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Soil assessments for damage to fields inflicted by Hurricane Helene is being encouraged by North Carolina agriculture leaders.

“Hurricane Helene caused great devastation throughout much of western North Carolina and farm fields were not spared,” the state’s Agriculture Department said Friday.

Soil washed in from another location by flood waters could also be contaminated, the state advised.

Any farmer who understands sustainable, regenerative or organic agriculture practices will tell you that soil is life. It teems with microbes, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods, other insects and animals. All that soil life has a deep relationship with the plants via their roots. The plants trade carbs and sugars for essential nutrients and water from the soil’s underground microbiology. This complex, invisible collaboration breaks down when soil is submerged, and life begins to die.

A forage specialist says pastures could take up to two years to recover from Hurricane Helene’s damage.

Bruno Pedreira with the University of Tennessee Beef and Forage Center, says it is a good idea to test the soil because the heavy rains likely washed away several nutrients. “Sample soil test will help us to know how much calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, or potassium, all of the elements we have there including soil pH,” he says.  If pastures are hilly, he says soil tests need to be divided into sections, hilltop, side slope, and bottom, with separate samples from each area.