"The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself" (Roosevelt 1937)

The future for Australia depends on the future of our soil.

The most meaningful indicator for the health of the land, and the long-term wealth of a nation, is whether soil is being formed or lost. If soil is being lost, so too is the economic and ecological foundation on which production and conservation are based.

In little over 200 years of European land-use in Australia, more than 70 percent of land has become seriously degraded (Flannery 1994). Despite our efforts to implement 'best practice' in soil conservation, the situation continues to deteriorate.

Annual soil loss figures for perennial pastures in Tablelands and Slopes regions of NSW generally range from 0.5 to 4 t/ha/yr, depending on slope, soil type, vegetative cover and rainfall (Edwards and Zierholz 2000). These figures probably underestimate the total amount of soil lost. Erosion can occur at much higher rates during intense rainfall events, particularly when groundcover is low. Areas which have been cultivated (whether for pasture establishment or cropping) are more prone to soil structural decline. Under bare fallows in the northern part of NSW, soil losses in the order of 50 to 100 t/ha/yr are common, with losses from individual rainfall events of 300-700 t/ha recorded in some situations (Edwards and Zierholz 2000).

If productive soil continues to be lost, debates about the optimum enterprise mix, pasture species, fertiliser rate, percentage of trees, or any other 'detail' over which we seem to argue endlessly, are irrelevant. They amount to re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Research efforts in the soil science arena have concentrated on reducing the rate of soil loss. The concept of building new topsoil is rarely considered.