Spreading the soil love at TEDxTT 2012.

I’m a graduate student at the University of British Columbia; a Loam Ranger of sorts.  While I may have an agrarian heart, my work these days is in urban centers, hence the title “Soil in the City”.  I roam the halls of the old Macmillan building searching for ways to “raise the profile” of soil science.  I love to dig, plant, teach and share.  I’m cultivating a master’s degree, and I’ll be darned if it’s not the toughest crop I’ve ever tried to grow.  I’m supervised by a powerhouse of a professor whose passion for soil science education has converted countless students to our field and has encouraged me to take risks I probably wouldn’t have considered on my own.

Why study soil?  The simple answer is wonder.  There is a great mystery when we look down: the thousands of microbes flourishing, the imperceptible chemical transformations of oxidation and reduction, creation and destruction…those almost magical particles we call chelates.  We know so much, and yet so little. A blogger friend of mine once wrote that:

“gratitude’s starting point is wonder”.  I am grateful to live in a time where I can both enjoy the inherent value of the land as a gardener and access a university education to unearth the finer intricacies of these relationships as an academic.

The desire to share the knowledge I’ve gained along with my sense of wonder is ultimately what drove me to push my own boundaries and pursue graduate school.

This blog is my attempt at outreach, a shout out to the growing mass of people who care about soil, and perhaps a bridge for those just waking up.  It’s a mingling of my thoughts both personal and academic, as a student and teacher and life experience explorer.  Using the metaphor of the mighty micorrhizae that connect life below ground, this is me extending my network and building connections for an expanding system of knowledge, understanding, and creativity.  Welcome.  Dig in.