At the Ocean County Soil Conservation District (OCSCD), we’re always excited to see local initiatives that promote understanding and care for our natural resources. That’s why we were particularly interested in a recent project by Mateo Gonzalez, a student at Kean University’s Kean-Ocean campus. Enrolled in Professor Becky Laboy’s Principles of Environmental Soil Science course this past Spring 2025, Mateo undertook a study comparing the health of forest soil with “backyard” soil, right here in Ocean County.
Mateo utilized a valuable tool for his research: the New Jersey Soil Health Assessment Guide. This guide was created by Eileen Miller during her time with the USDA-NRCS and is an excellent resource for anyone curious about the soil beneath their feet. It provides a straightforward way for residents and community members to take a deeper look at the soil in their own yards, gardens, or local areas.
The New Jersey Soil Health Assessment Guide evaluates soil health based on a point system across various categories. For each category assessed, a soil sample is assigned points: 5 points for “good” condition, 3 points for “fair” condition, and 1 point for “poor” condition. These individual category scores are then added up to determine the final condition of the soil sample. The total scores correspond to overall health ratings: Excellent (40 points), Good (38-25 points), Poor to Fair (24-10 points), and Poor (8 points). This structured approach helps homeowners understand the specific strengths and weaknesses of their soil.
The New Jersey Soil Health Assessment Guide offers several key benefits for home gardeners and homeowners aiming to manage their yards and lawns responsibly:
- Empowers Informed Decisions: The guide helps homeowners understand the current condition of their soil beyond just its appearance. By assessing properties like compaction, organic matter, and drainage, they can make informed decisions about specific management practices rather than relying on generic advice or unnecessary interventions.
- Identifies Specific Issues: It allows users to pinpoint particular problems in their soil. For instance, if the guide reveals high compaction, a homeowner might choose to aerate their lawn instead of just adding more fertilizer. If organic matter is low, they might focus on composting or adding natural amendments.
- Reduces Chemical Use: By understanding soil health indicators like nutrient levels (NPK) and pH, gardeners can avoid over-applying synthetic fertilizers or unnecessary pesticides. If the soil already has sufficient nutrients, or if a pH adjustment isn’t needed, they can save money and reduce potential environmental harm from runoff.
- Promotes Sustainable Practices: The guide encourages practices that improve soil biology and structure, such as increasing organic matter, which in turn enhances the soil’s ability to retain water and support healthy plant growth naturally. This aligns with more sustainable and environmentally friendly gardening approaches.
- Accessible and Practical: As Mateo’s project demonstrates, the guide is designed to be user-friendly, relying on visual observations and simple tests that can be performed without specialized equipment, making it accessible for the layperson. This means homeowners don’t necessarily need a professional to get a basic understanding of their soil’s health.
- Supports Long-Term Health: By regularly assessing their soil, homeowners can track changes over time and evaluate the effectiveness of their management strategies. This long-term perspective helps build truly healthy and resilient soil that requires less external input, creating a more self-sustaining ecosystem in their yard.
Why Soil Health Matters
As Mateo’s research highlights, soil is far more than just dirt; it’s an environment in itself that needs to remain healthy to function properly. Soil is essential for life, storing and cycling nutrients, supporting diverse organisms, regulating water drainage, and filtering out toxic compounds. In fact, soil is a huge carbon sink, holding significantly more carbon than the atmosphere or terrestrial plants. Unfortunately, human activities, such as applying fertilizers and insecticides, removing organisms, or replacing natural landscapes with buildings, can deteriorate soil health.
Mateo’s Investigation
Mateo compared soil samples from his backyard in Ocean Acres, Manahawkin to soil samples collected in the woods off Lakeview Drive in Barnegat. According to Web Soil Survey, his backyard was identified as having the Downer soil series, which falls under the Ultisols order. The forest site in Barnegat was identified as the Atsion series, belonging to the Spodosols order. Both towns reside in the Pine Barrens, with Mateo’s backyard perimeter housing Pitch Pine, while the forest was an oak-dominated upland.
He used the New Jersey Soil Health Assessment Guide to evaluate various properties, including compaction, soil tilth, erosion, drainage, organic matter, soil life, plant growth, and nutrient holding capacity/pH of the soil. Mateo’s hypothesis was that the soil in the forest would have higher NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) levels, and overall better health compared to his backyard soil.
Surprising Findings
After meticulously analyzing his samples, Mateo’s results were quite interesting. According to the NJ Soil Health Assessment, all six soil samples (three backyard and three forest) received a rating of “Good”. This meant that, based on the visual and handling assessments, none of the soil samples were in need of improvement – no need to add synthetic fertilizers to his backyard.
Looking at the averages from the NJ Soil Health Assessment, the backyard samples had an average score of 28.67 (with a standard deviation of 2.309), while the forest samples averaged 32 (with a standard deviation of 3.646). Despite the slightly higher average for forest soil, the standard deviations indicated a significant amount of overlap, suggesting little difference between the two types of soil.
For pH, the average for backyard soil was 5.83, and for the forest soil, it was 5.67, both indicating acidic conditions, which is expected in the Pine Barrens. Nitrogen levels were not surprisingly absent in all soil samples, showing 0.00 for both backyard and forest soils – expected due to the volatile nature of nitrogen. Phosphorus levels averaged 3.33 for backyard soil and 3.67 for forest soil. Potassium levels showed a wider array of values across individual samples, with averages of 1.67 for backyard soil and 2.00 for forest soil.
Statistically, Mateo’s findings proved the null hypothesis to be correct: there was no significant difference in the overall health quality between the two types of soil – backyard soil and forest soil. Mateo concluded that it’s not always necessary to add fertilizers to your lawn or garden. The best approach is to test your soil yourself using the NJ Soil Health Assessment Guide, or send your soil samples to Rutgers Soil Testing Lab to help guide your lawn and garden decisions.
What This Means for You
Mateo’s project is a fantastic example of how accessible soil science can be. The New Jersey Soil Health Assessment Guide is a valuable tool for anyone interested in understanding their local soil. It encourages hands-on observation of key properties like compaction, soil tilth, erosion, drainage, organic matter, soil life, and plant growth, alongside simple tests for pH and nutrient levels.
His research reminds us that sometimes the differences in our environment aren’t always what we expect, and even seemingly “landscaped” areas can maintain a surprising level of soil health. We commend Mateo for his thorough investigation and for contributing to our collective understanding of soil health in Ocean County! We hope his work inspires more residents to grab a shovel, consult the New Jersey Soil Health Assessment Guide, and take a deeper look at the living world beneath their feet. For more soil resources, visit the OCSCD website.