Soil Life / Suelo Vivo: Training Resources for Identifying and Supporting Soil Invertebrates for Soil Health

Commodities

Practices

Soil invertebrates are essential for soil health, and the conditions that build and support this soil life – reduced tillage, above-ground biodiversity, reduced pesticide use – also create healthy and beautiful environments for human communities, sequester carbon, improve local water quality and more.

The Soil Life/Suelo Vivo project delivers bilingual (Spanish/English) training and follow up technical support through in-person and online short courses, print and digital publications, and remote technical support for farmers and other agricultural professionals to learn about the fundamentals of soil invertebrates and the connections to soil health and farm health.

We will work with farmers, farming organizations, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff, and university Extension personnel to develop and deliver in-person and online curriculum about the fundamentals of soil animal life, building upon applied research and existing publications. In-person short courses will be offered at four farm hosts across the Southern SARE regions, reaching 120 participants. Online short courses will be offered twice, reaching hundreds more; and the recordings will be added to Xerces’ Farming with Soil Life YouTube Playlist, reaching even wider audiences. The curriculum will include identification and ecology of soil animals, monitoring techniques, soil animals as bioindicators, and conservation strategies. Case studies of urban and rural cropping systems from the Southern SARE region will be featured. Course participants will be provided with information and digital resources to guide soil health management decisions.  

We'll evaluate project impacts and learning outcomes through electronic surveys delivered 1 week and 4 months after each course.

Focusing on the needs of NRCS soil health trainers, farmers, and agricultural professionals including Cooperative Extension, conservation districts, crop consultants, and other sustainable agriculture educators, the Soil Life/Suelo Vivo training is designed around the needs of urban and rural farmers interested in increasing their ability to interpret and manage their farm to support diverse aboveground and belowground ecosystems, while also increasing crop resilience and soil health. The agricultural professionals that provide technical assistance to farmers often have a strong foundation in soil science, yet traditional training programs often provide minimal exposure to the ecology of soil animals. We fill this gap by building the expertise of professionals and preparing them to share this knowledge with their farmer clients, both in English and Spanish.

Additionally, our training tools will be relevant and accessible to urban farming audiences interested in soil animals and soil health. Urban farms are often a path for younger farmers or those from non-farming backgrounds to enter agriculture. 

At least 120 support agency professionals and 20 farmers from across the Southern SARE region will participate in short courses, with the following learning objectives:

• Improve technical knowledge of 70+ soil invertebrate groups in the southern SARE region and their roles in soil health, including species identification, ecology and roles in soil health, scouting methods, and conservation strategies
• Be able to conduct hands-on scouting and sampling of soil animals to evaluate species diversity in agricultural settings
• Understand how invertebrate diversity may be used as a rough bioindicator of soil health, and learn to compare the diversity of soil animals across areas with differing management practices
• Learn practical, science-based conservation strategies to help increase the abundance and diversity of soil animal life, and how USDA Farm Bill conservation programs may be used to support adoption of these strategies
• Increase adoption of management practices that support soil invertebrates and soil health
• Reach urban and rural audiences in English and Spanish
• Leverage Xerces close collaboration with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Health Division to expand the reach of our trainings, and help connect farmers with financial assistance opportunities available from the NRCS to aid in farmer adoption of key practices.

With training in ecology, identification, and conservation, participants will gain a practical understanding of how to support the soil animals that, in turn, support urban and rural farming systems. Fieldwork in the use of soil scouting protocols and evaluation of indicator-species will allow participants to translate theory into real-world practice.

Participants will be encouraged to contact us for any additional support needed in implementing soil management practices discussed during the training. These support requests may range from advice about a specific farm or soil issue, to tips for delivery of the open-source curriculum in their own communities, to supporting agricultural professionals – such as conservationists with the NRCS Soil Health Division – in their own outreach efforts on this content.

Participants will go on to share scouting protocols, bioindicator knowledge, and conservation strategies in their own communities. Using our open-source materials, they will be able to conduct their own local outreach and education. These actions will benefit urban farmers and the public by improving soil quality, enhancing carbon sequestration potential on agricultural soils, increasing beneficial invertebrates that suppress pests and weeds, and generating greater interest in conservation.