DEPARTMENT:
DEPARTMENT HEAD:
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT: A briefing on the San Antonio Soil Carbon Project presented by the Greater Edwards Aquifer Authority.
SUMMARY:
The USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) approached the Parks and Recreation Department regarding a partnership to sample and analyze soils within city parks for carbon levels. The Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA), a project facilitator, will provide an overview and explain how the project may lead to the implementation of a mitigation strategy from the Climate and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). The strategy focuses on the use of public green spaces to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it within their soils.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Research shows that soils may be an effective mitigation strategy for climate change. While it is well known that trees and vegetation can remove and store carbon dioxide, current research indicates that healthy soils may remove and store three (3) times more carbon dioxide than above ground vegetation.
This mitigation strategy was identified in the SA Climate Ready Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP), approved by City Council on October 17, 2019, and serves as a pathway to meeting the City's commitments to climate action as outlined in City Council's resolution of support for the Paris Climate Agreement on June 22, 2017.
From the initial 2018 outreach of a committee member on the CAAP's Water and Natural Resource Technical Committee to the State's NRCS office; and with facilitation by GEAA's staff, the City was offered a free-of-charge service to evaluate soils in randomly selected City parks for their current soil carbon levels and soil percolation rates. The NRCS is the federal agency that was responsible for the national soil carbon assessment initiated on agricultural lands in 2010. Recent federal legislation now allows the agency to work with urban areas to assist in meeting national goals of increased water...
Click here for full text