In this blog, and more in the future, I am going to write about soil – what I’ve been learning about it, and how it relates to backyard forest restoration. In particular, I want to share some of my wonder and amazement.
Removing invasive plants from our backyard forests literally gets us into the soil. Every single time we pull out an invasive plant we experience the soil around its roots – its texture, its moistness, its depth, its smell. Pause for a moment and ask yourself, what is it about good soil that attracts us? The dark earthy smell? The crumbly texture? The sense of fertility? A glimpse into a mysterious realm that we do not understand, yet depend on for our very existence?
After I read the book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, by William Bryant Logan, I was inspired to learn more about the soil. I knew it was the habitat of worms, fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and other creatures, but I had no idea of their numbers or diversity. For example:
- “A single teaspoon of rich garden soil can hold up to one billion bacteria, several yards of fungal filaments, several thousand protozoa, and scores of nematodes.”
- The organisms in soil represent a large proportion of the Earth’s biodiversity.
Soil is so much more than sand, silt, and clay particles, of various sizes, and in varying proportions. It’s more than just a platform to support plants. Soil is alive.
When we work in the forest removing invasive plants, we are disturbing the soil with every step we take and every weed we pull. The biggest threat to soil is erosion, and there are things we can do to lessen the damage we cause, like covering disrupted soil with organic litter. Although our work will harm the soil, it won’t kill it, and with time it will mend itself. Also, I would like to believe that the soil itself benefits from the replacement of invasives with natives, because they are the plants that evolved in concert with our native soil.
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