Along with water and air, soil is one of our most important natural resources.
Registration is open for our FREE Soil Health Workshop on Saturday, October 13th, from 8:30 – 2:00, at the Oregon City Service Learning Academy in Oregon City. Lunch, snacks, and take-home materials will be provided.
The Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District, in partnership with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Western SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education), and the Oregon City Service Learning Academy, is bringing soil health education to K-8 teachers, school garden volunteers, community gardeners, and others in a position to educate others about soil health.
Why Does Soil Health Matter?
The soil food web includes our friends the worms plus billions of other organisms. Yes, billions!
Healthy soils produce better quality plants. They also help to protect many of our natural resources, including maintaining animal and plant biodiversity, contributing to water quality, and storing carbon, which can help slow climate change.
Poor soil health contributes to poor plant health, increased weed production, and diminished nutritional content of vegetation. It also leads to compaction, runoff, erosion, and loss of organic matter in soils.
School and community gardens provide living laboratories for investigation-based learning. Working with soils gets kids outside and engaged in learning by doing. Teaching about soil prepares our students to better understand their world and to conserve natural resources throughout their lives. And now, teachers have access to a soil curriculum that meets Next Generation Science Standards that makes soil health lessons exciting and appropriate for teachers and their students!
Which school garden model works best for you?
What Are We Doing About It?
This October, Clackamas SWCD is delivering the same valuable information we already provide to farmers to our teachers and garden managers. Our upcoming workshop covers the basics of soil microbial health, provides hand-on activity demonstrations, and useful materials for student investigation. The workshop will also feature a panel of garden educators sharing best practices and a variety of garden models.
Put Your Winter Garden to Work!: A FREE Soil Health Workshop for School & Community Gardens
- Saturday, October 13, 2018
- 8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
- Oregon City Service Learning Academy in Oregon City
For more information or to register for this workshop, please contact Cathy McQueeney at cmcqueeney@conservationdistrict.org or at 503-210-6012.