Planning for Soil Health
Instructional Workbook to Become an Agrarian Planner
Katherine Ottmers; Elise Suronen, M.S.; Amy Larsen, M.A.L.D.; and Eva Stricker, PhD.
This workbook provides information and exercises to support a person with ranching/farming background to become a Planner and to collaborate on and write a Soil Health Plan that focuses on aligning decisions and management with the Healthy Soil Principles. Because soil is involved in all major ecological cycles (carbon, water, nutrients, energy) and can house an astonishing biodiversity of microbes, invertebrates, and plants, focusing on the soil enables us to think both broadly at the watershed scale or regional socioeconomic context as well as at the variation among pastures/fields in a single operation. Focusing on soil health involves whole-systems or holistic thinking. Soil Health Plans are designed to align with the Healthy Soil Principles in all aspects of prioritization, implementation, and monitoring/evaluation. The purpose of this planning work is to support food producers to build healthy soils.
