Section 2-6-21. Legislative determinations and declarations of policy

   (a)  Legislative determinations. It is declared, as a matter of legislative determination:

   (1)  The condition. That:

      (A) The farm, forest, and grazing lands of this state are among the basic assets of this state and the preservation of these lands is necessary to protect and promote the health, safety, and general welfare of its people;

      (B) Improper land use practices have caused and have contributed to and are now causing and contributing to a progressively more serious erosion of the farm and grazing lands of this state by wind and water;

      (C) The breaking of natural grass, plant, and forest cover has interfered with the natural factors of soil stabilization, causing loosening of soil and exhaustion of humus and developing a soil condition that favors erosion;

      (D) The topsoil is being washed and blown out of fields and pastures;

      (E) There has been an accelerated washing of sloping fields;

      (F) These processes of erosion by wind and water speed up with removal of absorptive topsoil, causing exposure of less absorptive and less protective, but more erosive, subsoil; and

      (G) Failure by any landowner or occupier of land to conserve the soil and control erosion upon his lands causes a washing and blowing of soil and water from his lands onto other lands and makes the conservation of soil and control of erosion on such other lands difficult or impossible;

   (2)  The consequences. That the consequences of such soil erosion in the form of soil washing and soil blowing are:

      (A) The silting and sedimentation of stream channels, reservoirs, dams, ditches, and harbors;

      (B) The loss of fertile soil material in dust storms;

      (C) The piling up of soil on lower slopes and its deposit over alluvial plains;

      (D) The reduction in productivity or outright ruin of rich bottom lands by overwash of poor subsoil material, sand, and gravel swept out of the hills;

      (E) The deterioration of the soil and its fertility, the deterioration of the crops grown thereon, and declining acre yields despite development of scientific processes for increasing such yields;

      (F) The loss of soil and water, which causes destruction of food and cover for wildlife;

      (G) A blowing and washing of soil into streams, which silts over spawning beds and destroys water plants, diminishing the food supply of fish;

      (H) A diminishing of the underground water reserve, which causes water shortages, intensifies periods of drought, and causes crop failures;

      (I) An increase in the speed and volume of rainfall runoff, causing severe and increasing floods which bring suffering, disease, and death;

      (J) The impoverishment of families attempting to farm eroding and eroded lands;

      (K) Damage to roads, highways, railways, farm buildings, and other property from floods and from dust storms; and

      (L) Losses in navigation, hydroelectric power, municipal water supply, irrigation developments, farming, and grazing; and

   (3)  The appropriate corrective methods. That to conserve soil resources and control or prevent soil erosion, it is necessary that land use practices contributing to soil wastage and soil erosion be discouraged and discontinued and that appropriate soil-conserving land use practices be adopted and carried out and that among the procedures necessary for widespread adoption are:

      (A) The carrying on of engineering operations, such as the construction of terraces, terrace outlets, check dams, dikes, ponds, ditches, and the like;

      (B) The utilization of strip cropping, lister furrowing, contour cultivating, and contour furrowing;

      (C) Land irrigation;

      (D) The seeding and planting of waste, sloping, abandoned, or eroded lands with water-conserving and erosion-preventing plants, trees, and grasses;

      (E) Forestation and reforestation;

      (F) The rotation of crops;

      (G) Soil stabilization with trees, grasses, legumes, and other thick-growing, soil-holding crops;

      (H) The addition of soil amendments, manurial materials, and fertilizers for the correction of soil deficiencies or for the promotion of increased growth of soil-protecting crops;

      (I) The retardation of runoff by increasing the absorption of rainfall; and

      (J) The retirement from cultivation of steep, highly erosive areas and areas badly gullied or otherwise eroded.

(b)  Declaration of policy. It is declared to be the policy of the General Assembly to provide for the conservation of the soil and soil resources of this state and for the control and prevention of soil erosion and thereby to preserve natural resources; control floods; prevent impairment of dams and reservoirs; assist in maintaining the navigability of rivers and harbors; preserve wildlife; protect the tax base; protect public lands; and protect and promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the people of this state.

Ga. L. 1937, p. 377, § 2.