Shelter belt

Shelter belt, planted or natural line of trees that protects soil and crops from wind erosion. In 1934 the U.S. government started a program under the Forest Service called the Shelter Belt Project and later the Prairie States Forestry Project. Under this program, trees were planted as wind barriers in the farmlands of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, areas that had been badly damaged by erosion and dust storms. In 1942 the program was transferred to the Soil Conservation Service.