Celebrate Texas soil and water conservation week April 24

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Healthy soil, health life: As simple as it seems, it’s wildly complex…the basis of our lives all starts with the soil beneath our feet. Soil provides the food on our plates, the clothes on our backs, the foundation for our homes and offices, the luscious grass that the children play in and the trees we need to breathe.

It all starts with soil…healthy soil, healthy life. “Healthy soil gives us life through providing clean air and water, ample crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes. Soil does all this by performing five essential functions:

• 1.Water Management – Soil helps control where rain, snowmelt, and irrigation water goes. Water and dissolved solutes flow over the land or into and through the soil.
• 2. Sustaining Plant and Animal Life – The diversity and productivity of living things depends on soil.
• 3. Filtering and Buffering Potential Pollutants – The minerals and microbes in soil are responsible for filtering, buffering, degrading, immobilizing, and detoxifying organic and inorganic materials.
• 4. Cycling Nutrients – Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other nutrients are stored, transformed, and cycled in the soil.
• 5. Physical Stability and Support – Soil structure provides a medium for plant roots as well as provides support for human structures and protection for archeological treasures.

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Since 1939, the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) and Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) across Texas have been working to encourage the wise and productive use of natural resources. It is our goal to ensure the availability of those resources for future generations, so that all Texans’ present and future needs can be met in a manner that promotes a clean, healthy environment and strong economic growth.

Your Hopkins-Rains SWCD can work with you to develop a conservation plan for your farm or ranch to improve soil health and provide resources on responsible natural resource management. Conservation plans can be tailored to the needs of each individual landowner including crop rotation, wildlife habitat enhancement, forest management, nutrient management, pest management, irrigation system efficiency and erosion control measures.

As the population of the state continues to increase, maintaining the productivity of our soil and water resources becomes increasingly vital in meeting the food, fiber and resource needs for all Texans. TSSWCB and SWCDs are committed to working with farmers, ranchers, and private landowners to conserve and protect the natural resources of Texas.

TEXAS STEWARDSHIP WEEK: APRIL 24 – MAY 1, 2022

Contributed by Hopkins-Rains Soil and Water Conservation District

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