NYC Urban Soils Institute

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NYC Urban Soils Institute For all things urban soils. New York City has made great strides in greener and more sustainable environmental management in the past decade.

Soil is the fundamental material that supports every square foot, acre, and square mile of this City and its living green infrastructure. Only this kind of matrix can hold water, break down hydrocarbons, sequester metals, and facilitate all workings of Nature to make urban centers more sustainable. The huge job in front of all cities then is to build soils and the life they support into all urban development going forward and to incorporate the development of urban soils into the legacy landscapes that urban centers hope to preserve and sustain. As urban centers in the nation embrace green infrastructure for climate resiliency, water resources management, urban heat island mitigation, food security and long term sustainability, soil is no longer the sole domain of just agricultural sciences. Green infrastructure – whether for stormwater management, climate change mitigation, or food security – has become common vernacular among government agencies as well as private sector environmental professionals. This shift has resulted in more interactions with urban soils as evidenced by requests for urban soils data, information and training. Although the demand for the knowledge of urban soils has grown, it is clear that our understanding of urban soils has not kept pace and there is a significant gap between the needs and existing resources. Emerging and well established fields that require urban soils research and coordination include:

Urban agriculture including community and home gardens as well as commercial operations
Urban reforestation and restoration projects
Stormwater management
Brownfield and soil remediation
Soil survey and mapping
Climate resiliency planning
These are not distinct and independent fields of management but are interrelated and require coordination of information dissemination as well as of planning and implementation. A centralized entity that can facilitate the flow and sharing of information and serve as a “one stop shop” for soils information and services is critical for the City.

Just stumbled across this poem, website and organization… So good!!!Check it out! www.Poetsforscience.org
08/04/2026

Just stumbled across this poem, website and organization…

So good!!!

Check it out!


www.Poetsforscience.org

Repost from Laajverd•Applications are now open for Scholarship of Making 2026.What if making was not just a process of c...
07/27/2026

Repost from Laajverd
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Applications are now open for Scholarship of Making 2026.

What if making was not just a process of creating, but a way of thinking, researching, and understanding the world?

Scholarship of Making is a 6-month interdisciplinary studio and research program that brings together practitioners and researchers to explore how knowledge is produced, contested, and reimagined through engagement with land, materials, communities, and practice.

Based in Pakistan, the program is for artists, architects, designers, researchers, writers, environmental practitioners, farmers, agro-ecologists and others interested in questioning inherited ways of seeing and creating new relationships between thought and practice.

Bring your questions.

Bring your practice.

Bring a place you want to understand differently.

Applications open till 20th August 2026

Application form (link in bio)

For more detail on the program see prospectus (link in bio)

Link to introductory session on SOM on Tuesday 28th July at 6pm (PST)

See more: www.som.laajverd.org

Repost from ecoartspace•SPECIAL READING by Maria Patricia TinajeroJuly 24 at Noon EDTecoartspace at Swale HouseNolan Par...
07/23/2026

Repost from ecoartspace
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SPECIAL READING by Maria Patricia Tinajero

July 24 at Noon EDT
ecoartspace at Swale House
Nolan Park - 6b
Governors Island, NYC

What Resurfaces: Decomposition, Art, and the Ethics of Becoming Soil

Stop by Swale for a read­ing on decom­po­si­tion by Maria Patri­cia Tina­jero accom­pa­nied by a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry tex­tile bur­ial as part of the ecoart­space Soil Shroud Project. Mov­ing between sto­ries, soil, tex­tiles, and decom­po­si­tion, the gath­er­ing asks what becomes vis­i­ble when we attend to process­es of decay and return. Atten­dees will enage with dif­fer­ent ways of encoun­ter­ing soil — not sim­ply as mat­ter beneath our feet, but as a liv­ing field of rela­tion­ships, mem­o­ry, trans­for­ma­tion, and care.

https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/events/what-resurfaces-decomposition-art-and-the-ethics-of-becoming-soil

Governors Island mptinajero Wormfarm Institute reading ecoartspace ecoartspaceatswalegi

Repost from M. T. Heron😷🌙🌙🌙•We don’t have the redwoods in NYC — we have ecological fragments. And every brilliant fragme...
07/18/2026

Repost from M. T. Heron😷🌙🌙🌙
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We don’t have the redwoods in NYC — we have ecological fragments.

And every brilliant fragment matters. This past Sunday, about 30 people gathered over two workshops to work with the soils of where the Greenpoint oil spill began.

A little spot called Penny Bridge.

A cardinal greeted me at Penny Bridge when I first arrived there on Sunday.

When Lisa Bloodgood, Gus from Newtown Creek Alliance and I met to identify the 16 locations for soils collections a few days prior, I called in our ancestors to meet the ancestors and spirits of the land.

A protocol of consent, before taking.

So when a cardinal greeted me a few days later (a bird who signals communication from ancestors), it was an affirming sign.

A lot happened at these two soils workshops — and something relatively rare: the science and the poetry and spirit of place were kept at the center, as equals.

Thank you for the beautiful, deep-felt community that emerged between us, as we dove into these soils worlds. The response & impact exceeds a social media post.

The collaboration, friendship and partnership with Urban Soils Institute is a great gift. Thank you, Rebecca and George, for all you offered to us.

Thank you Newtown Creek Alliance and Gus for being with us, and your leadership.

Thank you North Brooklyn Parks Alliance for your infrastructure support to make these workshops possible.

Thank you, Nadia Ketoure - Mother- Health coach - Qigong group leader- cook for nourishing us with the food that grows from nourished soils.

We are bringing deep focus and attention over time to one fragment. This is not a fast process: there is no immediate “gotcha” -— to work with the personhood of land, and place, is to temper the violence of the clocks.

I believe slowing down and going deep is the greatest antidote we have to guide us through this time.

In that spirit, please join us for the performances on September 26 - 27, 2026: SOIL:FIELD of AWARENESS.

The conversation is everywhere.

Repost from New York Soil Health•Find a NY Soil Health Field Day Near You July brings four opportunities to learn from f...
07/14/2026

Repost from New York Soil Health
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Find a NY Soil Health Field Day Near You

July brings four opportunities to learn from farmers, researchers, and educators across New York.

July 15 – Grazing
July 17 – Vegetable & Nursery Production
July 23 – Soil Health 101
July 24 – Urban Tree Health

Come see soil health in action through demonstrations, farm tours, and practical conversations you can take back to your own land.

🔗 fielddays.newyorksoilhealth.org

Cornell FieldDay

Repost from Pro Helvetia•The following projects, supported by Pro Helvetia, illustrate ecological approaches to art root...
07/13/2026

Repost from Pro Helvetia
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The following projects, supported by Pro Helvetia, illustrate ecological approaches to art rooted in encounter, listening, and learning from the non-human.
 
👉Swipe for more!
 
📷Nile silt fragments, Studio Eidola’s residency project in Egypt.
 


What can a river’s flow reveal about the transformations within a society? How do minerals teach us about states of presence? In what way could a plant reveal traces of family memories? 
 
These are some of the questions raised by the works gathered here. Carried out in a variety of formats and on a range of themes, these projects examine the different elements surrounding us as agents of knowledge, transformation, and connection. They regard humans not as mere observers of this ecosystem, rather as an inherent element of the fabric we call nature.
 
👉Swipe for more!
 
📷Nile silt fragments resting in the sand, Studio Eidola’s residency project in Egypt.

📷Detail of the installation ‘Mermaid Forensics’ at Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou in May 2026, as part of ‘Murmurs of the Pearl’ © Céline Manz.
Céline Manz

📷Hichem Merouche’s work with plant essences and fragrances.


📷Jonas Kissling and Denizay Apusoglu pouring of prototypes during their residency project in Egypt.


📷A bamboo tribute to elephants in Bhalla, symbolising their connection with local communities.
Francesca Brusa

📷Video-sound installation shot. Swinhoe’s pheasant photo taken by our collaborator Yuri Pasang at Skadang tribe, Hualien, Taiwan.
Dorothy Wong Ka Chung | 黃加頌 & Benjamin Ryser

📷Matheline Marmy, ‘Untitled 6’ (Excroissance), 2026 © Casa Azu.
Matheline Marmy

📷Land in Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil.


👉To read more about the projects, go to 🔗prohelvetia.ch

Repost from ecoartspace• Dr. Alexandra R. Toland giving a talk in the Soils Shroud Room at Swale House on Governors Isla...
07/11/2026

Repost from ecoartspace
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Dr. Alexandra R. Toland giving a talk in the Soils Shroud Room at Swale House on Governors Island this afternoon!

Note: Swale is now House 6 in Nolan Park

Repost from Governors Island•Urban Soils Institute is part­nering with Earth Matter NY to pro­vide month­ly free soil t...
07/11/2026

Repost from Governors Island
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Urban Soils Institute is part­nering with Earth Matter NY to pro­vide month­ly free soil test­ing work­shops at the Com­post Learn­ing Cen­ter. Gather your soil samples and stop by on Saturday to test your soil for contaminants! Check out our linktree to learn more about how to gather your sample and what might be identified in the testing process.

Repost from Emilie Houssart•Thank you Urban Soils Institute for the chance to spend two weeks in residence Swale on Gove...
07/11/2026

Repost from Emilie Houssart
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Thank you Urban Soils Institute for the chance to spend two weeks in residence Swale on Governors Island . The layered story (past, present & future) of Governors Island is so apparent at every turn - it’s an intense concentrate of my gradual understanding of New York State.

Here I’m thinking about earth as a witness, agent, victim, collaborator, life-giver… and exploring it using another form-shifting, cyclical and resilient material: paper pulp. I think the two arms of my practice are beginning to meet.

Come by! Open hours are 11-5 Sat 7/11 & 7/18.
Also don’t miss Alexandra Toland talking about wonderful new ecoartspace book Soils Turn this Sat 2-4pm, plus exhibits by Stephanie Rothenberg Elizabeth McAlpin, Art Maker (Harlem, NYC) & ecoartspace .

Note: Swale has moved to house 6B. It was nice to be greeted by an oversized Columbian X-change banner! 🤓🥔

Repost from Melinda Kiefer Santiago•Installation views of my solo presentation, “Horizons Below” last month at Swale Flo...
07/11/2026

Repost from Melinda Kiefer Santiago
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Installation views of my solo presentation, “Horizons Below” last month at Swale Floating Garden Swale on Governors Island Governors Island

Thank you to ecoartspace for inviting me to visualize this project which built off the book, “Soils Turn” and my residency with Urban Soils Institute

Photography by Stefan Hagen 📷

Address

SWALE Lab (Building 6b), Nolan Park, Governors Island
New York, NY
10004

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