World Soil Day (WSD) is held annually on December 5 as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and advocating for the sustainable management of soil resources.
The theme for this year is Caring for Soils: Measure, Monitor, Manage, which underscores the importance of accurate soil data and information in understanding soil characteristics and supporting informed decision making on sustainable soil management for food security. Celebrate World Soil Day at home, at school or at work! Dig into the resources listed below that offer information, as well as fun activities you can do today, or any day, to engage, educate, and appreciate soils. (We are living on planet EARTH, after all!) Happy World Soil Day!
- Ocean County Soil Conservation District – extensive list of resources for home gardeners, educators and professionals
- Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations – learn more about World Soil Day
- Soil Science Society of America – SSSA’s outreach activities
- SSSA’s Dig Deeper, Soils4Kids webpage – play fun soil games, experiment with soil, explore soil careers
- SSA’s Soils4Teachers – find soil lessons and activities for the grade and topics you teach
- Web Soil Survey – access the largest natural resource information system in the world!
- Soil Web – an online soil survey browser, hosted by UC Davis
- Soil Web Apps – UC Davis provides a plethora of tools that can be used to access USDA-NCSS detailed soil survey data (SSURGO) for most of the United States