Progress report for ENC21-205
Project Information
The Urban Farming Soil Life Short Course teaches urban farmers and agricultural educators who speak English or Spanish about the organisms that contribute to soil health, farm productivity, and food safety.
Through a series of six comprehensive short courses and a companion pocket guide—offered in both English and Spanish—at least 200 agricultural educators and 120 farmers will learn the fundamentals of soil life, including ecology, basic identification, field scouting, the use of soil organisms as bioindicators, and conservation strategies to enhance their numbers. Two online and four in-person courses will be developed and delivered. The pocket guide will provide an accessible, easy tool to learn about and identify soil invertebrates, the most abundant and diverse organisms found in soils, and an underrepresented category when discussing soil health.
Participants will increase their understanding of soil organism diversity, biology, and functions; how management practices affect soil life; how to choose and adjust management practices to favor beneficial soil organism diversity and function; and how to monitor the impact of new management practices. Empowered with this knowledge, participants will be equipped to share their expertise with the farmers they support, and to motivate and build confidence among urban farmers to conserve soil life.
The project will result in the following outputs:
- Two 4-hour online short courses. Based on our experience organizing and delivering online short courses, we anticipate 100 agricultural educators and farmers will attend each course (200 total). One course will be offered in English and one in Spanish. Both will cover:
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- A brief review of soil function, properties, and classifications
- Introduction to the main groups of soil invertebrates; how to recognize them; their ecology
- The roles of soil invertebrates and the connection to soil health
- Methods for scouting, monitoring, and counting soil invertebrates, through a combination of formal scouting protocols (e.g., pitfall traps to collect and count soil-dwelling beetles) and informal observational techniques (e.g., the use of Berlese funnels).
- Regionally relevant research
- Management practices to increase the abundance and diversity of soil animals (e.g., cover crop systems and non-chemical management of soil pathogens)
- Case examples from urban farms
- An overview of NRCS programs and resources for urban farms
- Q & A
Online courses will be recorded and freely available for viewing on Xerces YouTube channel so participants can access and revisit the course for their own self-directed learning.
- Four full-day in-person short courses. Three courses will be offered in English and one in Spanish. The target audience size will be 30 agricultural educators and farmers for each course (120 total), in order to provide a balance of discussion and involvement in the field sampling activities. Courses will cover the same modules as the online course, but with more time and detail for each module and guest presentations. Additionally, the scouting and monitoring module will be held as an outdoor hands-on workshop in the afternoon. Courses will be delivered in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Toledo.
The courses will be designed for urban farmers and for ag professionals from agencies and organizations including but not limited to NRCS, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Extension, urban agriculture centers, sustainable ag groups, and city parks and recreation departments. The in-person courses will also be targeted to Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA affiliates in their respective communities (both organizations consist of urban conservation groups focused on invertebrate awareness and conservation).
- Pocket ID Guide to Soil Life, a folded pocket guide with visual and descriptive cues for identifying the 12 main groups of soil invertebrates and an overview of the role of each in agricultural soils and farm ecosystems. The pocket guide is a compact, portable, at-a-glance, low-tech learning tool designed to be used in the field. There will be an English and Spanish version of the pocket ID guide.
The course curriculum and pocket guide will be developed by native and fluent Spanish speakers, and we will work with a professional Spanish language editor to ensure the quality of the course materials.
Education
We will deliver six Urban Farming Soil Life short courses, four in-person and two online to enable broader participation. The course curriculum is nearly finalized, it will be translated into Spanish between late 2023 and early 2024, and we will deliver the first course in the summer of 2023.
We designed the Urban Farming Soil Life short course using a module-based program that supports comprehensive knowledge building. This educational path begins with a basic and fundamental review of soil science and soil health, including unique characteristics of urban soils. From there, new information is progressively introduced, such as the diversity and classification of soil life, the categories of soil animals, their biology and ecological roles, invasive species found in soils, soil animal responses to unhealthy soil conditions, how to scout for soil invertebrates, and soil health practices that maximize biodiversity value.
The in-person short courses include a farm tour, highlighting the practices that support soil life and how they are integrated into urban cropping systems. Participants at the in-person courses will experience a hands-on scouting activity to locate, observe, identify, and interpret soil animals found at the host farm. This learning will help them repeat similar scouting of soil animals on their own farms and with other farmer clients. In support of participants’ engagement and learning within the remote teaching environment of the online courses, we will include several polls, Q&A sessions, short quizzes, and a break. To facilitate understanding of soil organisms in the field, we are developing supporting materials, such as a pocket guide to soil invertebrate groups, which will be available in both English and Spanish and is in the initial planning stages currently. We also published the handbook Farming with Soil Life and our biomonitoring and scouting guides.
Following the courses, participants will be encouraged to contact us for any additional support needed in implementing soil management practices discussed during the training. As feedback-based input, surveys and evaluation questions will be used to refine and improve course content throughout this project to ensure quality and to measure knowledge transfer. Three to eight months after each course, we will invite participants to complete a survey to measure the impact of their learning.
The curriculum and educational approach used for this project is informed by decades of collaborative partnerships with farmers, farm educators, and farm conservation agency staff. Partnering with farmers is a key part of our work to conserve invertebrates and increase agricultural biodiversity.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
Participates gain a basic and fundamental understanding of soil properties, including common properties of urban soils.
This module covers basic soil science, soil health fundamentals, an overview of soil invertebrates, and an introduction into the diversity and ecology of soil animals.
Course participants will complete an evaluation immediately after each course. The evaluation will include a self-assessment of skill and knowledge before and after the course on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 = no skill or knowledge and 5 = very skilled or knowledgeable). For this topic, they will be asked to rate their understanding of practical, science-based conservation strategies to help increase the abundance and diversity of soil invertebrate life. Further questions in the evaluation will measure intent to implement the knowledge on their farm or through client outreach.
Participants will be able to identify and understand the value of 12 groups of soil invertebrates that are common and relevant to urban agriculture.
This module will cover, for each of the 12 groups of soil invertebrates: what they look like and how to recognize them, where they live in the soil, lifecycles, and their roles and function in connection to soil health.
Course participants will complete an evaluation immediately after each course. The evaluation will include a self-assessment of skill and knowledge before and after the course on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 = no skill or knowledge and 5 = very skilled or knowledgeable). For this topic, they will be asked to rate their ability to recognize and name common groups of soil invertebrates and their ability to describe the ecological role of common groups of soil invertebrates in soil health. Further questions in the evaluation will measure intent to implement the knowledge on their farm or through client outreach.
Participates will learn survey and interpretation methods to determine the health of their soil.
This module will cover simple, inexpensive methods to trap, capture, or extract these animals from the soil; methods for identifying and grouping them by function; interpretation of observations and indicator species; and an overview of other ways to evaluate soil health.
Course participants will complete an evaluation immediately after each course. The evaluation will include a self-assessment of skill and knowledge before and after the course on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 = no skill or knowledge and 5 = very skilled or knowledgeable). For this topic, they will be asked to rate their ability to compare the diversity of soil animals across fields with differing management practices and their ability to draw general conclusions about soil health based upon the invertebrate groups present in a soil sample (use of soil invertebrates as bioindicators). They will also be asked to assess their comfort level conducting hands-on field scouting and sampling of soil invertebrates. Further questions in the evaluation will measure intent to implement the knowledge on their farm or through client outreach.
Participants will learn about soil health considerations that are specific to farming in urban and suburban areas
This module will cover threats to urban soil organisms such as contamination, compaction, disturbance, and intensive use; other threats to soil life such as pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, invasive species, and climate change; practices that support urban soil life like plant diversity, animal diversity (livestock), minimized disturbance, soil coverage, and reduced chemical use. It will also include two guest speakers, one covering applied results and recommendations from regional urban soil research and the other giving an urban farm or garden case study.
Course participants will complete an evaluation immediately after each course. The evaluation will include a self-assessment of skill and knowledge before and after the course on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 = no skill or knowledge and 5 = very skilled or knowledgeable). For this topic, they will be asked to rate knowledge of urban soil health, including compaction, heavy metals, and intense nutrient management, as well as their knowledge of available Farm Bill programs and NRCS practices to support soil invertebrates and soil health on urban farms. Further questions in the evaluation will measure intent to implement the knowledge on their farm or through client outreach.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Project Outcomes
To better understand the impact of the two in-person, short course and on-farm trainings that took place in July (Milwaukee WI) and September (Minneapolis/St. Paul MN) 2024, the short course participants were surveyed to rate their skill/knowledge of the following topics on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 = no skill or knowledge and 5 = very skilled or knowledgeable) before and after their participation in the short courses.
|
Ability to recognize and name common groups of soil invertebrates |
Ability to describe the ecological role of common groups of soil invertebrates in soil health |
Comfort level conducting hands-on field scouting and sampling of soil invertebrates |
Ability to draw general conclusions about soil health based upon the invertebrate groups present in a soil sample (use of soil invertebrates as bioindicators) |
Understanding of practical, science-based conservation strategies to help increase the abundance and diversity of soil invertebrate life |
Knowledge of available Farm Bill programs and NRCS practices to support soil invertebrates and soil health |
|
|
BEFORE |
2.34 |
2.20 |
2.16 |
2.25 |
2.84 |
2.57 |
|
AFTER |
3.67 |
3.50 |
3.83 |
3.67 |
3.92 |
3.67 |
Short course participants reported they already implement some practices to support soil invertebrates and plan to add the additional practices of:
- Considering pesticide impacts on soil invertebrates when making pest management decisions;
- Adjusting management (tillage, synthetic fertilizer use, mowing, crop diversity, cover crops, continuous living root, incorporate livestock) where possible to support soil invertebrates and soil health;
- Creating or enhancing additional habitat resources (intentional areas of bare soil for ground nesting bees, beetle bank plantings, other perennial habitat near fields);
- Inquiring and/or enrolling in NRCS conservation programs that support soil invertebrates as in Table 1 in Farming with Soil Life handbook.
General, positive feedback from short course participants include:
- Thank you so much! This was so amazing.
- Keep it up.
- Great course. Informative and interesting as always. Thanks Xerces!
- I liked the bugs.
Suggestions made by short course participants for improvement to future courses include:
- Would be nice to actively set up a trap.
- It would have been useful to see more examples of invertebrates where soil health practices are currently being used.
- The urban soil mapping presentation from the soil scientist felt too rushed and not as relevant.
- I would have appreciated that the soil health discussion be more catered to urban production methods and crops.
- I think more explanation and focus on how to assess soil health through observation of the presence or absence of indicator species would have been helpful, and felt missing from the training.
In response to these suggestions, we will update our course to include the following:
- Time in the field for participants to set out pit fall traps.
- Update the curriculum to include even more emphasis on urban farm systems and soils.
- Walk participants through the publication, A Pocket Guide to Soil Invertebrates as Bioindicators.
The English version of the pocket ID guide is in the final layout stage, expected to be published by late March, 2025. The Spanish version of the pocket ID guide is in draft layout stage, expected to be published by late April, 2025.
Additionally, we are currently surveying past in-person short course participants about the number of clients they have served. Our next report will include a summary count of those consultations. As a preview to the reach and impact of this training, through the short course evaluations, the non-farmer participants estimated they provide services for 1,382 farmers.
Participants described the most important or useful parts of the short course for them as:
- The handbook given to the participants.
- There were a couple of really great tools I didn't know about, especially the table of NRCS practices at the end of the manual, and the digital microscope.
- The concept that beetles are like the wolves (apex predator) of the soil ecosystem. Also, the reminder of the connection between some above-ground flying insects and the soil because that's where their larval stage occurs.
- Seeing sampling in action; going through the presentations to get a better basic understating.
- Identifying the variety of soil invertebrates and their functions.
- Cover crop, beneficial insects, soil life.
- Meeting other insect experts in the state and seeing what local producers are doing in terms of soil health practices.
- Seeing examples of different invertebrates.
- Entomology part was the best part
- The site tours: seeing what other urban growers are doing and getting direct feedback from experts
- Exploring the [invertebrates captured in the pitfall] trap findings
- Thinking about all phases of insect life cycles
“This was such a valuable course, thank you! I could easily see this extending into a 2-day workshop, there were so many topics to explore in such a short time. I would 100% recommend any urban farmer join you. So many valuable discussions AND important networking opportunities. Any expectations I had were exceeded.” – Urban Farmer after participating in the Milwaukee short course, July 2024.
We received the following comments from participants in the short course evaluations.
- A deeper dive into implementing the conservation practices in the area/state that support soil life (what cover crop species work for soil health, how to create habitat that works in that area, etc.) May need to rely on local specialists to get at this level though!
- Information on pesticides impacts on soil life and how long pesticides stay in soil
- Information about how mulching and composting affects soil biology
- Utilizing and planning for cover crops as a small-scale urban farmer
- Description of solarization/tarping on soil life
- It would be helpful to dig more into the conservation programs available. Having a list is a great start, but seeing some examples of farmers who have done these things would be helpful for encouraging farmers to adopt best practices.
- I liked the train the trainer idea, and would like to see more frequent educational opportunities like this one to boost the ecological knowledge and understanding among farmers, farmer advisors, and the general public.
- Demonstrations on identifying and preparing good sites for invertebrate habitat restoration
As a result of these recommendations, we will be adding more content about "Information on pesticide impacts on soil life and how long pesticides stay in the soil" and "More in depth trainings on remedying the soil" in future courses.