Thank you-Carla and Theodora, President Berdahl, Senate President Kyr, Members of the Senateand other guestshere today.
I am immensely honored and humbled to accept this award. It has been my privilege to serve the past 2 years as a Senator representing Classified Staff.There are many Classified folks across campus who are deserving of this award –I know many personally and it would take a LONG time to go through the list. So this is for all of you too!
Today,I would like to say a few words about healthy soil. Why, you ask, does this have anything to do with the University of Oregon and leadership? Well-I believe that maintaining a healthy University has much in common with maintaining healthy soils.
Why care about soil? It sustains all plant life, which we depend on and so do many other species. It cleans water and filters pollutants. It sequesters carbon, possibly more than what is stored in large trees.It supports structures.
Soil gets no respect-look at the expressions we use:in politics, there is“mud-slinging’, someone’s reputation may get “soiled”, when there is slanderous journalism, it’s called “dirt”.
We need to have greater respect for our soils. When we build new buildings and landscapes, we need to protect our soil; there seems to be an attitude that the soil can be easily replaced, we haul it off by the truckload and bring in a lighter sterile soil that has no life or texture.Often we have large amounts of construction rubble and junk left at the bottom of planting spaces and then we stick in a few huge trees and wander why they die in 2 years. And we want to avoid soil compaction-it is very easy to destroy soil, it can happen in a few hours, and may take many years to build back up.It can take 15 years in a wet climate to make only about a half inch of soil. It’s even slower in a dry climate! Sometimes unknowingly and with good intentions, we disrupt the delicate balance, the connections between organisms when we think we are doing the right thing.We have a collective memory and a richness in our shared experience and in the wisdom of our elders,that we sometimes do not draw on very well.
Secondly, the biology of our soils is made up of many many organisms-each has a very important role. Over the past years, I have been a disciple of Dr Elaine Ingham’s work at OSU which details and explains what she calls the “Soil Foodweb” There are amazing relationships below the surface, mysterious and mostly invisible to the naked eye.Millions of tiny bacteria break down organic material and release nutrients. Tree roots are dependent on tiny strands of mychorrhizal fungi to make intimate bonds with them and to draw in water and nutrients from the soil. And-even though we only see the larger earthworms and insects, there are millions of tiny fungi, bacteria and other organisms present-without them the larger members of the food chain would never be there.We need to nurture and enrich ALL organisms, find ways to honor and celebrate the invisible and hard -working individuals on our campus,or we never will be able to grow large trees and beautiful rhododendrons. And isn’t that what Oregon is known for?
We do funny things in the horticultural world-one can purchase mychorrhizal fungi in tiny packets to sprinkle around a new tree’s root zone when we plant; there is limited research to show that this does any good, but it can’t hurt and it makes us feel good. We don’t know if those fungi will stick around or even if they will be compatible with the soil chemistry and the plants that are already present.It is very easy to promote and invite diversity, much harder to maintain it over time.
Thirdly, we need to occasionally aerate the soil and add new organic material, bring new life, fresh ideas. Soils get stale, and sometimes develop a hard shell from the rain and sun pounding on the surface. This can be hard work and can also be painful, but it pays off.Sometimes on our campus we need to break through the hard shells, forget “the way we have always done things”, and stir things up a little.
Lastly, we need to test the soil periodically, and preferably before the plants show stress and the whole system falls apart. This may involve a simple pH test or sending samples off to laboratories for more extensive tests. But sometimes the easiest way to test the soil is to take a shovel and dig down into the soil, to feel it in your fingers and even smell it. Good soil smells good; if it smells like a sewer, there is something wrong. There is no drainage,no air space and no oxygen , anaerobic bacteria are thriving. This is not a good environment for growth, at least not for the things we want to grow.
In conclusion-You can read into this whatever you like..if you are just thinking about soil, well, that’s a good thing. But I hope you will take this further and be inspired by the metaphor.
Dr. Ingham says that soil health is not an end in itself; that soil needs to be evaluated by how it protects and improves its functions as habitat, sustaining agriculture, maintaining water quality…just as a University’s health should be evaluated by how it serves its students, faculty and staff, and the greater community.
I hope you will think about what we can do as individuals and collectively as a group, to feed and sustain a healthy University“foodweb”.
Thank you.