Citizen Science for Great Lakes Cover Crops

Many cover crop benefits depend on successful cover crop growth, or biomass, but cover crop biomass can vary widely across farms because it is influenced by a range of environmental and management factors. Using citizen science, we’re partnering with farmers across the Great Lakes region to better understand how and why cover crop growth varies across real farms to help identify ways to maximize their benefits for soil health, water quality, and other environmental and agricultural outcomes.

This Digital Café will feature Etienne Herrick, a Ph.D. student in the Blesh Soil and Agroecosystems Lab at the University of Michigan, who will provide an overview of the citizen science project and preliminary findings from our first year of data collection.

Soil Health Digital Café Series:

The Soil Health Nexus is hosting a series of informal soil health webinars featuring Extension soil health experts and researchers from across the region discussing the latest soil health research, resources, and news. The webinars will take place monthly; they will be an hour in length with 20-minute presentation, followed by 10-minutes of Q&A and then a casual 30-minute Digital Café where attendees can continue to discuss the topic in more depth with Soil Health Nexus members.