Sustainable Soils Management: Surviving to Thriving
Learn the fundamentals of soil science and develop an appreciation of soil as a complex community of living beings.
What you will learn
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- describe the relationship between sustainable agriculture principles and practices and soil health and community resilience
- explain how to measure and describe soils in relation to their physical properties and contexts
- describe how soil chemistry, nutrients and soil carbon can impact agricultural productivity
- explain the importance of soil biodiversity and how management practices can impact it
- describe a range of soil management practices to improve soil health and to remediate degraded soils
- describe how plants respond to their environmental conditions
What you will do in this course
You will prepare a soil management plan to using the concepts, principles and practices from the course.
Course details
Online classes: September 8 to October 20, 2026 (Tuesdays 6 pm to 9 pm)
Field days (Cowichan Valley): September 19 and October 3 (9 am to 5 pm)
Register for Sustainable Soils Management: Surviving to Thriving
The section will appear to be waitlisted. This is only to allow students to access the BC Future Skills Grant Funding.
Meet your instructor
Raelani Kesler (T.Ag) is from Whidbey Island, Washington, and has lived in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island since 2021. She holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Washington and an M.Sc. in Soil Science from the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she is currently a PhD candidate in the Indigenous Ecology Lab studying plant-soil relationships following wildfire.
Raelani’s background is in organic agriculture. She spent seven years working throughout the Pacific Northwest as a farm worker and educator. She later worked with UBC’s Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Lab, conducting on-farm research with small-scale growers to evaluate climate change mitigation strategies.
She has also taught and supported university courses in soils, agroecology and related environmental sciences. Her teaching draws on both applied and academic perspectives, with an emphasis on connecting soil science and agroecology to farm and land management.
This micro-credential development is funded by an Innovation Grant from the Continuing Education and Training Association of BC (CETA BC).
Deepen your learning with the Farming Fundamentals suite
This course is part of a suite of three micro-credentials on sustainable farming. All three courses in this program are eligible for StrongerBC future skills grant funding.