Two Important Bills for the State of Washington and Soil Health

UPDATE: Both bills mentioned below passed the House and the Senate and were signed by Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State.

Two bills have made it past the Senate and House in the State of Washington. These bills show that the soil health campaign started by Roylene Comes at Night, Washington State Conservationist, in 2014 has real traction and a new and exciting life of its own. A very special shout-out to Gary Farrell, the benefactor of the original Soil Health Committee, without whom it would not have lived and breathed and made a multitude of successful grants that have provided the groundwork, literally, for a new Soil Health Movement in our state.

As co-chairs, Lynn Bahrych and Gary Farrell led a volunteer committee of producers, conservation district staff and supervisors, educators, and state and federal agency representatives to invest grant funds from the state Conservation Commission and the federal NRCS in dozens of innovative soil health practices across the state from 2015 until today. The results of those experiments will be published by the end of 2020 and so far have been truly remarkable, thanks to the hard work and inspiration of those receiving the grants. The successes and lessons learned during these five years will be passed along to the committee in its next home at the Washington State Conservation Commission.

First is SB 5947 – 2019-20 which establishes the sustainable farms and fields grant program.

“The legislature finds that Washington’s working agricultural lands are essential to the economic and social well-being of our rural communities and to the state’s overall environment and economy. The legislature further finds that different challenges and opportunities exist to expand the use of precision agriculture for different crops in the state by assisting farmers, ranchers, and aquaculturists to purchase equipment and receive technical assistance to reduce their operations’ carbon footprint while ensuring that crops and soils receive exactly what they need for optimum health and productivity. Moreover, the legislature finds that opportunities exist to enhance soil health through carbon farming and regenerative agriculture by increasing soil organic carbon levels while ensuring appropriate carbon to nitrogen ratios, and to store carbon in standing trees, seaweed, and other vegetation. Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to provide cost sharing competitive grant opportunities to enable farmers and ranchers to adopt practices that increase appropriate quantities of carbon stored in and above their soil and to initiate or expand the use of precision agriculture on their farms. This act seeks to leverage and enhance existing state and federal cost-sharing programs for farm, ranch, and aquaculture operations.”

UPDATE: This bill passed the Senate on March 12, 2020, and the House on March 12, 2020. It was signed by the Governor on April 3, 2020.

The second is SB 6306 – 2019020 which creates the Washington soil health initiative.

“The legislature finds that healthy soil is a cornerstone of a high quality of life on earth and that soil health is integral to supporting agricultural viability, promoting positive environmental outcomes, and ensuring the long-term availability of nutritious food.

It is the intent of the legislature that the mission of the Washington soil health initiative be the promotion of collaborative soil health research, education, demonstration projects, and technical assistance activities designed to identify, promote, and implement soil health stewardship practices that are grounded in sound science and that can be voluntarily and economically implemented by farmers and ranchers across Washington’s diverse agricultural communities, climates, and geographies.”

UPDATE: This bill passed the Senate on March 9, 2020 and the House on March 10, 2020. It was signed by the Governor on April 2, 2020.

Riverday School Students Study Tardigrades

In January 2020, students at Riverday School in Spokane, WA did a variety of projects around tardigrades. Students created posters, took samples, and visited Gonzaga University to view live tardigrades. The students are supporting the initiative to make tardigrades Washington State’s micro-animal.

Here is a short video of their work on tardigrades. This footage was shot by the students themselves.

Here is the full video as shot and produced by the students.

There are also lots of pictures of the students during their trip to Gonzaga, as well as the teachers involved and the posters the students made.

The Tardigrade nominated as Washington State’s Official Micro-Animal

Tardigrade: Proposed Official State Micro-Animal of Washington

Two Washington State schools are nominating the Tardigrade as Washington State’s Micro-Animal. The science students at the Friday Harbor High School on San Juan Island and the students at Riverday School in Spokane have studied the Tardigrade as part of their science curriculum and found it to be worthy of becoming the Washington State Micro-Animal. The Tardigrade, which means “slow stepper” and is sometimes referred to as the “water bear” or “moss piglet,” is among the most resilient animals alive today, having survived the last five mass extinctions. They are found in fossil records 530 million years old.  A native of Washington State, found in every county and habitat, it lives in mosses, lichens, marine and freshwater sediments, soil, seawater, freshwater, glaciers, hot springs, deserts, and rain forests. They are important ecologically because they eat other micro-organisms, such as crop-destroying nematodes, as well as plant cells, and help to clean both soil and water. Due to its amazing ability to withstand extremes, such as boiling mud pots in Yellowstone, glaciers on mountaintops, the vacuum of space, extreme drought, and radiation, the Tardigrade is being studied for new methods of adapting to climate change, as well as for preventing radiation damage from cancer treatments. Tardigrades may also be the first colonists on the moon since they crash-landed there in August of 2019. According to an international expert on Tardigrades, Lukasz Kaczmarek, they are likely to have survived because “Tardigrades can survive pressures that are comparable to those created when asteroids strike Earth, so a small crash like this is nothing to them.”   This and many other extreme achievements of the Tardigrade make it the perfect Micro-Animal for the Evergreen State.

UPDATE: Washington state high school students attended legislative sessions in Olympia in support of making the tardigrade the state micro-animal.

Below are pictures of the students at the statehouse. Featured in one of the pictures is Representative Alex Ramel.

Before the hearing, Representative Alex Ramel took a few moments to talk to the students that would be testifying.

Girl Meets Dirt

At a recent Orcas Island Farmers Market in the San Juan Islands, our Committee Chair, Lynn Bahrych, ran into Girl Meets Dirt. Girl Meets Dirt is an established business on Orcas. They make organic jams, shrubs, and spreads from heritage fruit produced at old orchards that they help maintain. Girl Meets Dirt helps the orchardist do the pruning and soil enhancements for the fruit trees. Then they harvest and process the fruit. Girl Meets Dirt creates new and delicious jams from the ground up, starting with soil health improvement. This is why we decided to share a bit about them!

Governor Inslee Discusses Soil Health and Farming

In March of 2017, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee discussed soil health and farming in the state of Washington.

“One of the great blessings of the state of Washington is our farmland and preserving it is not only iconic for the state of Washington but necessary for our survival economically.” Says Governor Inslee in his opening remarks.

If you do not want to watch the entire session, you can skip ahead. The section about soils starts at 19.28 and runs through 22.24.

Thank you to Results Washington and TVW for supplying the video.

Soil Committee is Giving Away Trees in San Juan County

The Washington State Soil Health Committee has started an education and outreach program in San Juan County. The project aims to distribute, at no cost, surplus native bare-root trees that would otherwise be destroyed at the end of the nursery season. The trees will go to landowners in San Juan County who are doing shoreline restoration, wetland recovery, or native tree planting. So far, hundreds of bare-root native trees have been provided to three San Juan County farms:  Smiling Dog Farm on Orcas Island, Horseshu Farm on San Juan Island, and Ken Davis’s farm on San Juan Island.

Download our flyer for more details on how to plant and care for your native tree.

Did you know?

Trees are the longest-living organisms on Earth.

Trees capture and store more energy than any other organisms on Earth.

What will a native tree do?

  1. Provides fresh oxygen for you to breathe.  One acre of forest absorbs 6 tons of carbon dioxide and exhales 4 tons of fresh oxygen (USDA), cleaning our air and combating climate change.
  2. Cleans air by removing small particulates, reducing symptoms of asthma and other respiratory diseases.
  3. Filters groundwater by root chemistry. Tree leaves and needles transpire, creating clean, tree-filtered water, cooling and cleansing the air.
  4. Shields other living creatures, including you, from solar heat, blocking ultraviolet rays that cause cancer.
  5. Aids in recharging groundwater supply by preventing rain runoff from surrounding soils.
  6. Produces aerosols from some trees, like willows, that fight cancer, while other trees produce antibiotic aerosols.
  7. Reduces depression and anxiety. Visual exposure to trees has produced recovery from stress in five minutes, as measured by blood pressure and muscle tension, according to research at Texas A & M University.

What will your native tree do for your soil?

  1. Trees transfer solar energy to the soil, through photosynthesis, to feed the microbes that give soil life, that makes “living soil.”
  2. Trees prevent soil erosion in the broad area of their rooting zone, providing sub-surface drainage for rain runoff and holding the soil in place.
  3. Trees prevent large-scale flooding, which washes topsoil away.
  4. Trees produce organic material that enriches the soil, such as leaves and decomposing branches.
  5. Trees fix nitrogen in the soil.
  6. Trees work symbiotically with the fungal mat that lies under the ground, giving soil structure, and supporting all terrestrial life in mysterious ways.

What other benefits will the ecosystem receive?

  1. In San Juan County, planting trees on the shoreline produces humic acid which stimulates the growth of plankton in sea water, thereby enriching the food web in the Salish Sea.
  2. Trees provide habitat and food for birds and other animals. Your wildlife will love you, especially if you leave dead trees standing. Birds and other nesting creatures regard a dead snag as premium residential housing, as well as five-star dining on resident bugs.

 

Call For Proposals For Soil Health Projects

The Washington Soil Health Committee is announcing the availability of competitive grants to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative approaches and technologies related to Soil Health on Washington agricultural and forest lands lands, as defined below. Proposals will be accepted from eligible entities in Washington State. The Soil Health Committee anticipates that the amount of funding available for support will be up to $10,000 per year for each approved proposal, subject to appropriations actions. Proposals for competitive consideration of grant awards for single or multi-year projects not to exceed 3 years in duration are requested for projects that focus on innovation, resource assessment, research, education, and public outreach. Proposals will be considered from conservation districts, non-profit organizations, governmental entities, and landowners.

For complete information and to apply, see this document.