Keeping local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay clean requires everyone to be actively involved in protecting water quality, managing nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, and building soil health. Jeff Ishee and Eric Bendfeldt caught up with Matt Kowalski of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) at a recent field day to talk about soil health and water quality. Matt serves as a watershed restoration scientist in Virginia for CBF and specifically focuses on agricultural best management practices and projects to restore wetland and riverside areas. Matt emphasizes that keeping water clean needs to happen farm by farm and lawn by lawn, and that we all can do our part to improve water quality and save the Chesapeake Bay.

To learn more about the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Mountains-to-Bay Grazing Alliance, please visit https://www.cbf.org/how-we-save-the-bay/programs-initiatives/multi-state-grazers-alliance.html and https://www.m2balliance.org/.

For information about year-round lawn care and ways to possibly incorporate a legume like Dutch white clover into your lawn for water quality and pollinators, please visit https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/soil-and-water/document/yardcare.pdf and https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/soil-water-conservation/you-your-land-landscape

As always, please join the Virginia Soil Health Coalition and 4 The Soil movement. You can commit to doing your part to build soil health and protect water quality by taking the pledge at https://www.4thesoil.org/take-the-pledge.html