SFREC News - Agriculture and Natural Resources Blogs

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Updates on agriculture and natural resource topics from the Sierra Foothills

Healthy Soils Demonstration Project Update

Author: Holly Stover
Editor: Alexandra Stefancich

Published on: April 3, 2019

Spring is here and the Healthy Soils Demonstration Project (to read about the background of this project, click here) has been busy since the composts were applied last fall. We have observed the onset of spring, the grasses and wildflowers on the plots are actively growing. With frequent rains and warm temperatures starting, the applied compost has settled into the soil ecosystem.

On March 22, a herd of 79 cattle visited our plots and grazed on the grasses. It was a busy week, we also began our second intensive gas sampling campaign and are currently sampling greenhouse gases every day for the next three weeks. The soil microbial and plant communities are active and we are capturing key soil mineralization processes during this time. To learn more about the project, visit us on May 15 at SFREC for the Ranching and Range Management in a Drying Climate Field Day! Click here to see the agenda. Click here to register.

Cattle grazing in the project area.

Sampling of the green house in the plots.

Flowers blooming in the healthy soils of the plots.

Focus Area: Agriculture

Focus Area Tags: Agriculture

Tags: Rangeland Management (23), Research and Extension Centers (8), research projects (3), SFREC (72), Soil and Land - General (2)

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Healthy Soils Demonstration Project Launch Success

Author: Holly Stover
Editor: Emily Baumstinger

Published on: January 24, 2019

A Healthy Soils Demonstration project was recently launched at Sierra Foothill REC in experimental rangeland plots in the Forbes pasture.

This project is funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the University of California Carbon Neutrality Initiative and is investigating the effects of food waste and green waste composts on California rangeland ecosystems, including their role in promoting carbon sequestration. Compost applied on rangeland has the potential to increase forage quality and quantity and improve soil fertility through enhanced soil organic matter and nutrients.

The project team is led by Jeremy James, SFREC Center Director, Whendee Silver, UC Berkeley Professor, and UC Berkeley Postdoctoral Researcher Holly Stover. The food waste compost was produced using human food scraps and the green waste compost using livestock manure and plant matter. Thanks to the efforts of the SFREC Staff and Technicians, Brian Yudkin and Kris Daum from UC Berkeley, the project team worked together to establish 9 half acre experimental plots, apply compost, sample soils and monitor greenhouse gases intensively for 3 weeks.

An important part of the project involves outreach with the local community, including ranchers and key representatives of government and non-governmental organizations involved in composting initiatives. A key group of stakeholders have joined the project advisory committee to help see this research best utilized by practitioners.