Soil is important to a watershed because rainwater must travel through soil to reach the water body where it will end up. As that water travels through the soil it gets filtered and cooled down. Therefore, it is very important to keep a close watch on what is happening with the soil in a watershed.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (www.nrcs.usda.gov), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was started after the Dust Bowl during the 1930s, when a bad drought, combined with careless farming practices, caused a great quantity of farmland to erode and blow away. The Dust Bowl caused frightening food shortages.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service advises farmers about such things as preventing erosion and treating soil to make it fertile for growing.