Updates from the Field
These past couple months have gone by in a flash, especially with the last six weeks being chock full of soil sampling. So far this year, our team has completed compost trials in over 15 sites across the state. Together, we have been looking for changes in soil carbon, species composition, microbial and nematode populations, etc. over time which can give those who work with the land a better understanding of soil health.
We started off in Marin County then spent long days sampling in Sonoma County and a couple sites in Yolo County. Over the next few days, we continued to sample at sites in Contra Costa, Solano, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Alameda. We all took a short rest then headed back out on the road to visit the Kaweah Oaks Preserve in Tulare County and then headed down to Santa Barbara County. After spending a couple of days there, it was off to San Diego County and then over to Kettleman City in Kings County. We then we took a breather for a few days before heading to Browns Valley in Yuba County and back to Santa Barbara the next week to help sample a set of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) plots for the Silver and Schimel labs.
I was lucky enough to travel around with an amazing core group of folks for this sampling tour—their attention to detail, awesome attitudes, and adaptability were keys to this sampling tour’s success.
Our crew consisted of members from the Silver Lab at UC Berkeley and the Schimel Lab at UC Santa Barbara who joined us in the field for collection, and much of the sample processing as well. Other participants have included NRCS & RCD staff, UCCE Livestock Advisors, and Point Blue On-site and Partner Biologists. Additionally, several microbiologists including Kelly Grauver, a postdoc at Arizona State, and Eric Dubinsky, a Guest Scientist in the Ecology Dept. at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and a nematologist Gisele Herren from Ghent University in Belgium along with her crew, have accompanied us on the tour and have been helping while simultaneously collecting samples for their research. It should also be noted that the compost is coming from one source, West Marin Compost, to increase scientific integrity, per guidance from the Silver Lab.
I will be putting together a presentation about this baseline sampling tour and the subsequent delivery and spreading for these compost field trials where I will brag in greater detail about these folks, and I hope to complete that and make it available to all of you in early 2017.
Over the past few weeks, we sampled a couple of more sites in Fresno and Mendocino counties while we worked to secure the compost and plan the logistics for the statewide spreading event happening at the end of this month. We will be simultaneously delivering and spreading compost starting in a couple of weeks, so I’ll let you know how all that goes in December’s newsletter. Thanks again for reading, and Happy Turkey Day!
Best,
Jeff
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