Not in Kentucky. Our Kentucky State Cost Share Program has BMPs that by default assist in soil health, but we do not have specific legislation. There has been a proposed bill for several cycles now by one legislator for this exact purpose, but it never advances. The primary reason for that is there is never any funding appropriated to carry out what the bill defines the correlating agencies to accomplish.

South Dakota Codified Law (SDCL) chapter 38-7 and 38-8 spell out the roles and responsibilities of the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources and conservation districts in broad terms that soil health would fit into but there is not any specific language concerning soil health or soil assessments in our laws.

Not in Ohio.   Only rules that abate soil erosion.  See Ohio Administrative Code 901:13-1-07

Nebraska has the Resilient Soils and Water Quality Act (§§ 2-405 — 2-410)

New York has the Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Act:  NYS Agriculture and Markets Law, Article 11-B:  Laws of New York

I'm unable to post *links* to this thread after multiple tries across multiple browsers, so hopefully you're able to navigate to these via Google or the like:

* New Mexico has a Healthy Soil Act.  Make sure you're looking at the final version if you look up House Bill 204 of 2019.

The Council in CT amended the CT General Statutes in 2022 to include Soil Health. Please check Chapter 446h- Soil Conservation,  Sec. 22a-314 and others: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_446h.htm

CleanTalk is still rejecting my posts as spam.

The Maine Healthy Soils Program was established in State law at Title 12 Maine Revised Statutes Chapter 7

Details of the program can be seen at the webpages for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry, Bureau of Agriculture, Food & Rural Resources, Division of Agricultural Resource Development. Look for: resources and then healthy soils

Hi Elliott,

New Mexico has a Healthy Soil Program based on the state's Healthy Soil Act of 2019: HB0204.  If you do a keyword search, you'll see that "assessment" appears several times throughout the Act.

I'm the communications-/policy-focused co-lead of the program, which is administered by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture.  I often incorporate this crowd-sourced map into presentations to address exactly the question you asked: State Healthy Soil Policy Map - Nerds for Earth

Additional questions welcome,

Katie

<-- official email account for NMDA's Healthy Soil Program

575-339-3013 <-- my work cell

Hi Elliott,

Yes, New Mexico has such a statute, codified in 2019: HB0204.  (You'll see that "assessment" appears several times.)  This crowd-sourced map might help answer your question further: State Healthy Soil Policy Map - Nerds for Earth

Enactment of the legislation linked above is what created NMDA's Healthy Soil Program.  I'm a co-lead of the program, managing related communications and policy interpretation, while my fellow co-lead manages the more technical aspects of the program (soil assessment, practices eligible for funding, appropriate seeding/application rates, etc.).  He and I also work with a small number of SWCDs, which are integral to the local implementation of this state program.

Feel free to be in touch with questions:

<-- official email address of NMDA's Healthy Soil Program

575-339-3013 <-- my work cell

You might find this helpful: State Healthy Soil Policy Map - Nerds for Earth

New Mexico has the Healthy Soil Act: HB0204.  (You'll see that "assessment" shows up several times in the verbiage.)  Its enactment in 2019 created the Healthy Soil Program within the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA).

Questions -- and requests to subscribe for a brief weekly email from our program -- are always welcome at hsp (at) nmda (dot) nmsu (dot) edu.

You might find this helpful: State Healthy Soil Policy Map - Nerds for Earth

New Mexico has the Healthy Soil Act: HB0204.  Its enactment in 2019 created the Healthy Soil Program within the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA).

I'm the policy- and communications-focused co-lead of NMDA's Healthy Soil Program, while my fellow co-lead Dean Bruce is the program's technical (read: natural resources/agricultural) co-lead.

Questions -- and requests to subscribe for a brief weekly email from our program -- are always welcome at hsp (at) nmda.nmsu.edu.

Hi Elliot -

Not sure it's exactly what you're looking for but there is some info. on the Washington State Soil Health Initiative:

The Washington Soil Health Initiative (WaSHI) ( https://washingtonsoilhealthinitiative.com ) was codified into law in 2020 with overwhelming support from the Washington State Legislature. WaSHI was born from the broad, bipartisan recognition that “healthy soil is a cornerstone of a high quality of life on earth and that soil health is integral to supporting agricultural viability, promoting positive environmental outcomes, and ensuring the long-term availability of nutritious food” (RCW 15.145 Soil Health Initiative). The statute listed three state agencies as WaSHI partners: The Washington State Conservation Commission (SCC), the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), and Washington State University (WSU). Together, agencies were tasked with implementing “collaborative soil health research, education, demonstration projects, and technical assistance activities designed to identify, promote, and implement soil health stewardship practices that are grounded in sound science and that can be voluntarily and economically implemented by farmers and ranchers across Washington's diverse agricultural communities, climates, and geographies.”

Hi Elliot - Not sure it's exactly what you're looking for but here's some info. about the Washington Soil Health Initiative that another of our staff members passed along:

The Washington Soil Health Initiative (WaSHI) ( https://washingtonsoilhealthinitiative.com ) was codified into law in 2020 with overwhelming support from the Washington State Legislature. WaSHI was born from the broad, bipartisan recognition that “healthy soil is a cornerstone of a high quality of life on earth and that soil health is integral to supporting agricultural viability, promoting positive environmental outcomes, and ensuring the long-term availability of nutritious food” (RCW 15.145 Soil Health Initiative). The statute listed three state agencies as WaSHI partners: The Washington State Conservation Commission (SCC), the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), and Washington State University (WSU). Together, agencies were tasked with implementing “collaborative soil health research, education, demonstration projects, and technical assistance activities designed to identify, promote, and implement soil health stewardship practices that are grounded in sound science and that can be voluntarily and economically implemented by farmers and ranchers across Washington's diverse agricultural communities, climates, and geographies.”