GroundTruth was a citizen science project led by Teagasc and Vistamilk where students, teachers, farmers, and local communities ‘dug deep’ into the amazing world below our feet, assessing the health of the nation’s soils and learning to safeguard soil health.

It empowered students, teachers, farmers, and local communities to assess and safeguard their soils by providing accessible tools, knowledge, and data collection opportunities.

Read the GroundTruth Impact Case Study

What the project involved

Using simple, guided methods, assess the health of the soil in your farm, garden, school, or park by doing four easy tests, each of which provide information on a different aspect of soil health:

• An Earthworm count
• A soil structure assessment known as VESS (Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure)
• A flower insect timed (FIT) count
• An underwear degradation test

All resources are still available and you can carry out the tests at home using the guides and videos here: Access GroundTruth Resources here

GroundTruth was co-funded by Research Ireland and the Dept of Education. The organisations involved in the project are Teagasc, VistaMilk, National biodiversity data centre and Airfield estate.

For more information contact: Elena.hayes@teagasc.ie