The washing away, or erosion, of Georgia's topsoil, is one of the most significant environmental disasters to occur in the state. Agriculture is still one of the biggest economic industries in the state, but much of the land's productivity has been lost to erosion. Most erosion occurs when rain falls on the bare ground exposed by the tillage of cultivated crops. Early in the twentieth century, nearly 10 million acres were in cultivated row crops, and much of that land was losing soil in every rain. The Piedmont, the geographical region of Georgia where Atlanta and other major cities of Georgia are located, lost an average of about seven inches of its topsoil. In many places, all of it was lost. Beautiful geographical features, such as Providence Canyon, permanently ruined much of the land for farming. Many areas of Georgia can no longer be used for agriculture because of early bad farming practices.

The bad agriculture practices that caused soils to wash away were part of a larger culture that prevailed across the South and much of the nation well into the twentieth century. Bad practices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries led to the massive erosion of topsoil across nearly 10 million acres of Georgia's farmland, resulting in loss of productivity in the soil and silting in the state's streams and creeks.

The erosion of so much topsoil from Georgia's farms not only diminished the productivity of the soil but also filled the streams with silt and mud, swamping many lowland fields and filling millponds and lakes. Large and small reservoirs built elsewhere often filled with sediment within a few decades.

Georgian farmers were forced to change after the state experienced its worst drought in 1930-31, which worsened the already poor condition of Georgia's soils. Starting in the mid-1930s, the local, state, and national US government began writing laws to to help conserve the soil. These programs and other developments in agriculture began to decrease soil erosion by the 1950s.

Today, farmers can use of such conservation practices as contour plowing, terracing, and crop rotations to reduce erosion of croplands. They can also try to manipulate as little soil as possible during production season, a practice known as "minimum tillage." Many farmers have also moved their farms from the highly erodible Piedmont to the less vulnerable Coastal Plain.

These practices also allowed for less cultivated land. The amount of land under cultivation decreased from nearly 10 million acres early in the twentieth century to only about 3 million at the end. The shifting of 6 or 7 million acres from cultivated cropland to forest has made a dramatic change in the landscape.

• Forest acreage has increased since early in the twentieth century, and timber stands are thicker.

• More than half-million acres of roadways and roadsides are now stabilized with pavement, grass, shrubs, and trees.

• Construction sites are now taking precautions against erosion to protect soil and keep it from reaching the streams.

• Ponds and lakes have dramatically stopped being filled and silted.

• Georgia’s landscape has almost recovered. The restoration of the bare, eroded hillsides, the silted streams, and the rutted and gullied roadsides represent significant improvements.

• Agricultural practices and attitudes of its people have changed for the better.

Farmers all around the world can and should use these conservational techniques. Celebrating World Soil Day is great because it allows us to draw attention to such an important issue as soil erosion, and how to keep this major problem in check. Protecting our soils from erosion, exhaustion, destruction, and degradation is really important for the future of humanity in general.