The best way to reduce wind erosion is to keep the wind off the soil surface by covering the soil surface. Growing vegetation, either cash crops or cover crops, protects the soil and keeps the winds higher off the surface. Standing crop residues function the same way. Flattened crop residues are more effective at reducing soil erosion by water by absorbing raindrop impact. The key to reducing erosion is to absorb the energy of the wind or water before it can detach soil particles. Windbreaks and other barriers are also effective at keeping the wind off the soil surface and reducing soil particle detachment, but these practices may take land out of crop production.
Once soil particles are detached, their movement needs to be limited by increasing deposition. Any time the wind (or flowing water) slows down, it loses the ability to carry as much soil. For instance, surface residues and/or growing vegetation greatly reduce soil movement by saltation or creep by creating barriers to particle movement. Historically, tillage was used to roughen the soil surface to do the same thing. However, the tillage treatment was extremely temporary as the wind erosion smoothed out the tilled soil surface. The tillage actually broke down more soil aggregates and buried more residue, making the soil more susceptible to future erosion events.
Windbreaks and other barriers are effective at decreasing soil particle transport by causing deposition behind the barrier. While this is more easily seen in the snowdrifts that form behind a snow fence in winter, the same thing happens with soil in a wind erosion event. The deposition usually occurs in a distance behind the barrier roughly equal to twice the barrier height. In addition the barrier reduces the wind velocity beyond it to effectively reduce soil particle detachment for a distance of about five to ten times the barrier height. Thus, windbreaks with 50-foot tall trees would “protect” the soil for about 500 feet downwind from them, not very far across a quarter section of land.
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