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1. Introduction
Purpose of This Workbook
This workbook is a living document. Please make it your own!
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Write in it.
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Get it dirty.
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Keep it in your truck.
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Use it as a reference for tools to understand and monitor soils.
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Use it to support your teaching techniques.
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Copy forms and quizzes to use in monitoring and teaching.
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And, if you get it too dirty, coffee stained, muddy, wet, or otherwise wrecked, print
copies of all or part of it for free: https://quiviracoalition.org/techguides/
For producers
We provide background information on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of soils as
well as activities to try for monitoring and how different management activities fit into the Healthy
Soil Principles. We encourage you to reach out to the extension programs at your local universities,
Natural Resources Conservation Service, and local Conservation Districts to help determine the
techniques that may be best suited to your goals. And finally, we encourage you to speak to your
social and professional networks to learn from and share your knowledge with others.
For trainers and outreach educators
One of this workbook’s goals is to establish consistent baseline information and vocabulary that
will allow trainers and outreach educators to reduce confusion for the producers that we work
with across the state. This workbook is intended as a teaching tool, with activities and discussions
to do in person, but also someone could download it and read through it on their own. The soil
fundamentals section will root the reader in the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics
of soils. The soil health principles will help you discuss and evaluate management practices with
producers. We also provide new ways to teach and engage diverse audiences in active learning
when engaging them in discussions about soils. The in-field and activities are meant as “stepping
stones” for someone who has never thought about monitoring and evaluating their soil, before they
take on techniques that require specialized equipment/expertise/or are more costly. The idea is that
if people start building consistent monitoring into their operation, when a Technical Service Proider
comes out and says something like “You know, you’ll get texture better data if you send this sample
out to a lab instead of doing a ribbon test” it will just be a minor adjustment instead of a major new
thing to take on.