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Soil health starts with your land. Explore practical guidance by land type, learn how to assess your soil, or access educational tools to support your conservation goals.
Start with your land type to explore soil health practices tailored to your operation and concerns.
Soil is a living and life-giving natural resource. It is teaming with billions of microorganisms that are the keys to the graceful and interconnected environment that supports all our lives. Let’s celebrate and protect this valuable resource! Keep reading to learn what soil health really means, why it matters, and how to support it on your land.
Soil health is the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. It plays a critical role in regulating water, filtering pollutants, cycling nutrients, sustaining soil habitats, and promoting plant growth. Healthy soil not only resists degradation but also improves our environment, making it a cornerstone of sustainability and vitality.
Soil health is essential—it’s the foundation of life on our planet! It supports plant growth, boosts food production, and improves environmental quality. Healthy soil supplies vital nutrients, filters water, and acts as a carbon sink to address extreme weather. It also nurtures a diverse ecosystem of organisms that enhance plant growth and strengthen ecosystem resilience. Ultimately, human interaction with land determines soil health. Practices that reduce disturbance, maximize cover, promote biodiversity, and support living roots are key to maintaining and improving soil health across all land uses. Soil Health Management Systems can help you to maintain your crop or forage production while reducing your fertilizer and other inputs and decreasing reliance on irrigation. Healthy soils are less likely to experience water runoff and erosion and retain more water to be available to the plants that need it.
Soil Health Management Systems on cropland can lead to increased organic matter, more diverse soil organisms, reduced compaction, and improved nutrient storage and cycling. Healthy soils retain more water and are less susceptible to runoff and erosion, meaning more water will be available for crops.
Forest soil health is essential for the vitality of our ecosystems. It defines the capacity of forest soil to function effectively, supporting not only a diverse array of plant and animal life but also fostering biodiversity, enhancing productivity, and maintaining environmental quality.
Pastureland health and soil health are interdependent. The capacity of the soil to function affects pastureland ecological processes, including the capture, storage, and redistribution of water; the growth of plants; and the cycling of plant nutrients.
Rangeland health and soil health are interdependent. The capacity of the soil to function affects rangeland ecological processes, including the capture, storage, and redistribution of water; the growth of plants; and the cycling of plant nutrients.
Do you farm or ranch and want to make improvements to the land that you own or lease?
Natural Resources Conservation Service offers technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.
To get started with NRCS, we recommend you stop by your local NRCS field office. We’ll discuss your vision for your land.
NRCS provides landowners with free technical assistance, or advice, for their land. Common technical assistance includes: resource assessment, practice design and resource monitoring. Your conservation planner will help you determine if financial assistance is right for you.
We’ll walk you through the application process. To get started on applying for financial assistance, we’ll work with you:
Once complete, we’ll work with you on the application, or CPA 1200.
Applications for most programs are accepted on a continuous basis, but they’re considered for funding in different ranking periods. Be sure to ask your local NRCS district conservationist about the deadline for the ranking period to ensure you turn in your application in time.
As part of the application process, we’ll check to see if you are eligible. To do this, you’ll need to bring:
If you don’t have a farm number, you can get one from USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Typically, the local FSA office is located in the same building as the local NRCS office. You only need a farm number if you’re interested in financial assistance.
NRCS will take a look at the applications and rank them according to local resource concerns, the amount of conservation benefits the work will provide and the needs of applicants. View Application Ranking Dates by State.
If you’re selected, you can choose whether to sign the contract for the work to be done.
Once you sign the contract, you’ll be provided standards and specifications for completing the practice or practices, and then you will have a specified amount of time to implement. Once the work is implemented and inspected, you’ll be paid the rate of compensation for the work if it meets NRCS standards and specifications.
