According to The Country Trust, scientists all over the world have been using burying pants as a technique to get people engaged in the science of soil health. Much like our rule of thumb with our ecoacoustics technique, which is the noisier the soil, the healthier soil, The Country Trust follow a similar motto: the more disintegrated the pants, the healthier the soil.
The Country Trust recognises community engagement as an integral part of driving positive environmental change, and enlisted a number of scientists, teachers and parents to co-design the Plant Your Pants programme to get children involved at every stage. Whether it be playing around with soil in planters, parks, gardens, schools or farms, the initiative is a great way to get children outdoors and learning more about the environment, where there food comes from, and what we can do to be more environmentally responsible.
The team at Baker Consultants recently had a day out with The Country Trust to promote the initiative to some local primary school children, bringing along our ecoacoustics technology to open their eyes and ears. Stepping out in the beautiful (albeit rather muddy) scenery of Cambridgeshire, we invited the children to listen to the sounds of the living soil beneath their feet using our soil listening equipment. We hope to have given them an insight into a world they’ve never seen (or heard) before and give them some food for thought about what really goes on in the ground.
The Trust invites families, schools, gardeners, farmers and anyone else across the UK to bury a pair of cotton pants on Wednesday 20th March 2024 – the first day of spring. If you or anyone you know might be interested in taking part, you can sign up here.
With dedication, collaboration and a little bit of dirt under our fingernails, we can create a more sustainable and biodiverse world for generations to come, and an initiative like Plant Your Pants is just the start.
The Baker Consultants team is highly experienced and we are passionate about what we do. If you need advice related to ecology, surveys or conservation, then please get in touch with us via our contact form on the website, or you can call us on +44 (0)1629 593958 or email us on info@bakerconsultants.co.uk.