Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources

As I wrote in my last post, the focus and excitement around soil biology leads many to believe that they have a soil biology problem. To fix this perceived problem, some recommend trying various types of soil amendments or inoculants to enhance the soil’s microbial community. This includes compost, manure, and their extracts and teas. There is a problem with this strategy though; the microbes at home in manure, compost, or in their extracts, tend to die off in the soil.

In the Columbia River Basin, as in other basins across the western United States, water allocation decisions and processes are important for making the most of naturally variable water resources for diverse instream and out-of-stream purposes. Tradeoffs inherently exist with so many competing uses for water, especially during drought years when available water is limited.