The Healthy Watershed Supervisor with the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority says the timing is perfect for the celebration of this year as the United Nations Year of Soil Health.
Mari Valiz explains they've just completed a project that re-evaluates best management practices within the watershed that confirmed the importance of soil health in water quality.
Veliz explains they found that healthy soil holds more water and that prevents it from running across the landscape.
She points to research in the United States that indicates an increase of organic matter in the soil by one per cent allows the soil to hold and additional 25-thousand gallons of water.
In urban centres Veliz says holding water on the land would mean things like using more permeable pavement like inter-locking bricks and rain gardens that hold the water so that it can't just run off the land.
In rural areas Veliz says conservation tillage, crop rotation and cover crops are tools farmers are using to improve the health of their soil.
Veliz says both urban and rural residents understand and are interested in preserving and improving water quality, but she says making the connection and cultivating an interest in soil quality seems to be a greater challenge in urban centres.
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Mari Veliz says they've just completed a project that re-evaluates best management practices in the watershed. and examines the relationship between healthy soil and water quality.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1HeathySoil-Veliz.mp3"][/audio]
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Veliz explains their research shows healthy soil will hold water on the land longer....
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2HealthySoil-Veliz.mp3"][/audio]
