Without a cover crop to hold it, tons of the thin, precious topsoil wash away to muddy the streams and rivers. Moreover, the resultant diminished groundwater is also muddied by the increased run-off. Worse, the groundwater is more vulnerable to pollution by chemical sprays and fertilizers. In the old days, it might have taken a farmer and his mules most of a lifetime to clear a forest. Unhappily, in some places today the region is studded by fire towers that no longer have any forests to protect.
Bridges often span dry, rocky beds instead of clear running streams.
It is increasingly common to hear of wells rendered unusable, not only by pollution, but also because they've been left high and dry by the lowered water table that results from deforestation and overdevelopment. Because the Ozark hills have endured for an incomprehensibly long time, we tend to regard them as indestructible. They are, in fact, remarkably vulnerable to mismanagement and carelessness. There are so many trees that we think of them as inexhaustible. But we cannot afford to squander them.