April Joy Farm + The Soil Health Grant
April Joy Farm and The Clark Conservation District have been awarded a three year grant from the Washington State Soil Health Committee to study soil health at our farm. This unique and collaborative effort will include renowned Washington State University soil scientist Dr. Lynne Carpenter-Boggs.
Together, we will work to understand how diversified farmers can both protect and improve soil health while reducing costly, unsustainable and potentially contaminated off-farm inputs. This fall, I’ll get to utilize real-life data from April Joy Farm to learn about the chemical, biological and physical characteristics of soil health. Then I will craft specific nutrient and field management recommendations for critical areas: cover crops, crop rotations, organic materials (compost, manure, and crop residues) and machinery and equipment. The soil health baseline and recommendations will be compiled into an April Joy Farm Soil Health Roadmap.
The farmers will have the opportunity to learn alongside technical mentors, and thus develop their own ability to understand and document soil health changes over time.In addition, by leveraging the work of a past WSU/AJF partnership, WSU will utilize their Organic Farming Footprints (OFoot) model to provide AJF an updated Carbon Footprint analysis. (AJF was one of five focus farms WSU researchers used to develop their model.)
This is fantastic because it means we will be able to quantify the projected carbon emissions of each potential soil health management recommendation and thereby more strategically improve our land while reducing our farm's overall carbon footprint. In subsequent years we hope to partner with The Natural Resources Conservation Service, (NRCS) and Tilth Alliance to develop a Soil Health Toolkit. The Toolkit will include a case study of our findings as well as practical recommendations for diversified organic farmers eager to better understand and improve the health of their working soils. Across the state, we plan to share our findings and assist other farmers in the development of their own Soil Health Roadmaps.
We wish to extend a big thank you to CSA member and Clark Conservation District Manager Denise Smee for making this grant possible.
The funding from this grant will allow Brad and I the incredible opportunity to establish baseline soil health measurements, learn how to improve our management practices, “close the loop” by reducing off farm inputs, and help other diversified farmers who are eager to do the same. We can’t wait to set up our Farm Soil Lab and go back to school!
