Healthy soils have come to the forefront in the last few years as a means to address climate mitigation and adaptation. When healthy, soils can store and sequester atmospheric carbon; when damaged, soil becomes a source of atmospheric carbon.

Increased carbon in healthy soils also has many co-benefits with respect to climate adaptation, including increased biomass, increased water holding capacity and reduced runoff, and improved water quality in surface and ground water.

Despite these many benefits, measures for healthy soils are absent in many climate adaptation plans. To address this gap, this report proposes nearly 50 measures addressing how soils, compost, and mulch can be incorporated into climate adaptation plans.