How do we build soil health? What is soil health? Is careful grazing helpful or hurtful? Can anything be done to meaningfully influence soil health? And how would we know? What can be measured that indicates progress? These are the questions Derek Scasta and Jeff Goodwin and their team intend to begin to answer through a recently funded national-scale project called Metrics, Management, and Monitoring: An Investigation of Pasture and Rangeland Soil Health and Its Drivers. This ambitious research and outreach effort, funded through a variety of public and private monies, will combine state-of-the-art experimental research with case studies documenting existing soil health effects on farms and ranches where consistent practices have been in place for years (and unlike investing, prior performance does predict future results). These results will inform policy and trade in carbon markets, enhance agricultural resilience to climate uncertainty, and advise land managers on how to increase profitability, land health, and animal health. This interview introduces the project's history, objectives, and timeline. Stay tuned for those future results.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Ecological Outcomes Verification, https://bit.ly/3sNy9GT

Journal article, "Usable Science: Soil Health", Rangelands, 2016.

Journal article, "Valuing and Rewarding Ecosystem Services From Rangelands", Rangelands, 2014.

Journal article, "Rangelands and Ecosystem Services: Economic Wealth From Land Health?", Rangelands, 2011

Article links at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-78-one-study-rule-them-all-3m-soil-health-research-jeff-goodwin-derek-scasta

TRANSCRIPT

Coming soon at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-78-one-study-rule-them-all-3m-soil-health-research-jeff-goodwin-derek-scasta