(Tom Jirik wrote columns in several newspapers in Iowa from the late 1980’s to the mid 1990’s.  This column originally appeared in the The Boone Today)

Last week’s weather was fantasist.  You could almost smell April in those 50-degree breezes that were blowing.

The weather just about wiped out our substantial snow cover.  Only the deepest drifts and snow piles remain as a reminder of December and January.

But there is a disturbing message in last week’s snow melt.  Did you notice how dirty those snowdrifts along the road were?  As they melted they turned blacker and blacker as the dirt in the snow became more and more concentrated.

What you are seeing in those dirty snowdrifts was the devastating effects of soil erosion.  Each year state and local governments spend millions of dollars to clean out ditches and drainage ways that have been clogged topsoil that was washed or blown from Iowa’s rich fields.  The damage to Iowa’s future agricultural productivity is incalculable.  To the credit of Iowa’s farmers, there’s some good news.  The U.S. Soil Conservation Service reported last week that in 1990 Iowa ranked second in the nation in the number of cropland acres tilled with conservation tillage.

The information, gathered by the SCS and the Conservation Technology Information Center showed that 7.3 million acres in Iowa were maintained with the soil-saving techniques know as conservation tillage.  In Illinois, with 8.4 million acres, ranked number one.

Farmers who use conservation tillage plant their crops in fields littered with residue from the previous year’s crop.  That residue or “trash” helps hold soil in place against whipping winter winds and pounding spring rains.

Meanwhile, the news is not so good in the Great Plains states to our west.  From North Dakota to Texas, winter winds damaged more than 1.8 million acres during November and December alone. According to the SCS.  Officials say a continuing drought in the 10-state region and lack of crop residue are contributing to the damage.

Despite the comparatively good news from Iowa, the problem continues.  Studies show that in many areas, Iowa’s topsoil continues to sift away faster than it can be regenerated.  We’re far from winning the war against erosion.  The snowdrifts tell us that.

Some of the earliest agricultural research in Iowa was focused on limiting erosion.  Iowa farmers and researchers found ways to put ridge-tilling, terracing, minimum till, no-till and other conservation tillage systems to work in the battle to save the state’s soil.  Those studies continue on private farms and in university fields and research plots.

As scientists, farmers and policy makers continue to discuss new techniques for making agriculture “sustainable,” the dirty snow drifts along Iowa’s roads should remind them that soil erosion should continue to be a very important part of those discussions.