HELENA — Legislators and soil lovers gathered to celebrate Montana’s Soil Health Week at the State Capitol on Wednesday.
Soil Health Week and Soil Health Day highlights the work of everyone stewarding soil health across Montana.
The week-long celebration is designed to raise awareness about how healthy soils can increase crop yields, strengthen food security, create greater climate resiliency, and improve nutrition.
Bill Milton, a rancher in Central Montana, says, “There is probably nothing more fundamental to life than soil; all the plants and all the animals that eat grass like mine need soil.”
In 2023, the Montana legislature passed a bipartisan resolution designating the first week of April as Montana Soil Health Week and the first Wednesday in April as Montana Soil Health Day.
“Not everything we do down here is really, really popular, but this was one that was," State Senator Butch Gillespie, R-Ethridge, said. "When we were pushing it through the committees and then on the floor my goodness sakes we were getting supportive calls from all over the state."
Milton and Gillespie believe that soil is something for all even if you aren’t a farmer, rancher, or scientist, because soil is what puts food on the table.
Soil Health Week events will be running across the state through April 7.
