Plants also reduce standing water and runoff by making the surface more permeable. Prompt replanting after disturbing the soil is an effective soil conservation practice for road construction, timbering, or strip mining. Farmers often plant a cover crop to protect soil during winter months, and ranchers encourage native grass covers as an important range conservation practice. Contouring, contour strip cropping, and terracing all increase water intake by holding water on the land longer. These measures also reduce the potential for flooding because streams fed by slow runoff and seepage water have longer-lasting flow and lower flood peaks than they would have if their watersheds were unprotected.
Landowners also organize to build flood retarding dams on small watersheds.
These dams reduce downstream flooding, provide irrigation water, and harbor waterfowl and fish.