Why Healthy Soil Matters – In Science and In Practice
Soil is the foundation of life. Growing food on unhealthy soil is like building on shaky ground – unsustainable and risky.
Healthy soil depends on a living network of organisms, including mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobial bacteria, which form symbiotic relationships with plant roots. These organisms boost nutrient uptake, improve soil structure, and support plant growth. Yet when Wiebke (TreeProjectReveg Coordinator) thinks about soil, it’s often the simple image that appears first: dirty fingernails.
Dirty hands from preparing the potting mix for sowing – the soil the seeds will soon push their first little sprouts into — to hands covered in all kinds of brown and red tones on planting days, when we plant the seedlings our wonderful volunteer growers have nurtured into healthy little plants.
While we’re getting dirt under our nails, the invisible world beneath us is doing its own complex work. Modern agriculture has disrupted much of this delicate balance. Herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilisers can harm vital soil organisms. Before the 1970s, farmers relied on repeated ploughing to control weeds—a practice that severely damaged soil structure. Conservation tillage was introduced as a less destructive alternative, but it brought its own challenges: chemical dependency, declining biodiversity, and herbicide-resistant weeds.
And still, there is so much we do not know. The truth is, we’ve only studied a fraction of the soil biome. Most species and their interactions remain a mystery – as do the long-term effects of chemical residues and their breakdown products.
Those unknowns echo the questions Wiebke often asks on planting days:
- Will this little tree or shrub be able to take hold in this soil?
- Will its roots push through stony, waterlogged, sandy, nutrient-rich or nutrient-poor ground?
- Will it help prevent erosion, improve habitat, or one day drop its own seeds?
- And what about all the microorganisms we can’t even see?
So much of our future is tied to soil and its health. With 8 billion people and counting, we must find ways to produce food and restore landscapes in ways that nurture soil, sustain ecosystems, and secure the future for all life.
For us at TreeProject, it’s incredibly rewarding to work with volunteer growers getting their hands dirty sowing seeds, and with landholders who value soil health and offer their land for revegetation to give back to Country.
Because every seedling planted, every soil organism protected, and every caring hand in the earth moves us toward a healthier, more resilient future.