Soil Health

What is Soil Health?

Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. Healthy soil gives us clean air and water, bountiful crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes. Soil does all this by performing five essential functions:

• Regulating water
  Soil helps control where rain, snowmelt, and irrigation water goes. Water flows over the land or into and through the soil.
• Sustaining plant and animal life
  The diversity and productivity of living things depends on soil.
• Filtering and buffering potential pollutants
  The minerals and microbes in soil are responsible for filtering, buffering, degrading, immobilizing, and detoxifying organic and inorganic materials, including industrial and municipal by-products and atmospheric deposits.
• Cycling nutrients
  Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other nutrients are stored, transformed, and cycled in the soil.
• Providing physical stability and support
  Soil structure provides a medium for plant roots. Soils also provide support for human structures and protection for archeological treasures.