Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

W1196 Accomplishments in 2024:

The W1196 workgroup met virtually on February 16, 2024 to discuss pooling/compiling of data from 4 participant states and with previously published soil health data.  The group also met on December 3, 2024 to discuss the pooling of western US soil health data.  We are on track according to milestones outlined by the W1196 workgroup.

Utilizing the W1196 Google sheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UuDGPpZdnnR06VZ_6VzVETJsg565ZG2Nrs2x9AnwTXA/edit#gid=80618355), which houses participants basic (agro)ecosystem information pertinent to site location, responsible member contact information, site characteristics, crops and cropping rotations, and information pertaining to the five principles of soil health promoted by the NRCS (e.g., soil cover, minimize disturbance, diversity, living roots, and livestock integration), Drs. Caley Gasch and recently hired post-doc Victoria Monsaint-Queeney (both from The University of Alaska – Fairbanks) began collecting western US soil health data from key W1196 participants in Alaska, Washington, Colorado, and Hawaii.  They will likely collect additional soil health data from Arizona and Utah based on our December 3^rd group meeting.  Western US soil health data is currently being pooled into the following overarching western US locations: a) cold-wet; b) cold-dry; c) warm-wet; d) warm-dry.  First steps for data synthesis will focus on carbon-based soil health indicators to see how they are similar or different across the western US region as a function of management practices.

Plans for the coming year:  We have asked members who would like to have their data considered as part of Drs. Gasch and Monsaint-Queeney’s efforts to send data to them by no later than March 2025.  We anticipate holding an informal meeting in April 2025 for those W1196 members who have contributed data, in order to discuss data analyses moving forward and ensuring that we are addressing W1196 objectives 1 and 2.