Found a suitable Site!!

I found a site that meets my criteria for doing my internship in Soil Micro Biology.

I am studying to be a Soil Food Web expert. I am taking courses from Dr Elaine Ingham, founder of The Soil Food Web. I completed the online courses in 2017 and to get certified I need to do a site project. The site project will be a year long project and if I can demonstrate to my mentor and teachers that I can apply my skills and knowledge on a real site, for a full year, then I can be certified as a Soil Food Web expert.

I have been searching for a suitable site to do this project for about a year. I have finally found the site that meets my criteria!!

Finding a site to do this project was not hard to find. I had several land owners open to the idea to do the project on their land. But I wanted to do this project on a site that could also be a show case for restoring land over a 3-5 year period. My first thought was to wait till I bought land of my own, but this plan was taking too long. I had also considered relocating and thought it might be best wait until after I relocated. But time was ticking away. Then a very good friend suggested I take a look at his property. He and his wife own 4 acres in a rural area, about 2 1/2 hour drive from where my business is. We met there and walked the property together. After a few hours of asking question and doing some research, I decided that this site meets all of my criteria. I am very grateful to my friend for this opportunity.

My goal is to be a consultant for farmers and gardeners, to reduce their inputs, and increase their yields.

My niche (specialty) will be as a Soil Food Web expert. Most farmers and gardeners know to importance of a healthy Soil Food Web, but very few evaluate the Soil health by looking at the Soil microorganisms under a microscope. By applying scientific methods of analysis and data collection, we can encourage the strategies/techniques that promote Soil health and discourage the strategies/techniques that don't promote soil health. As the health of the Soil improves, so does the health of the farm and ecosystem.

If the goal is to reduce inputs and increase yields, then the measurable markers for success will be many; Fewer man hours in the field, fewer energy inputs (fuels, electricity, etc), deep fertile Soil (in the gardens and surrounding areas), more biodiversity (both plants and animal interaction), no wasted resources, every element having multiple functions...and so on. We believe that these measurable markers are all dependent on a healthy Soil Food Web.

Now that I have a site to learn on and experiment on, I will be documenting my progress and failures here in this blog.