| | Dirt is My Lifeby Ingrid Ruttendjie
5.16.08 “Dirt is my life,” I declared as I started my speech to the 7th grade science class at Nippersink Middle School in Richmond, IL. Armed with a bucket of lake sediment in one hand and maps of the Fox River/Chain O’Lakes, in the other, I could see my daughter shrinking in her seat pretending to write.
And so it began. I held up a teaspoon that I had buried in my bucket and questioned them about how many bacteria lived in that little spoonful and what percentage of that spoonful was actually “alive.” Faces started to pop up in interest as I passed that bucket around and they learned that over 5 billion bacteria lived there with over 50% of that spoonful of dirt being alive. I challenged them to grab a handful, and give it a whiff. It was for good reason, because I had come prepared with several scientific studies that showed that people that spend time gardening and playing in the dirt actually have a measurable increased production of serotonin, the “happy” chemical, in their system. Neuroscience Journal recently published a University of Bristol report of bacteria in dirt having anti-depressant qualities by stimulating neurons to produce serotonin, a mood enhancer.
Then, I brought it home. I explained how much of this precious topsoil is being lost to erosion. I told them that over 60,000 tons of topsoil enters the Chain O’Lakes and Fox River every year from eroding Wisconsin shorelines and while most of it stays, much of it continues on down to the Illinois River and then to the Mississippi. I told them how important it is to keep our soils here by creating gently sloped natural shoreline banks, capturing rainwater at our own homes and property and helping to restore wetlands and natural areas to capture these waters and prevent erosion. I reminded them that the Chicagoland area is one of the lushest and most diverse areas of the entire United States, and that stewardship depended on them. In the end, I had an army of junior soil biologists ready and with shovels in hand. And, at dinner that evening, my daughter told me that several of her friends wanted me to adopt them because I made dirt sound “so cool.” I’ll call that a successful day. |