Rebecca is co-author of this Soil Health Recovery paper at the Soil Science Society Journal.
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a U.S. federal land conservation program that incentivizes grassland reestablishment on marginal lands. Although this program has many environmental benefits, two critical questions remain: does reestablishing grasslands via CRP also result in soil health recovery, and what parts of restored fields (i.e., topographic positions) recover the fastest?
Globally, ∼70% of native grasslands have been either converted to cropland or to other land uses (Ramankutty, Evan, Monfreda, & Foley, 2008). Nearly all native grasslands have been converted to agriculture in the U.S. Midwest Corn Belt, with only 1% of native grasslands remaining today (Samson & Knopf, 1994; Wright & Wimberly, 2013).
