CNLANEWS
Soil degradation, which is a usual outcome of modern development practices, prevents soils themselves from providing ecosystem services, but also discourages successful green space plantings and their subsequent contributions too. The first approach to protect and enhance soil health is to minimize threats to degradation; the second is to adopt practices that build or maintain soil health. White and Paxton provided a few suggestions to the committee. In the Canadian Landscape Standard (CLS), soil was deemed so important to transplant success that a recent investment with Vineland Research and Innovation Centre resulted in a rewrite and update of Section 5 Growing Medium. All municipalities should have a copy of the CLS on hand to support those responsible for managing soil and plantings in cities. The second suggestion to the committee was to stop replacing green with grey.
agricultural, forest soils and northern peat soils. Although Paxton provided input on how nurseries manage soil health, most of their responses focused on the importance healthy urban soils play in climate adaptation and mitigation. Because of the importance of having green spaces to provide the ecosystem services critical to the 80 per cent of Canadians who live in urban areas, the health of urban soils must be considered too. Cities are not “natural” spaces and as such are not conducive to natural plant and forest growth. The dry, compacted soils needed to support buildings and roadways cannot support plant life. Urban green spaces, green infrastructure, and lawns and gardens cannot thrive and grow without healthy urban soils, but often the health of soils re-introduced into newly built areas is an afterthought. Urban soils require the same pre-planting planning that growers use — invest in the soil first, before even considering planting nursery stock or turf.
urbanization and misread outcomes of soil management practices. There is no overarching federal strategy currently in place to protect and conserve agricultural and forestry soils in this country. To protect and conserve farmland soil throughout Canada, the committee heard that all levels of government should work together to plan agriculture into, and not out of, communities. Farms cover 62.2 million hectares, or 6.2 per cent of Canada’s total land base. The vastness of our country suggests an abundance of soil, yet only 6.7 per cent of Canada’s land is suitable for agricultural use. On Feb. 13, 2024, Alan White, vice president and climate change adaptation chair of CNLA, and Phil Paxton, past president of the Canadian Ornamental Horticulture Alliance, were invited as witnesses to the Senate committee. They shared insights on soil health from an ornamental horticulture perspective. All prior witnesses provided insights into
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DECEMBER 2024 - JANUARY 2025 | 71
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