{"id":1183,"date":"2017-02-20T18:45:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T18:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iawatercenter.wordpress.com\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2017-02-20T18:45:08","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T18:45:08","slug":"talking-soil-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iowawatercenter.org\/talking-soil-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Soil in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Dr. Richard Cruse, Director of the <\/em>Iowa Water Center<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Professor in Agronomy<\/em><\/a> at Iowa State University<\/em><\/p>\n

This month, I spoke at the Rendez-vous V\u00e9g\u00e9tal<\/a> 2017 in Quebec, Canada. Speaking to French Canadians in Quebec about the cost of soil erosion created some unique anticipations: How well will soil erosion vocabulary be translated and understood? What erosion problems actually exist and how do my Iowa experiences relate to Quebec challenges? Will my message be accepted or be viewed as too Iowegian and be of value for Iowans only?\u00a0 Will the audience appreciate the humor or will it be misunderstood?<\/em>\u00a0 Speaking to a non-native English speaking audience has the potential to be a memorable adventure.<\/p>\n

Sometimes this angst is unwarranted, which was true in this instance.\u00a0 Speaking in an auditorium fit for a concert or headline event was a great start.\u00a0 Further, a complete translation of my presentation was provided on a large screen while I had my own private screen next to the podium. Fortunately, about 60% of the audience was bilingual, which eased concerns of the message on soil erosion or a few jokes getting lost in translation. The audience itself was composed of well informed, science savvy farmers and agency professionals. Regardless, throwing in a few jokes about government administrative changes in the U.S and a few Canadian fishing adventures cannot hurt in \u201cbreaking the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

I learned soil erosion and soil degradation is a serious concern in Canada.\u00a0 The form of erosion dominating the Quebec landscape is a bit different from that in Iowa and the Midwest. The biggest concern seems to be from bank collapse that occurs in surface drainage ditches.\u00a0 While this dominated the discussion on soil in the area around Montreal, other areas experienced soil degradation somewhat similar to those in Iowa.\u00a0 The greatest connection occurred when discussing the following topics on soil erosion:<\/p>\n