Tag Archive for: Water

Episode 253. How to Conserve Water at an Urban, Mountain Desert Farm

NCAT’s headquarters in Butte, Montana, has a complicated growing climate to say the least. That makes John Wallace’s job as farm manager of NCAT’s Small-Scale Intensive Farm Training program – or SIFT – challenging as well.
John Wallace and Victorian Smart
healthy soil

Assessing Soil Health on Grazing Lands Using a Shovel and a Knife

Did you know you can do a soil health assessment on your own pasture without having to send in soil samples to a laboratory? And this assessment costs only your time because it requires no special tools. Using the senses of sight, smell, and touch, along with very simple hand tools — a shovel and a knife — you can determine the health of the soil in your pasture in less than 30 minutes.
By Justin Morris, NCAT Regenerative Grazing Specialist
You can assess soil health with your senses and simple tools

How to Assess Soil Health on Grazing Lands Using a Shovel and a Knife

In this video, NCAT Regenerative Grazing Specialist Justin Morris…
Hands holding healthy soilUSDA NRCS

Watch: NCAT Releases Soil Health 101 Series

In a new video series: Soil Health 101: Principles for Livestock…
You can assess soil health with your senses and simple tools

Soil Health 101: Principles for Livestock Production

In this webinar, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Nina…

Episode 241. NCAT’s Soil for Water Project to Connect a Community of Regenerators

The National Center for Appropriate Technology has officially re-launched its Soil for Water project, opening access to the free, voluntary network to all commercial farmers, ranchers, and land managers across the United States. Soil for Water aims to connect farmers, ranchers, and land managers who are interested in land management practices that improve soil health, catch more water in soil, reduce erosion, sustain diverse plant and animal life, and filter out pollutants all while sustaining a profitable business.
NCAT Communications Director Emilie Ritter Saunders and NCAT Regenerative Grazing Specialist Linda Poole

Episode 231. Leave No Trace Farming

Damian Valdez and Jamie Williamson run Lighthouse Herb’n Farm, an organic herb, tea, medicinal plant, and dye-plant operation in eastern San Diego. The farm is located on what is considered Luiseño Payómkawichum native land. In this episode of Voices from the Field, Jamie and Damian talk with NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Katherine Favor about their ethic of “leave no trace” — how they farm organically in San Diego’s harsh desert climate in a way that honors this sacred native land, and ensures that it is kept intact for generations to come.
NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Katherine Favor and Damian Valdez and Jamie Williamson, Lighthouse Herb’n Farm
healthy soil

Help Shape Montana’s Soil Health Future

There’s nothing like a summer of vicious heat, drought, and grasshoppers to focus minds on the vital importance of healthy soil. Soil scientist Wallace Fuller said in 1975, “A cloak of loose, soft material, held to the Earth’s hard surface by gravity, is all that lies between life and lifelessness.” Across Montana, the summer of 2021 proved again just how crucial — and how vulnerable — that thin cloak of soil can be. Soil health is foundational to the resilience of land, and thus also to food systems, human health, and ecosystem function.
By Linda Poole, Regenerative Grazing Specialist
YouTube Soil health

NCAT Releases 19 Soil Health Innovations Videos

“The Soil Health Innovations Conference occupies the cutting edge of soil health across the country – on-farm practices, soil biology, carbon markets, and public policy,” said Steve Thompson, NCAT executive director. “This set of videos adds to NCAT’s trusted knowledgebase and provides a free resource to any producer or land manager working to improve soil conditions.”
You can assess soil health with your senses and simple tools

Soil Health and Composting with Nina Prater and Matt Casteel

In this webinar, Nina Prater, and NCAT Sustainable Agriculture…