Kentucky’s Soil
By: Olivia Crowe
It spans from the banks of the Ohio River to the foothills of Appalachia
Mountains. It embraces the roots of our bluegrass state. As it clings to the hooves
of our Kentucky thoroughbreds. It is Kentucky's greatest natural resource and it is
right under our feet. Kentucky soil provides the nutrients necessary to feed
Kentucky families, purifies the water that sustains Kentucky's environment, and
serves as a home and an asset to Kentucky's wildlife. I feel Kentucky’s soil is an
important part of our world and should be taken care of at all cost, and as a team
we can solve this worldly problem.
When treated right, Kentucky soil provides the nutrients necessary for our
vast abundance of agriculture to thrive and flourish. It supplied thirteen of the
sixteen minerals necessary to grow the crops that fed Daniel Boone during his
exploration of Kentucky in the eighteenth century. It sustained the crops that have
helped Kentucky tobacco farmers live decent lives in the rural setting of Kentucky's
beautiful farmland. Without it, Rose Monroe would have starved in her Pulaski
County home long before she became the American icon of World War II, and
other famous people would not have made it without the nutrients of Kentucky’s
soil.
With soil being one of the most important natural resources that is often
under noticed. The importance of soil conservation is relatively less talked about as
compared to water conservation and other natural resources. The soil that is
everywhere is mostly taken for granted. Its omnipresence is surprisingly the reason
behind us human beings, taking the soil down the wrong paths for Kentucky. We
rarely even think of it as a natural resource that needs to be conserved, it is a part
of the natural wealth that needs to be preserved. Some of the strategies for
preventing the soil from getting eroded and preventing it from losing its fertility
due to an adverse alteration in its chemical composition are keeping plants in it at
all times and having lots of trees to prevent erosion.
A few ways out of millions of ways are listed below to prevent soil erosion.
Establishing and maintaining ground cover vegetation, benefits are as follows:


Minimize wind and water soil erosion
Improve soil quality by selecting plants that help improve organic matter



Improve air quality by using perennial plants including trees, shrubs, grasses,
and perennial forbs
Enhance wildlife habitat by planting native grasses, forbs, and shrubs
Improve water quality by increasing vegetative cover
No tilling cropland, managing the amount and distribution of plant residue on the
soil surface and limiting soil surface disturbance. The benefits are as follows:





Reduce surface water erosion
Reduce wind erosion
Improve soil organic matter
Increase plant available moisture
Provide food and cover for wildlife
Mulching applying plant residues or other appropriate materials to the soil. The
benefits are:






Provide erosion control
Minimize weed establishment and growth
Conserve soil moisture
Enhances vegetative cover
Conserves soil moisture
Improves soil quality
Contour buffer strips, narrow strips of permanent vegetative cover around hill
slopes alternated down the slope with wider cropped strips that are farmed on
contours. The benefits are:




Reduce sheet and rill erosion
Reduce transport of sediment and other water-borne contaminants
downslope
Increase water infiltration
Reduce wind borne soil loss
Conservation crop rotation, growing crops in a recurring sequence on the same
field. The benefits are:





Reduce sheet and rill erosion
Reduce wind erosion
Maintain the balance of nutrients
Improve organic matter
Reduction in water use
Prescribed burning, the benefits of a controlled fire to a predetermined area is as
follows:







Control exotic weed species
Control plant disease
Reduce wildfire hazards
Improve wildlife habitat
Improve plant vigor
Enhance seed and seedling production
Restore and maintain ecological site
Kentucky soil has nourished the crops that have fed Kentucky families for
centuries, and Kentucky just wouldn't be the same without it. However,
pollution and erosion are taking their toll on our age-old friend, and if we don't
do something about it, Kentucky will never find out what potential is invested in
the generations to come. For there will not be enough nutrients in the soil to
provide food for tomorrow's leaders and explorers, and the generations of the
world will never see Kentucky's next great politician, scientist, artist or athlete.