Chances are you don’t give much thought to the soil you’re standing on, but there are professionals who do and students who can’t wait to get into the field. To learn more about the NMSU soil judging club, KRWG Public Media student reporter Elier Soto spoke to Katlin Velarde and Brooke White to learn more.
Transcript:
Elier Soto: Now at first glance, this might sound like young adults getting together to eat dirt, although.
Katlin Velarde: Sometimes we eat dirt.
Elier Soto: But soil science is much more complicated than eating dirt.
Brooke White: It's a huge spectrum of information and growing more every day. Just as you look above the ground, you see all these things, buildings, trees. It is a sign of what's below the surface. So, soil science is just studying an ecosystem on a micro level.
Katlin Velarde: Seeing how fertile the soil is as well, seeing if it's practical for agriculture, or if it's an ability for construction. Finals and nationals. They had to see the ability for somebody to build a basement in that soil area. So really soils encompasses everything from engineering to even liberal arts.
Elier Soto: There’s a lot that goes into soil judging competition, sometimes it's a matter of digging deep.
Brooke White: Soil judging is basically we're going to go and they're going to dig a pit in the ground. It will be around two feet to around six feet deep, and we will evaluate the soil. So, the different horizons, that's just layers within the soil and just to evaluate what we can use the soil for, how it got their unique features. Nationals had about 20 teams from different colleges around, and so you'll have a team from your college, and you'll also be judged individually. So, they will give you a pick card, a card that explains a soil analysis sheet. We'll go down in the pit finding out the scientific name classifications and then we'll turn it in, and they'll judge it based on a soil scientists' evaluation of that. And yes, there are winners and prizes .
Elier Soto: Katlin and Brooke agree that support is available, but more resources would be welcomed.
Katlin Velarde: It would be genuinely nice if public officials and leaders in our community would understand how vital it is to protect those resources. And as we see here in New Mexico, you know, you can take the Pueblos and native lands, for example, people are building on those areas and not understanding the ecology part of it. A lot of people will just try to tell you what you're missing and what you need to do rather than really wanting to learn, and I always say, you know, you got to just approach it how you would a friend.
Brooke White: For the college, we have had so many different farmers and agricultural help keep our funding alive and to make sure that we are still still up and running.
Elier Soto: These students urge the public to begin researching or go out to farmer’s markets and ask questions.
Katlin Velarde: If you want to be a part of the club, interested in traveling and competing, this is the stuff that we mainly talk about. We hope that people find our mission and hobby interesting. Climate in the world is changing right around us. And we got to learn how to adapt to that too. So be a lifelong long learner whether that means digging some pits or tasting some dirt, according to these students, it’s good to understand the ecosystem below our feet.
