The Soil Health Nexus is hosting a series of informal soil health webinars featuring Extension soil health experts and researchers from across the region, who will discuss the latest soil health research, resources, and news. The webinars take place monthly; they are an hour long, with a 20-minute presentation, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A, and then a casual 30-minute Digital Café where attendees can continue discussing the topic in more depth with Soil Health Nexus members.
Upcoming Digital Café Episode
Soil Health and Well-Being
Wednesday, April 15th at 2 pm CT
Join us for this April edition of the Digital Café, featuring Claire Friedrichsen, a research social scientist with the USDA. This session explores how well‑being functions as both a motivator and an outcome of soil health management. Claire will share findings from two qualitative studies showing how producers connect soil health practices to their own well‑being through competence, autonomy, relatedness, dignity, self‑determination, connectedness, and the fulfillment of basic physiological needs, as well as how they see these practices strengthening their community’s well‑being by supporting local capacity, conditions, and social connections. She will also discuss preliminary efforts to quantify the relationship between adopting soil health practices and producer well‑being.
Latest Digital Café Episode
Applying Soil Health Management to Reduce Weather Risks
This webinar was originally broadcast on March 18th, 2026.
In this March edition of the Soil Health Nexus Digital Café, find out what really happens to different management systems when heavy rain hits. In this talk, Bailey Tangen, from the University of Minnesota, will share what she and her collaborators found when they compared tillage and cover crop systems in research plots and long-term on-farm sites in Minnesota, measuring soil moisture and aggregates before and after real rainfall events. While overall water capture was often similar, management systems differed in how their soil structure responded to rain. They analyzed pore structure and soil health indicators to further reveal how these systems differ in soil function. These results provide a clearer picture of how different practices influence soil performance under intense rainfall.
