Joe Kohler's soil loss rate dropped from 3,111 to 0 tons annually. A field on his Texas wheat and cattle farm once suffered from severe soil erosion along a drainage way that empties into a Red River creek. With continuous CRP funds, in 2003 Joe installed a grass waterway and drainage structure that have alleviated the problem altogether.

The $27,000 drainage structure consists of a 10-foot vertical underground pipe that is 72 inches in diameter. The vertical pipe connects to another 120 feet of pipe. Rather than eroding Joe's field, water now drains into the pipe that leads to an outlet. The large structure, a cost-prohibitive venture without CRP funding, has also decreased sediment pollutants entering the Red River, the southernmost of the Mississippi River's large tributaries.

This 72-inch drainage structure has eliminated soil erosion on a Texas farm field.

Installation of a CRP grassed waterway reduces severe gully and head-cut erosion on a tributary of the Red River.