WSU Out With Soil Health Roadmap

Washington State University is out with a 124-page Roadmap that outlines the current challenges, as well ways to help maintain healthy soils statewide. Chris Benedict, WSU Regional Extension Specialist, said this Roadmap is part of the Soil Health Initiative approved by state lawmakers in 2020. He noted the Roadmap unites groups that typically would not see eye to eye when it comes to the environment and usage of natural resources.

“We can benefit productivity in agriculture while simultaneously have a positive impact on our ecosystem.  And it’s fairly well spelled out within the roadmap, but that is kind of a unique situation.”

Benedict noted a third entity benefits from this Roadmap; the public. But he said the Ag community needs to do their best to educate the non-farm community why soil health is important.

Benedict added between the Roadmap and the $2.1 million Washington Soil Health Initiative, the Evergreen state has established itself as a leader in the realm of soil health.

"I am unaware of any other state in the U.S. that have invested the resources that we have into soil health in the form of generating or providing resources for research that can be translated into practices, simultaneously having an incentive program that can hopefully pay producers to participate in these sorts of practices.”

Key industries involved in the Roadmap include Potato, wine and juice grapes, dryland agriculture and tree fruits. Click Here to read the Roadmap for yourself.

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