Urban soil health assessment popularization in rural Utah
Agricultural Issues
Victoria Xiong
Extension Assistant Prof.
Utah State University
Kanab
Abstract
With a population of only 7800, Kane County, Utah, has over 70.5% of the residents with a garden with at least two vegetable/flower beds.. In a rural Utah county where over 95% of the land is public land, homeowners with small- acreage of well-maintained yard/garden is a long-lasting and popular tradition in the community.
The tradition of maintaining flower/vegetable gardens endures up-to-date gardening knowledge that can be publicized in the community through USU Extension programs. However, the knowledge to assess soil health does not match the other knowledge.
No records of soil samples were masked taken across the urban area of Kane County and tested for the recent decade. Starting in 2022 spring, with the $2000/year funding from the Kane County Commission, USU Extension-Kane is starting the soil health assessment program: a free-to-all all program that covers fees for soil sampling, shipping, and sample testing; then, if needed, the soil reports were read with clients individually along short lectures on other techniques to improve soil health. The topics focus on soil salinity control and solving, soil fertility improvement, composting, cover crops, and mulching. The information provided during these short consulting sessions is science-based, mostly from factsheets published by extension specialists from USU and other Intermountain West land grant universities.
Over 200 samples were collected in all urban areas of Kane County from 2022, 2023, and 2024. The sample depths were 6-10 inches, and USU analytical labs tested all samples for soil texture, pH, salinity, phosphorous, and potassium. By mid-2024, Kane County urban soil's general soil health database should be established preliminarily with geographic data.
According to the post-event evaluation, 95% of participants agreed that their overall experiences with the program were very good or excellent and were satisfied with the information provided by the program. All (100%) participants had much better knowledge of soil health. They would like to participate again in 2-5 years. While over 80% of the participants would apply the new knowledge to their gardens and gardening activities.
Authors: Victoria Xiong
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Victoria Xiong Extension Assistant Prof., Utah State University , Utah, 84741