IF YOU WANT TO MAKE IT RAIN – TAKE CARE OF YOUR SOIL
WHY DROUGHTS AND FLOODS ARE SYMPTOMS OF THE SAME PROBLEM – AND HOW TO REPAIR THIS.
THERE IS A LOT OF CONCERN AROUND WATER THESE DAYS – EITHER WORRY ABOUT THE LACK OF IT, EXCESS OF IT, ITS POOR QUALITY – OR A COMBINATION OF THE ABOVE.
Many of us feel powerless in the face of these problems with our water, mainly focussing on rain as either the solution or the culprit of our plight. Yet, we have more power in alleviating these conditions than many believe. Natural rain is a symptom – not a cause – let’s shift our focus to understand the real – the underlying – problems to find lasting solutions instead of bandaids.
Not surprisingly the solutions are often simple, low tech and cheap, which goes against the grain of large corporations driving expensive marketing strategies in agriculture, making misleading claims and aiding their bottom line. This makes it even more imperative to understand how healthy water cycles work to enable us to discern, keep our soil healthy and the money in our wallet – and keep the bastards honest. Find more information in my article ‘Marketing And Political Deceptions In Agriculture’.
The solutions require us to think outside the box and swim against the tide. This is the real difficult part.
Firstly, let’s have a look at the global distribution of water. We have a fixed amount on our planet and have approximately the same amount of water as when dinosaurs were around. You could argue that it is still the same water – meaning that each time you take a sip you are drinking from the same source that dates back to the formation of the Solar System.
97% of water is liquid, 2% is solid ice, 1% is fresh drinkable water of which only 0.1% is rivers. Simplified, water does not simply disappear, it relocates due to broken water cycles. Repairing these water cycles recycles and relocates water back to where it is needed.
What is widely unknown is that one of the main drivers of natural rain is healthy soil, or more precisely, healthy soil biology.
I explain this in detail in my book ‘Radical Soil Care’ and give you here some extracts:
There is that famous quote (…) from Paul Harvey – ‘Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.’ He has got this back to front. It should read: We won’t have any rain without those six inches of topsoil. Masanobu Fukuoka, author of the ‘One-Straw Revolution’, said that ‘the rain comes from the ground’. He also said that the desert does not form due to the absence of rain, but it stops raining because of lack of plants and soil biology. In other words, IT RAINS FROM THE GROUND UP.
The difference between dirt and soil is the presence of soil organic matter. Soil organic matter is where most of our soil biology lives. Soil biology is all bacteria, fungi and microorganisms living below ground. They are the driving force for all life below and above ground.
No soil biology – no life. No soil biology – no water. Soil organic matter is its habitat. No habitat, no inhabitants. If we don’t have soil organic matter, soil biology has nowhere to live.
UNDERSTANDING THE SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOIL ORGANIC MATTER AND SOIL BIOLOGY IS VITAL FOR OUR SUCCESS IN SOIL MANAGEMENT, WHICH IN TURN IS VITAL FOR REPAIRING BROKEN WATER CYCLES.
And just because Gippsland, here in Victoria is green, that does not mean that our soils are not deteriorating. The colour green can be very misleading and can hide a lot of ecological sins
Soil biology plays a pivotal role in:
- Biodiversity
- Food – nutrient content and food security
- Health
- Soil Structure – erosion and land-slippage
- Water Holding Capacity – preventing droughts and floods and mitigating bushfire risk
- Carbon Sequestration – photosynthesis
Each topic represents ecological cycles that are complex and synergistic. They cannot be separated and dealt with individually. They affect each other on multiple layers, demonstrating the importance of holistic thinking and the risks of silo thinking. In this article I focus on the water cycles – topic 5.
SOIL ORGANIC MATTER IS QUITE A SMALL COMPONENT OF SOIL, IDEALLY ABOUT 5%. I HAVE SEEN UP TO 9% BUT THAT IS STILL AN EXCEPTION. EVEN THOUGH IT IS JUST A SMALL PORTION, ITS WATER-HOLDING CAPACITY IS ENORMOUS.
CONSERVATIVELY, WE CAN EXPECT THAT AN ADDITIONAL 1% OF SOIL ORGANIC MATTER COULD REASONABLY HOLD 100,000 LITRES OF WATER PER HECTARE UNDERGROUND.
To give you a visual – I have 30,000-litre domestic water tanks at home (see picture). An additional 1% of soil organic matter would provide us with approximately three of those water tanks per hectare extra water holding capacity underground. Mind boggling, isn’t it?
Here is how it works. The topsoil’s organic matter and soil biology act like a sponge and absorb water. Any water that hits the property, either as rain, runoff from higher ground or even as dew, gets absorbed, stored and managed by soil biology such as the mycelium mats underground. Once they are saturated, they will release the water through their capillaries – which by now runs clear.
THAT IS TO SAY, ANOTHER SYMPTOM OF FUNCTIONING SOIL BIOLOGY, OR THE LACK THEREOF, IS THE QUALITY OF THE WATER RUNOFF OF A PROPERTY. THE RUNOFF AFTER A DOWNPOUR SHOULD BE CLEAR. IF IT IS BROWN OR EVEN MUDDY, IT CARRIES AWAY OUR PRECIOUS TOPSOIL IN ITS WAKE.
The additional humidity in the soil acts like thermal mass. It stabilises the temperature in and above the ground, which leads to cooler soil in summer and warmer soil in winter; thus preventing the soil from drying out in summer and frost damage in winter, and protecting in turn, the soil biology.
Increased humidity in the soil attracts more humidity above ground. Initially as dew and mist, later as natural rain. As I said before, it rains from the ground up.
We need those famous six-inches-plus of topsoil to make it rain in the first place. Now a self-perpetuating virtuous cycle of water retention has started and we have initiated the repair of the broken water cycle. The more we repair those cycles the more water will be attracted to that area increasing dew, natural rainfall and stabilising the water cycles thus making them more resilient.
Floods are the flip side of droughts and another symptom of broken water cycles.
When water hits healthy ground with healthy soil biology, that very soil biology manages the influx of water through its capillaries as healthy soil biology acts like a sponge. If the sponge is missing the water starts to run off, removing even more topsoil in its wake, decreasing the absorption capability of the soil even further. The now floating topsoil results in nutrient rich and sediment laden runoffs, causing all kinds of havoc downstream – from clogging up infrastructure to feeding the wrong organisms like algae on its way. The flow-on effects are endless and the pun is entirely intended.
MOST OF OUR TOPSOIL DOES NOT REMOTELY HAVE THE AMOUNT OF SOIL ORGANIC MATTER REQUIRED TO MANAGE STRONG NATURAL RAINFALLS. THE MOMENTUM OF THE RUNOFFS BECOMES EXACERBATED BY THE BUILT UP OF NATURAL FLOODPLAINS, INCREASING THE SPEED OF THE WATER AND THUS INCREASING THE DAMAGE EVEN FURTHER. Additionally floodplains often get artificially drained, further increasing the speed of the water running off the area exacerbating the broken water cycles – and on and on it goes.
Soil biology is a real miracle factory, not only does it attract water, it also cleans it. Our allies underground – mycelium and bacteria are a far superior way to fix any water toxicity. It is amazing what soil biology can clean up.
Without a doubt we deal with increased exposure to toxic compounds in our environment, found in air, water and soil. Water gets polluted in many ways. Contaminated runoffs from chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers to begin with. Then there are additives like fluoride and chlorine, and – a concern for many – aerial threats like acid rain, cloud seeding and chemtrails. More information about those you find in my article ‘Acid Rain Is Real’.
Acid rain is real and many of us have to deal with it. If you want to find out if you are affected catch some rain water in a clean container – glass is ideal – and do a pH-test. Further details about pH tests and what they really mean is found in my article ‘Acid Rain Is Real‘. There you also find other methods about how to test water like asking our worms or even our bodies with simple biofeedback measures. Find more information about treatment options for our soil and water including homeopathic solutions in my article ‘How To Heal Our Soil‘.
Once we understand how healthy water cycles work, it becomes obvious that relocating water by irrigation or cloud seeding can only ever be a bandaid solution further aggravating the underlying issues exacerbating the vicious cycle of drought and floods.
AN EXAMPLE FOR DISASTROUS WATER MANAGEMENT IS THE MURRAY-DARLING BASIN, WERE FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL GREED PLUS A TOTAL LACK OF UNDERSTANDING – OR CONVENIENT IGNORANCE – OF HOW WATER CYCLES WORK, LED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE ECOSYSTEM.
BY TAKING OUT WATER FROM HEALHY CYCLES THE SOIL BIOLOGY in the vicinity deteriorates resulting in broken water cycles. Then the water gets dumped over areas without sufficient soil biology to process it, washing away the healthy topsoil, clogging natural and artificial drainage, causing areas to flood.
Relocating water only becomes necessary when the soil’s water cycle is broken or the crop is not suitable for the natural conditions like growing cotton in the Northern Territory, which requires longterm extraction of groundwater. This destroys large water cycles causing thousands of hectares of native vegetation to die and ancient springs, like the world-famous springs in Mataranka, to dry out – more information here. Irrigation without serious and genuine longterm improvement of soil organic matter is futile at best. At worst it will become a menace, washing out nutrients, creating nutrient rich runoff laden with topsoil and causing havoc in all waterways below and above ground in the process.
Broken water cycles are always a symptom of lack of soil biology. The solution, the way forward to repair broken water cycles, is to build up sufficient soil organic matter to not only attract natural dew and rainfall, but ultimately clean the water to provide healthy runoffs and healthy waterways. There are many possibilities to build soil organic matter and you find some in my article ‘How To Heal Our Soil’ and in my book ‘Radical Soil Care’.
There are some corporations and institutions picking up on the challenge and promising a quick-fix. Please read my article ‘Marketing And Political Deceptions in Agriculture’ to avoid expensive disappointments and keep those bastards honest.
Fiddling with the symptoms, in this case rain, rather than solving the root problem, in this case lack of soil organic matter and soil biology, does longterm always cause more harm than good. Always.