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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Our official dirt? What on Earth...?

By: Larry Kusch

18/07/2009 3:00 PM | Comments: 3

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Dr. Mario Tenuta, students Krista Hanis and Oscar Molina show Newdale soil. ( MIKE.APORIUS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

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Official flower: Prairie crocus

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Official bird: Great gray owl

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Official tree: White spruce

Manitoba has an official bird, an official flower and even an official tree.

Now the scientific community, aided by Conservative MLA Cliff Cullen, is pushing the province to designate an official soil.

But Cullen's private member's bill, designating the rich, black Newdale soil as Manitoba's new emblem, has been gathering dust since it was introduced last December.

"When you look at our provincial emblems, there's not too much there that recognizes the importance that agriculture has played in the province of Manitoba," said Cullen, who represents Turtle Mountain riding.

When he asked Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk to join him in sponsoring the bill, she declined, he said.

Wowchuk said Friday the government isn't opposed to giving dirt its due, but she wants to do a little more digging into the issue first.

"I think when you're making a decision like this, you should look at all of the options," the minister said. "I've talked to a few people about it and they've said, 'Why this particular soil?'"

Mario Tenuta, a University of Manitoba soil scientist and a member of the Manitoba Soil Science Society, which has long pushed for the designation, said the organization is more interested in promoting awareness of the critical importance of soil to society rather than declaring one soil as superior.

"A provincial designation of a soil just highlights the importance of soil in our life and hopefully we think about the protection of that soil," said Tenuta, the Canada research chair in applied soil ecology at the university.

"We recognize plants, birds, animals as provincial emblems and so it seems very appropriate to do that for soils."

Bill 223, the Coat of Arms, Emblems and the Manitoba Tartan Amendment Act, has received first reading, but has yet to be debated in the legislature.

In a letter to Cullen, the soil science society said experts consider Newdale "the most representative soil of the black soil zone in Manitoba."

Tenuta said it is found in the west-central parts of Manitoba's grain growing region.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

MANITOBA EMBLEMS

Official flower: Prairie crocus

Official bird: Great gray owl

Official tree: White spruce

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 18, 2009 A5

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