The program's original purpose was to take fragile, highly erodible land out of production at a time when Government stocks of grain were soaring.
In 1985, Congress approved a program to remove up to 45 million acres of highly erodible cropland from farming.
The law requires all farmers to have Government-approved plans in place this year for controlling soil loss from "highly erodible land."
The area is dominated by dolomite and highly erodible limestone, making caves numerous.
Due to the rolling nature of the landscape on the Coteau, a lot of the land is also characterized as highly erodible.
Much of the land is highly erodible.
The removal of vegetation causes these soils to be highly erodible.
The bare intercanopy areas become highly erodible.
It also seeks to increase the number of highly erodible acres that are taken out of production and conserved by planting grass or trees.
Most of the land lies within the Idaho Batholith, a large and highly erodible geologic formation.