Improving Soil Health on Sports and Recreational Fields

One of the most diverse ecosystems in the world lives under our feet called the soil microbiome. The soil microbiome includes billions of bacteria, archaea, fungi and protozoa.  Sports and recreational field managers can increase turfgrass field performance by improving soil health and microbiome conditions with compost and other organic matter rich material.

This workshop invites managers across the Midwest to share their efforts to improve soil health and the microbiome on sporting fields.  The morning features preliminary microbiome research and work by Dr. Paul Koch, Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin and Dan Dinelli, Golf Course Superintendent for the North Shore Country Club.  In the afternoon, Midwest Grows Green covers its soil health improvement work across the Midwest in Greater Chicago, Greater Grand Rapids and Champaign County.  Finally, MGG’s Ryan Anderson discusses options to start improving soil health this growing season through programs offered by LawnandLand.org and MGG’s technical assistance program at bit.ly/MGGassistance.

This webinar is made possible thanks to support from Stonyfield Organic.  Stonyfield Organic has helped the Chicago Park District, Lisle Park District and City of East Grand Rapids transition six fields to organic by funding technical assistance support from organic lawn care expert, Chip Osborne of Osborne Organics, and MGG.

Other sponsors include EarthWorks Turf, the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition, Good Nature Organic Lawn Care and Midwest Bio-Tech. To learn more about sponsoring this webinar, please visit bit.ly/MGGsponsor or contact Ryan Anderson at randerson@ipminstitute.org