Outreach Insight for July and August 2018

By Lisa Kilders on Aug 31, 2018 in District operations, Outreach, Soil health, Working together

This posting of Outreach Insight is the monthly report of the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District’s Outreach and Education Program.

Soil Health Focus at Lavender Festival

This year the focus of the District’s booth at the 12th Annual Clackamas County Lavender Festival. Our soil tunnel was a fun, educational centerpiece for both kids and adults.

A tour of the soil tunnel

From the outside of the tunnel, onlookers saw the different layers you might see in a soil cross-section. On top were different land uses and suggested conservation practices to improve soil health, reduce soil erosion, and protect water quality.

What lies inside?

Inside the tunnel, adventurous participants learned who lives in the soil under our feet or burrowed in a hillside. Those traveling through the tunnel were rewarded with an “I Dig Soil Health” sticker. It was a fun weekend!

: Oregon white oak habitat is quickly disappearing.

: Pollinator hedgerows and field borders are important to reduce erosion and support pollinators.

: Tami Guttridge invites folks to enter the tunnel!

: The flushing toilet drew attention to how septic systems work.

: Heavy use areas protect water quality and improve animal health.

: Clean water and happy fish!

: Adult information about soil health is paired with Micro Mini Microbe’s adventures in soil health.

: Soil horizons explained

: Adults joined in the fun of crawling through the tunnel!

District staff, Lisa Kilders buries briefs at District’s demonstration farm.

The Clackamas Cotton Brief Challenge Continues

As you may recall from our last edition, fifteen pairs of cotton briefs were buried on Clackamas County farms and home gardens to test the health of the soil. Briefs made of 100% cotton are a food source for soil microbes, so when the briefs are buried in the root zone, 6-8 inches in the ground, the microbes have a feast. We use underwear because the elastic band is not consumed by the microbes, so even if you have very healthy soil and all of the cotton cloth is gone, you will still be able to find the elastic. (Part 1 of article series)

How does this test work?

Water provided where undies were buried in the garden near the farmhouse.

Participants in the challenge are asked to dig up the briefs after two months. If the briefs are very decomposed and ragged that means you have a healthy community of microbes in your soil. The biologically active soil is healthy soil. Our test began in June, but by July we noticed that with the lack of rain, our soil had very little moisture. To make sure our soil microbes stayed active, we started watering our undies every couple of weeks. These activities were chronicled in a series of articles on the soil health test and how to improve the health of the soil. Part 2 and Part 3

Really? Bury Underwear?

The idea of burying underwear to test soil health sparked the interest of the local newspapers that published our soil health story. Even the local KOIN TV station ran a story on “Soiling Your Undies” to determine soil health. This news clip featured a video of cotton briefs being dug up at our Conservation Demonstration Farm. And so ended our July, but August brought more adventures in soil health!

District Board and Staff Tour Possible Acquisition

On a hot Saturday in July the District board and staff boarded a van and headed toward Estacada to tour part of a 318-acre property on and near Eagle Creek. The property is currently owned by a timber company and has been harvested and partially replanted. Some trees are 7 to 10 years old and some are 18 to 20 years old.

Why tour this property?

The District is investigating a possible acquisition of this piece of land. Several streams run through the property. Native coho salmon and winter steelhead use the good habitat in streams on the property and two elk herds also frequent the land.

What is the plan?

The larger opportunity presented by acquiring this property is to collaborate with adjoining landowners to create a shared vision of future management actions that would protect and restore habitat for fish and wildlife on approximately 1,375 acres. Secondary benefits could include providing additional low-impact recreational opportunities and providing a small revenue stream to Clackamas SWCD.

Part of our Working Lands program

Clackamas SWCD views this property as a working forest and anticipates that occasional timber harvests from the land to be acquired would be sufficient to fund the maintenance of the property. Thinning is anticipated to begin in about 10 years.

Following the tour, District board and staff had a picnic along Clear Creek on a property owned by board member Don Guttridge and his family. It was a fun, educational day!

: Board chair Jeff Becker and board treasurer Roger Fantz are two of our seven board members.

: What a beautiful view of the valley and Mt. Hood!

: Many opportunities to improve wildlife habitat.

: Invasive weed control is always a topic of discussion.

: Staff and families explore Clear Creek.

: Board members enjoy the cooler temperatures near the creek.

Cotton Briefs Take Center Stage at County Fair

We had fun at the Clackamas County fair this year! Our booth caught the attention of many passers-by who saw our size 100 cotton briefs flying high above our tent and our clothesline of decomposed underwear hanging inside the tent. Maybe it was just the sign with the underwear and the hashtag #SoilYourUndies that drew them inside, but we had many great conversations about soil health with Clackamas county folks.

Other attractions in our booth

The other popular display in our booth this year was a giant oak log that was used to raise awareness of our vanishing Oregon white oak habitat. This oak log was eight feet long and held many surprises and facts about oak habitat. By far the most popular feature was the mischievous looking fox crocheted by our own Tami Guttridge.

What are we doing about oak habitat?

The District has a program to help folks improve and protect the oak habitat on their property. This is important as the majority of the remaining oak habitat in the Willamette Valley is on private property. The District provides technical assistance to interested landowners. Contact us if you are interested in finding out more about Oregon white oak!

Don’t forget the invasive weeds!

Those who ventured into our booth were also met with a challenge to identify some common, and not so common, invasive weeds from our county. No worries, the answers were available for each plant. Our WeedWise staff was on-hand to answer questions about invasive weed identification and control.

: Our oak log with fact and figures and owls!

: This side featured an acorn woodpecker and his acorn storage (granary).

: This mischievous looking fox was a hit with kids.

: Soil health information for adults and kids.

: The first results of our cotton brief soil test (in order of bad to good soil health)!

: Many folks took the Weed ID Challenge.

Far West Show Features Soil Erosion Control Practices

Again this year at the Far West Show, we partnered with the Tualatin and the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation Districts to offer a booth of ideas for practices that offer temporary and permanent erosion control practices for nurseries. We asked producers to look outside of their industry to consider ideas from the construction industry.

ACF West generously loaned samples of their erosion control products to help us fill out our display. These items were of definite interest, but the hit of the booth was the model showing many of the erosion control practices we recommended.