Woodchip for Fertile Soils

On a crisp November morning, within the inner sanctum of The Organic Research Centre at Elm Farm, I find myself amongst a mob of multi-disciplinary minds. Farmers, scientists and foresters. We are all here for a common reason. Our task: to get the wheels turning on the WOOFS project.

What is WOOFS you ask? To most of us they are those characteristically deep, raspy barks that bellow from dogs both big and small. But for the purpose of this blog post, it stands for the EU funded project titled Woodchip for Fertile Soils. The project, orchestrated by Sally Westaway from the Organic Research Centre, has an overall aim to increase soil health and provide an incentive for farmers to manage woody elements on their farm as part of a whole farm system. That sounds quite broad doesn’t it! Let’s try and break the project down in to more digestible objectives.