Land and soil
Degraded land
Degraded land is land whose productive capacity has fallen, through erosion, loss of topsoil, salinity, overgrazing or a falling water table. It still supports something, which separates it from barren land, and it supports far less than it once did.
It is the land worth restoring, for two reasons that have nothing to do with sentiment. It is cheaper to lease because it currently earns little, and the gain from restoring it is large and therefore measurable.
Restoring land that is already healthy produces a small change that is difficult to distinguish from natural variation.