| | From AESA Council’s Chair
by John Kolk
Poultry Industry Council
Six inches of topsoil stand between us and starvation,” was the opening statement in my college “Intro to Soils” course. I don’t remember much of that class, but the importance of protecting our soils has stuck with me ever since. While water often tops the list of concerns when we talk of environmental issues, soil is the basis for our crops, pastures, trees, wild plants – all land-based ecosystems.
Most Green Matters readers have had dirt stuck under their fingernails at some point. But soil quality, quantity and health are often taken for granted. This issue of Green Matters reviews some of the important, ongoing and often unsung work to understand, measure and protect one of our most basic resources.
We exist on a fragile landscape. Living in southern Alberta, I immediately think of the water erosion risk in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the wind erosion risk on the southern plains, and the impacts of resource extraction. But soil degradation and loss can happen anywhere.
The 1930s taught us that human activity plus drought can turn prairie soils into dust storms. The good news is that, in our last major drought, soil erosion was minimal due to no-till farming practices and better understanding of how to work with our soils.
Advances in our knowledge and practices are continuing. The first article in this issue tells about current field studies in southern Alberta to find better options for minimizing erosion on irrigated land.
Some of those field studies rely on plot work, an integral part of agricultural research. Landscape-based monitoring, another approach to soils-related research, has been coming to the fore over the last decade or so. Alberta researchers have been leaders in this approach. The second article in this issue describes one example: the Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture (AESA) Soil Quality Benchmark Study. Each of the study’s sites is monitored at three locations – the upper, middle and lower positions on a slope. This approach provides an understanding of the range of soil conditions that producers work with every day. And it’s one reason why the study’s unique, long-term, province-wide dataset is so popular with other scientists who are using the data in diverse investigations.
The third article looks at a project that takes the landscape approach one step further – sampling from the hill tops all the way down to the bottoms of wetlands – in order to understand greenhouse gas dynamics. With the Kyoto agreement now in place, continued work is needed on the soil’s role in greenhouse gas emissions and potential for carbon sequestration. This project at the Parkland Conservation Farm will help us understand our soil’s potential across an entire agricultural landscape.
The final article is about the AGRASID database, six decades’ worth of Alberta soil survey data converted to digital form. The wealth of information from plot work, landscape-based monitoring and comprehensive databases provides key tools for progress in agricultural land management.
Managing our soils for long-term sustainability will always be a combination of passion for our landscape, knowledge based on science, and experience built on mistakes. Alberta farmers are protecting the soils we rely on, and the work of AESA staff and partners continues to contribute to our ability to improve our practices in the future. |
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