CREP Corner

By

Lee Ashford

 

I don’t have a clue what to write this issue. Total writer’s block. The lights are on, but nobody’s home. My elevator isn’t making it to the top floor. If I had any less brain activity, I’d need to be watered twice a week. (I think I’ve made my point.)

Consequently I’ve decided to use somebody else’s brain, and reproduce here some interesting “Soil Facts” taken from a Bureau of Land Management National Science and Technology website (http://www.blm.gov/ntsc/soil/Kids). That “dirt” is some pretty amazing stuff!

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Almost all the food you eat, fiber (material) for the clothes you wear, and trees (wood) for the house you live in and the paper you use is produced by soil!

A single shovelful of soil can contain more species (kinds) of organisms (living things) than live aboveground in the entire Amazon rain forest!

One cup of soil may hold as many bacteria as there are people on Earth. That’s over 6 billion!

The weight of all the bacteria in 1 acre of soil (about the size of a football field) can equal the weight of one or two cows!

Mature trees can have as many as 5 million active root tips!

A teaspoonful of forest soil may hold more than 10 miles of fungi!

Almost all freshwater travels over soil or through soil before entering our rivers, lakes, and aquifers (underground water)!

Plants can remove 200 to 1,000 pounds of water from the soil for every pound of plant material produced!

Almost 85% of carbon dioxide (the stuff you breath out) in the air comes from the action of soil microorganisms (small living things) on organic matter in the soil!

When you take a step in a forest, you are being held up on the backs of thousands of bugs!

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Now, maybe you already knew all that stuff, but I thought it was kind of interesting. It certainly does demonstrate that there’s a lot more to soil than just “dirt”. Soil literally is the interface between the atmosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, and the lithosphere. It is a complex and dynamic conglomeration of air, living organisms, water, and mineral matter.

If you own agricultural land adjacent to a river or lake, CREP is one of several USDA programs available to help you keep your soil on your property. Talk to your FSA technician or NRCS planner today to find out if CREP will work for you! Or call me at the Klamath Soil and Water Conservation District office and I will be glad to answer your questions.

And since it will be 3 more months before the next newsletter comes out, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! (I know, it’s hard to believe, isn’t it?)