So many things are happening in our world today so quickly that it can be overwhelming. My purpose is to look at a small corner of our world and try and bring a sense of sanity and usefulness to it.
Our soils are a precious asset that ensure continued life here on earth. As we continue to progress into the future my hope and goal is to help people understand and preserve what nourishes us. I believe it is possible to feed the world in an organic and sustainable way without increasing our overall agricultural footprint. By acting in a thoughtful way, integrating the best of the conventional and organic practices, utilizing the tools at our disposal, chemical and biological, we can produce enough food and preserve our environment. This may seem a tall order, but it can be very simple, each of us can contribute to a better world.
One of my specialties is the practical understanding of soil biology, how it affects plant and animal health, I will share what I know and I hope that together we can learn more.
The first thought is the title, "Who fertilizes the forest?". The simple answer is obvious, "nature", but that is not really enough. The organisms in the soils of a forest are responsible for nutrient cycling, converting organic materials into humus and creating soluble nutrients through predatory cycles.
This is a slight simplification of the idea, but here is a great reference to help clarify this concept.
(http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/concepts/soil_biology/biology.html)
The important thing here is a more practical idea. We can copy nature. We can change our perspective from, how to feed plants, to how to feed soil organisms, that will then feed the plants. Next time I will go into plant succession and how the balance of different soil organisms can influence plant productivity.
