One Inland Northwest advocate points to healthy soil as a way to retain water, filter contamination and keep temperatures cooler

In fall 2023, Kathryn Alexander met with then-mayoral candidate Lisa Brown to talk about compost. Alexander isn't a climate scientist or someone with an extensive background in researching compost and soil health, but she was interested in ways that we, as individuals and as a community, can better care for our environment.

Brown was interested in a proposal on compost, so Alexander spent the next few months writing one up. When she finally presented it to Mayor Brown early last year, she was told it wouldn't be feasible due to the city's $50 million budget deficit.

So in February 2024, Alexander decided to start a company to work on the issue called Soil Smart - Soil Wise.

"When I submitted it to her she said, 'Thanks very much for writing this, but the budget is short,'" Alexander recalls. "That was just before [the 50th anniversary of] Expo, and I just could not let that opportunity go."

The name, a play on the phrase "You're smart before you're wise," cleverly defines how she views the relationship between humans and nature. As humans we may be smart about our efforts to mitigate climate change, but nature, Alexander argues, is wise enough to know what needs to be done to stay healthy.

There are many complicated ways that climate scientists hope to help our warming planet, but she thinks that something as simple as fostering soil health in our community can make a huge difference.

"One of the major impacts we can have on climate change is to work to cool the planet. We're not doing that, we're trying to make it less hot. It's like blowing on the fire as opposed to putting the fire out," Alexander says."Plants help cool [the air], but in order to make that successful, you have to have water in the dirt. And in order to have water in the dirt, you have to have healthy soil."

Alexander has high hopes for Soil Smart - Soil Wise's impact in Spokane. For now, much of her work is based in advocacy and community education.

"We plan to offer classes as part of the educational thing, and we'll have a series of webinars this winter with three or four that will be going up very soon on rethinking community. We all want community, so thinking about how to redesign what we already have is really useful," Alexander says. "This work gets you out of the doldrums of 'Oh my God, the world's falling apart.' Yes, it is, but look at how you can bring it back together as a community."

Below are a few ways that Alexander thinks we can improve our soil health and our environment in Spokane.

COMPOST & BIOCHAR

One of the main things that individuals can do to improve soil health is to add organic materials, such as compost or biochar, to their yards or gardens. While most know about compost, biochar is relatively unknown among the general public, Alexander says.

Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that is made by incinerating organic material in a container with very little oxygen. Burning these materials under those conditions can create a stable form of carbon that won't escape into the atmosphere. Alexander argues that this substance can act as a form of carbon sequestration and make our soil and atmosphere healthier.

click to enlarge One Inland Northwest advocate points to healthy soil as a way to retain 
water, filter contamination and keep temperatures cooler
Courtesy photo
Kathryn Alexander

"We're working with the city and with our regional composter to see if we have a place that will make biochar here," she says. "We're also hoping to do an experiment here in the next couple of years to see if biochar will take metals out of water. That would be really useful because we've got a lot of gunk in our soil."

Alexander also plans to apply for grants in the near future to pilot biochar uses in the Inland Northwest.

Already, the Lands Council — a nonprofit focused on preserving and revitalizing Inland Northwest forests, water and wildlife — and the city of Spokane have piloted storm gardens with a layer of biochar in the Shadle Park neighborhood, near Garland Avenue. Since the material is so porous, it can hold more water, making it an effective tool for flood mitigation in these storm gardens, says Amanda Parrish, the Lands Council's executive director.

WATER RETENTION

Using additives such as biochar in soil has the potential to increase its water retention capacity, but that's just one method to better our soil health. Alexander says we also need to ensure we're creating other conditions that allow more water retention.

"Our hope would be that the city and the state would agree that all new development must design land to hold water first before they build," Alexander says. "You want to create swales and dry creek beds and rain gardens and other kinds of things which are beautiful to look at and which give water a chance."

However, even without government requirements, this is something every resident can do, she says. People can plant native species in their gardens and replace unsustainable grassy lawns with things like moss, clover or ornamental grasses that can turn a traditional lawn into something of a meadow.

"Right now we just usually have flat ground with green grass, which is not functional, and it's ecologically unstable," she says. "It's not rocket science, if you have a shovel you can even put swales into your own yard."

MIYAWAKI FORESTS

Did you know we could plant a forest in as little as six parking spaces?

Densely planting a diverse selection of trees and native plants in a small area is known as the Miyawaki method. Developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, these forests have been found to grow up to eight times faster because they simulate the growth of a natural forest, rather than a man-made one.

Alexander thinks bringing these types of forests to Spokane could be vital in the effort to cool our planet. She says there are plans in the University District to plant the city's first Miyawaki forest.

"If we [do] that often enough and together enough, not just in patches, but begin to really fill in places around the city, then we increase the capacity of our area to have and retain rain," she says. ♦

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Colton Rasanen

Colton Rasanen has been a staff writer at the Inlander since 2023. He mainly covers education in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area and also regularly contributes to the Arts & Culture section. His work has delved into the history of school namesakes, detailed the dedication of volunteers who oversee long-term care...