Land-use practices pose the major threat to our soils. Longterm improvement in soil health will depend on matching land capability to land use through a systematic approach.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, land in the ACT supported a diversity of healthy, resilient natural landscapes. Over the past 200 years, it has been increasingly required to support activities – grazing, cropping, logging, forestry plantation and urban development – that have modified the land.

In the most modified areas, the cumulative impact of clearing, cultivation and urban development have induced a range of local and off-site impacts on soil health and landscape functioning, including:

• reduced permeability, structural stability, nutrient cycling and moisture, and carbon holding capacity
• increased soil erosion
• localised salinity and acidity problems and
• impairment of hydrological functioning.

Despite these impacts, with some exceptions, land uses in the ACT are not inherently inconsistent with land capability. Perhaps the single most significant exception has been the development of forestry plantations on lands with highly erodable soils and on slopes above 20 degrees (Environment ACT 2006c).