The Smart Soils Community of Practice (CoP) held its first face to face meeting in March 2025 in the Monaro, Snowy Mountains and Canberra over the period 18 – 20 March 2025.
The CoP is convened by Soil Science Australia, funded through the Australian Government’s Climate Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust. Its members include the Regional Soil Coordinators, the Soil CRC, TERN Australia, the CSIRO and representatives from the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The Smart Soils CoP is helping facilitate soil extension services and networks, sharing innovative soil science information and tools to improve sustainable soil management practices.
Insights from Smart Soils Community of Practice
The SQNNSW Hub’s Regional Soil Coordinator, Cameron Leckie, was fascinated by the soil formation processes on display in the Monaro and Snowy Mountains.
These areas provide excellent demonstrations of soil and landscape formation processes, ss well as the implications for management - from multiple perspectives including production, the environment and infrastructure.
There were many highlights but two that were particularly interesting. The first was observing the multiple basalt lava flows present in a silage pit at Coolringdon Station. The weathering patterns were clearly visible in the exposure providing an opportunity to observe soil formation in action! In this case a beautiful dark red Ferrosol (iron rich) soil.
The second was the primary influence of climate on soil formation on the granodiorite geology of the Snowy Mountains. Soil profiles were examined at two stops, one near the bottom of the range, and one near the top. With around three times the precipitation, the alpine humic soil at Dead Horse Gap was very different to the pale, shallow nutrient depleted soil at the bottom (where interestingly, the action of ants has resulted in a layer of stone being moved 10 – 15 cm downwards into the soil).
The CoP also had the opportunity to hear the latest on a range of Australian Government programs including the Future Drought Fund, Carbon Farming Outreach Program, the Clean Energy Regulator and an update on soil carbon ERF projects, the National Soil Action Plan and Climate Smart Agriculture program as well as examples of soil programs within the ACT. The CoP also had the opportunity to visit the CSIRO's soil archive - an important repository for soil research.
A key takeaway was the critical importance of growing a skilled and knowledgeable soil workforce in addressing the significant soil and landscape challenges we face! The depth of knowledge, developed over decades, of the soil professionals whose supported the face-to-face event was incredible, and highlighted just how critically important these people (and developing a new generation of soil professionals) are if we are to address the many and varied soil related challenges that Australia faces.