Soaking up carbon and so much more

The soil we walk on is a complex and fascinating world, one that will help stabilize the climate if we show it some respect. Soil is alive, full of plant roots, fungi, bacteria, springtails, nematodes, earthworms, firefly larvae, bumblebee queens, voles, groundhogs, chipmunks, badgers, burrowing owls, foxes…

The more life in the soil, the more carbon and water it can hold, and the more it can serve to prevent floods and droughts. Healthy soil also helps cool the Earth.

Many people think of soil as brown stuff in newly plowed farm fields. But, that soil is degraded and disturbed. Healthy soil forms when the land surface is undisturbed.

Canadian forest ecologist and writer, Suzanne Simard, would have us think about forest soil, with its interconnected roots and fungi sharing information and nutrients. This is the wood wide web, soil at its finest. In her latest book, When the Forest Breathes, Simard describes the tragedy brought by huge yellow machines clearcutting forests, destroying the delicate soil surface’s organic layers. Thousands of years of accumulated life and ancient logs decaying on the forest floor are pulverized in seconds.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Once upon a time here in the Ottawa Valley, lumberjacks worked in winter, using horses to skid out the cut logs when the soil was frozen, minimizing soil disturbance. Knowledge about how to harvest forest products while protecting the soil could be brought back.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an international treaty that can help protect and restore soils. It aims to restore degraded land with the organic carbon content and productivity of soils, thereby mitigating the effects of drought.

According to the UNCCD, restoring ecosystems also restores local water cycles. Healthy lands and soils are the foundation of water security. Land restoration rejuvenates wetlands, recharges underground aquifers and creates local precipitation. UNCCD’s Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad says, “when land is restored, water returns.”

Canada became the world’s only UNCCD non-party in 2013. The federal government said spending a couple hundred thousand dollars a year to collaborate with other countries on combating desertification was a waste of taxpayer money. Critics pointed out that Canada is not immune to land degradation and drought. We rejoined the UNCCD a few years later, but we still pay too little attention to the issue of land degradation. Only one or two officials attend UNCCD meetings.

The UNCCD recommends regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, ecosystem restoration, education and community development — all essential if we want a decent future.

Signs that we urgently need to act on these recommendations are becoming ever more obvious. Canada is drying out. Wildfires rage in provinces that have never experienced them before. Farmers struggle to cope with repeated droughts, and droughts alternate with periods when it is too wet. Small water cycles are not working the way they used to.

Citizens can act to protect and restore soils even when governments drag their feet. Restore hedgerows in farm fields. Replace urban lawns with native plants. Establish riparian buffer strips along watercourses. Protect all old growth forests. Reduce herbicide use, with an aim of eventual elimination.

Life in the soil is diverse and fascinating. It holds the key to a livable future. Soil represents the perfect circular economy: Nothing is wasted, everything is recycled.

We can prioritize learning about soil. Let’s involve our children in a global movement to regenerate life in the soil and stabilize the climate.

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