YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENT – Ane Otsby
Ane’s update: she’s been in school for three weeks, homecoming shopping for dance dress, LOTS of soccer and she’s enjoying being on the team, as well as doing well in all her classes.
STUDENT INTERN – Gonzalo Romero
Gonzalo echoed lots of soccer, has an Advanced Placement test coming up, and is also excited for homecoming events this weekend.
PRESENTATION: Anne Marie Journey, PhD – Soil Health
Anne Marie was a guest of Phil Solseng.
Do you suffer from “Environmental Angst”? Soil health can help.
This summer was a mix of sunny days with high humidity due to “corn sweat” or hazy days with wildfire smoke or rain days… can we influence it? Yes.
By giving our soil some care, we can improve the environment overall.
Corn is the crop king, but is it best for our soil? Not so much. Corn soil tends to get tilled to the max which is not healthy.
Soil is a natural body on the land surface composed of sand, silt, clay, organic matter, air and water. Soil exists under water to a particular depth, too deep, it’s not soil anymore.
There is a difference between soil and dirt - soil NEEDS to have life in it. Martian soil is being highly studied by NASA (rovers Curiosity and Perseverance) - it has microbes, which means it’s soil, but it’s high in pH (9+), so to balance, they added calcium perchlorate to feed the bacteria. Some rocks were found on Mars that are similar to rocks on Earth which is exciting. However, there are many complicating factors like lack of bug poop that exist here, and not on Mars.
What is “soil health”? From the USDA they define it as the capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. We were shown two images of soil clods - one tilled that looked like packed concrete and one that had hyphae and roots in it which was very easy to crumble. There’s even a difference in their smell. Healthy soil, which crumbles, has that good dirt smell. It takes much of its nutrients from the sugars caused by the plants and makes it good for further growing. In addition to roots and the microorganisms, to achieve health there’s a need for multicellular fungi, invertebrates (worms, snails, slugs, centipedes, mites, spiders, etc.) and vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles and fish).
Soil health practices are grouped into four areas:
1. Minimize soil disturbance. For example, roots can exert 300 psi on soil. Soil has to have room for the root to grow. If your soil is compacted, growth is negatively impacted. Tilling is a soil compactor.
2. Increase plan diversity
3. Keep the soil covered and give the soil some armor (meaning soil takes a beating in heavy rains if there is not cover causing run-off and flooding).
4. Maintain living roots
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Our raffle drawing winner was Gretchen
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