Soil erosion and degradation during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s severely damaged farmland across the Great Plains. Poor agricultural practices, such as overgrazing and deep plowing of grasslands without crop rotation, disturbed the native grasses and exposed the soil. This led to prolonged periods of high winds that blew away topsoil, creating massive dust storms that spread across the central United States. New conservation efforts, including planting shelter belts and using sustainable farming techniques, helped to restore the damaged soil over subsequent decades.