Soil Health

By Eric Hansen On June 30, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released “Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America.” Written entirely by the Democratic staff on the Committee, the report fulfills the Committee’s mandate to craft policy recommendations…… Continue reading →

By Chrystal Houston On a hot, dry and extremely windy day in early June, Neal Hentzen surveys the dryland field on the edge of Seward, where his corn is ankle-high. The leaves on the plants whip in the wind like green streamers running in long, straight rows from the road to a faraway fencepost. Hentzen…… Continue reading →

By  Erin Fuller The Van Buren Conservation District (CD) in Paw Paw, Mich., has been awarded a two-year $413,362 grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The grant will fund efforts to reduce nutrient and pathogen runoff in Pine and Mill Creeks, which are both tributaries of the…… Continue reading →

By Erin Bush, Champaign County SWCD and Megan Baskerville, The Nature Conservancy The Saving Tomorrow's Agriculture Resources (S.T.A.R.) initiative is an innovative conservation program that helps farmers, ranchers and landowners track how well they are caring for our soil and water while producing crops using the free S.T.A.R. field evaluation tool. Created in 2017 by…… Continue reading →

By Erin Fuller [caption id="attachment_35674" align="alignright" width="300"] Conservation Technician Colleen Forestieri introduces keynote speaker Gabe Brown.[/caption] On March 10, over 230 local agricultural producers came together at the Van Buren Conservation District (CD)'s annual “Farming for the Future” conference in Michigan, to learn about various topics, including regenerative agriculture, plant sap analysis, compost, soil health,…… Continue reading →

By Katrina Vaitkus [caption id="attachment_32276" align="alignleft" width="317"] Blaine Hitchens shows photos of his fields and techniques to interested onlookers.[/caption] On Tuesday, Aug. 20, Delaware’s Sussex Conservation District held its annual Soil Health Field Day. This year, the theme was ‘Planting Green’. Hosted at NACD Soil Health Champion Chip Baker’s farm, approximately 100 people gathered to…… Continue reading →

By Teresa DeMars Minnesota's Rice County farmers have been experimenting with planting cover crops out in the field and have been seeing the benefits. Producers reported improved soil health, including erosion control, increased infiltration, weed suppression and higher organic matter. Farmers also reported spending less on fuel and chemicals while in some cases, their yields…… Continue reading →

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in January 2019 in the winter edition of National Woodlands magazine and is the first of a series of articles in partnership with The National Woodland Owners Association (NWOA). By David Daigle Longleaf pine forests and coastal prairies are among the most imperiled ecosystems in the nation, and…… Continue reading →

By Melina Sempill Watts [caption id="attachment_31422" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo by Kandi Manhart[/caption] In Colusa, Calif., Daniel Unruh owns and operates a walnut orchard, where his ongoing use of cover crops on Columbia silty clay loam has given his orchard floor a soil organic matter that varies from 3-4 percent. Unruh started at a lesion nematode…… Continue reading →

By Melina Watts, Glenn County RCD When 95 people stand around under grey skies and looming storm clouds to look at plant varietals while picking apart shovels of saturated soil, exploring root types and soil pore structure, you know there’s a compelling idea at play – cover crops. From increasing soil porosity, improving soil organic…… Continue reading →