A windbreak or shelterbelt is a plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 usually made up of one or more rows of tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s or shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind

Wind

Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...

 and to protect soil from erosion

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

. They are commonly planted around the edges of fields on farms. If designed properly, windbreaks around a home can reduce the cost of heating and cooling and save energy

Energy

In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...

. Windbreaks are also planted to help keep snow

Snow

Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...

 from drifting onto roadways and even yards. Other benefits include providing habitat for wildlife and in some regions the trees are harvested for wood products.

A further use for a shelterbelt is to screen a farm from a main road or motorway. This improves the farm landscape by reducing the visual incursion of the motorway, mitigating noise

Noise mitigation

Noise mitigation is a set of strategies to reduce noise pollution. The main areas of noise mitigation or abatement are: transportation noise control, architectural design, and occupational noise control...

 from the traffic and providing a safe barrier between farm animals and the road.

A further use for 'windbreaks' is for a retail item used on the beach and camping to prevent wind from disturbing social enjoyment. Americans tend to use the term windbreaker

Windbreaker

A windbreaker is a thin outer coat designed to resist wind chill and light rain . It is usually of light construction, characteristically made of some type of synthetic material and often incorporating an elastic waistband and zipper...

 whereas Europeans favour the term 'windbreak'. Normally made from cotton, nylon, canvas and recycled sails, windbreaks tend to have three or more panels, held in place with poles that slide into pockets sewn into the panel. The poles are then hammered into the ground and a windbreak is formed.

Major shelterbelt projects

Forest strips planted on a limited scale started no earlier than the 19th century. Some of the early forest strips, such as the late-19th century Genko's Forest Belt in Russia's Ulyanovsk Oblast

Ulyanovsk Oblast

Ulyanovsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Ulyanovsk...

, have been declared nature reserves now.

Afforestation project

Afforestation

Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no forest. Reforestation is the reestablishment of forest cover, either naturally or artificially...

s involving large-scale planting of shelterbelts have been more than once proposed by governments as a way to reduce soil erosion and improve microclimate

Microclimate

A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...

 in otherwise treeless agricultural areas.

• USA: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Great Plains Shelterbelt
  Great Plains Shelterbelt
  The Great Plains Shelterbelt was a project to create windbreaks in the Great Plains states of the United States, and was launched in 1934. President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the project in response to the severe dust storms of the Dust Bowl, which resulted in significant soil erosion and...
  
  " WPA
  Works Progress Administration
  The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
  
   project, which was launched in 1934 as an ambitious plan to modify weather and prevent soil erosion in the Great Plains states, and by 1942 resulted in the planting of 30,233 shelterbelts containing 220 million trees that stretched for 18,600 miles.

• Canada: The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration
  Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration
  The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration is a branch under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, a department of the Federal Government of Canada....
  
   was created by the federal government to mitigate soil erosion and land degradation, as evidenced by the dust bowl
  Dust Bowl
  The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
  
  s of the 1930s. From its tree nursery in Indian Head, Saskatchewan
  Indian Head, Saskatchewan
  Indian Head is a town in southeast Saskatchewan, Canada, east of Regina. The town is directly north of the Trans-Canada Highway. The town is known for its federally-operated Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration experimental farm and tree nursery that produces seedlings for shelter...
  
  , the PFRA distributed seedlings to farmers. As of 2008, over 600 million trees had been provided.

• USSR: A section of Marshal Stalin
  Joseph Stalin
  Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
  
  's "Great Plan for Transformation of Nature" (October 1948) provided planting of a giant network of shelterbelts across the steppes of southern USSR.

• China: The Green Wall of China
  Green Wall of China
  The Green Wall of China, also known as the Green Great Wall or Great Green Wall , will be a series of human-planted forest strips in the People's Republic of China, designed to hold back the expansion of the Gobi Desert...
  
  , a project intended to plant 4,800 km of shelterbelts across Northern China by 2074. The ADRECS (Aerially Delivered Re-forestation and Erosion Control System) proposes aerially delivering mass forest planting,

• Japan: Eastern Hokkaidō
  Hokkaido
  , formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
  
  .

• India: Smaller scale shelterbelt projects have been proposed and implemented in India.

See also

• Agroforestry
  Agroforestry
  Agroforestry is an integrated approach of using the interactive benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock.It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.-Definitions:According to...
  
  
• Buffer strip
  Buffer strip
  A buffer strip is an area of land maintained in permanent vegetation that helps to control air, soil, and water quality, along with other environmental problems, dealing primarily on land that is used in agriculture. Buffer strips trap sediment, and enhance filtration of nutrients and pesticides by...
  
  
• Desertification
  Desertification
  Desertification is the degradation of land in drylands. Caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities, desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems.-Definitions:...
  
  
• Energy-efficient landscaping
  Energy-efficient landscaping
  Energy-efficient landscaping is a type of landscaping designed for the purpose of conserving energy. There is a distinction between the embedded energy of materials and constructing the landscape, and the energy consumed by the maintenance and operations of a landscape.Design techniques include:*...
  
  
• Erosion control
  Erosion control
  Erosion control is the practice of preventing or controlling wind or water erosion in agriculture, land development and construction. Effective erosion controls are important techniques in preventing water pollution and soil loss.-Introduction:...
  
  
• Hedgerow
• Macro-engineering
  Macro-engineering
  In engineering, macro-engineering is the implementation of extremely large-scale design projects...
  
  
• Sahara Forest Project
• Sand fence
  Sand fence
  A sand fence is a structure similar to a snow fence used to force wind blown, drifting sand to accumulate in a desired place. Sand fences are employed to control erosion and to recruit new material in desert areas....
  
  
• Seawater Greenhouse
  Seawater Greenhouse
  The Seawater Greenhouse is a technology that enables the growth of crops in arid regions, using a greenhouse structure, seawater and solar energy...