weather patterns spread rain evenly over the planet to balance out the temperatures and humidity. As far as catching rain is concerned ,we do this all the time ,and have done so already since Babylonian times,and is a part of the more advanced Agriculture,that existed with the Egyptians,Central ,and south American indigenous peoples,and many others ,today we call this water harvesting. In Permaculture the rule is to harvest water to the point of Zero runoff. this means that all of the rain that falls on an area is absorbed by the terrain and not a drop leaves it. by building dams,ponds or swales, with interconecting ditches, if there are enough of these ;the places ,where before the rain water ran over the ground into the rivers and on to the sea ,(in a matter of hours or days),It now runs into absorbant dams or swales and saturates the ground and eventually reaches subteranean water deposits ,taking many months to do so. Or it fills up ponds that can be used for Aquaculture. And so a convex situation that repels water is transformed in a concave ,absorbant one and turning the area in to a sponge. in Spain and Portugal ,which still display many examples of the conquering Moorish influence,One can find many remnants of Waterharvesting,such as aquaducts and tanks underneath the patios ,which collect the rain water from the roofs ,to be used in dryer times. in Arabia ,on a large scale ,land has been shaped to catch and lead,rain water into sandy areas or to agricultural lands.sand is almost as good as dams because it absorbs water and holds it. to find out more about Water harvesting I recomend: the designers manual by Bil Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars. and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, [email protected]) Permaculture means permanent agriculture a concept put forward by Bill Mollisson in the 60`s which is a complete hand book for environmental design. for those who seek an ambiotic relationship with our planet With practical solutions for energy systems ,infratructure ,housing, animal shelter ,water systems and sustainable agricultural practises. With the world and it`s history as it`s source From the chinampas of Mexico to the teraced gardens of the Andes. From the dessert whadis to the steppes of Russia. Covering all climatic conditions temporal, dessert, humid and dry tropics. with chapters on soil ,Water harvesting and land design, Earth working ,Spirals in nature,Trees and water ,utilising energy flows, Strategy for an alternative nation Source(s) some other writers that are on the internet are david Holmgren Larry Santoyo Kirk Hanson Masanobu Fukuaka has written , One-Straw Revolution The Road Back to Nature The Natural Way of Farming http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu... Simon Henderson and Bill Molisson. a representitive of the concept in USA is Dan Hemenway at [email protected] [email protected] http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames.... http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo... I am a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government of Guerrero in Mexico i got a yahoo 360 which has some stuff in English as well as this spaces http://spaces.msn.com/byderule