Iowa's Remarkable Soils

"Sometimes called "black gold," Iowa's deep, rich soils are a treasure that formed over thousands of years under the very best of the world's grasslands, the tall-grass prairie, which produced the finest soils in the world. They are diverse and complex, and hold within them a record not only of Iowa's prehistoric past, but also of the changes that took place after settlers came from the east and utterly transformed the land, and of the changes taking place today in response to global warming. In language that is scientifically sound but accessible to the layperson, this book explains the nuts and bolts of what makes up a soil, how soils slowly formed over centuries and millennia in the land between two rivers, and how hundreds of scientists have classified and mapped them on all of Iowa's 36 million acres. Its soils are what made Iowa a premier agricultural state, both in terms of acres planted and bushels harvested. But in the last hundred years, large-scale intensive agriculture and urban development have severely degraded most of our soils. Add Iowa's rolling, often steep topography to the equation, and for decades we have had the dubious distinction of leading the nation in soil erosion. The water running off of fields and lawns-over soils too compacted and degraded to "drink" the rain-carries soil, fertilizers, and pesticides to our streams and lakes. But some innovative Iowans are beginning to repair and regenerate their soils by treating them as the living ecosystem and vast carbon store that they are. To paraphrase Aldo Leopold, these new pioneers are beginning to see their soils as part of a community to which they and their descendants belong, rather than commodities belonging to them. And they are eagerly spreading the word"--