Dig It! The Secrets of Soil - The Soils Exhibit Opens at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC

This summer the Smithsonian Institution opened its doors to Dig It! The Secrets of Soils, an incredible montage where visitors from around the world are discovering the amazing world of soils. The exhibit’s website invites visitors to journey into the "skin of the earth" to explore the amazing world of soils. Completely familiar yet largely unknown, soils help sustain virtually every form of life on Earth. Dig It! transports visitors to the world of fungi, bacteria, worms, and countless other soil organisms to discover the amazing connections between soils and everyday life, encouraging visitors to think about this hidden world in a whole new way.

The opening was preceded by a U.S. Congressional Resolution (S. Res. 440), passed on June 23, 2008, "recognizing soil as an essential natural resource, and soils professionals as playing a critical role in managing our Nation's soil resources."

Many organizations and individuals contributed to the realization of this exhibit, including Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) employees in California. Susan Southard, Soil Scientist, participated in the exhibit design committee for four years. She attended the opening ceremonies and was very impressed with the results. "I wanted to see the reaction of families going through the exhibit. The exhibit uses a recurring theme What’s soil got to do with it, to reveal soil’s role in everything from food to medicine.  I wanted to see if that theme was catching on with the public. Opening day was very crowded and I got a sense the exhibit will be well visited. Many visitors were interested in getting their picture taken by their own state soil monolith," Southard said.

The exhibit includes the All-American Soils – Find Your Home Earth, a collection of 54 soil monoliths on loan from the NRCS. The collection includes a soil monolith from each state and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam and the District of Columbia. Among them is the California State Soil – the San Joaquin Series.

The San Joaquin series became the Official State Soil on August 20, 1997, the result of efforts by students and teachers from Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Madera, CA, natural resource professionals, the Professional Soil Scientists Association of California (PSSAC), legislators, and various state universities. Many current and former California NRCS soil scientists helped make this possible. Among them are Kerry Arroues, Tom Caudill and Terry Cook.

The California Central Valley has more than 500,000 acres of San Joaquin soils, named for the south end of that valley. This series is the oldest continuously recognized soil series within the State. It is one of California's Benchmark Soils, and a soil profile of it is also displayed in the International Soil Reference and Information Centre's World Soil Museum in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

The San Joaquin soils are used for irrigated crops, such as wheat, rice, figs, almonds, oranges, and grapes, and for pasture and urban development.

Visit the PSSAC website for more information on the California State Soil.

"Dig It!" will remain open at the Smithsonian until January 2010, after which it will become a traveling exhibit to different host museums in the country. For more information about the Soils Exhibit, visit the official website at http://forces.si.edu/soils/index.html.

Dig-It Exhibit Photo Gallery - see more photos of the exhibit

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