Snow and cold temps finally arrive in Southeast Idaho. This is more like it. Winter so far has been unseasonably warm, which, if you’re a farmer or rancher, leaves a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. Yes, it’s been wet, but rain doesn’t accumulate snow in the high country, which is critical for our valley communities throughout the year.

I’m thinking of a phrase that is repeated from time to time: The West was built on the backs of snowpack. It’s true, but as wet as it’s been, we can fail to grasp this reality. If it doesn’t snow, agriculture will feel it next summer. Everyone else will feel it as time goes by and a changing climate plays out.

This rain/snow dichotomy is described well by Nate Wittasek, who writes about climate resiliency: “Snowpack is a savings account. Deposits are locked up and released slowly. Rain is a checking account. Deposits clear immediately. And if you weren’t expecting the transaction, you get overdraft fees — floods, landslides, infrastructure failure.”

Snowpack acts like a massive reservoir that seeps slowly into the ground as the weather warms in the spring. This snowpack, along with healthy soils and biodiverse plant communities, creates what is being referred to as “natural infrastructure” to slow and store water.

Each year, we tend cattle in the highlands of Southeast Idaho. We see this phenomenon in real time as water trickles off snow banks hidden in aspen groves well into the summer. In-soak is a lovely word for it, and it keeps springs active and streams running as summer proceeds. It also seeps into the invisible but ever-important aquifer beneath our feet.

Of course, man-made infrastructure is important. Things like dams, recharge sites and irrigation efficiency measures where appropriate. But while we research and implement these projects, let’s not forget the capacity of the land — and how we manage the soil surface — to aid in water storage.

Healthy soils are high in organic matter, mostly made up of living and dead roots and microorganisms. Every 1% increase in soil organic matter can store up to 25,000 gallons of additional water per acre. So, how do we increase this water-holding capacity? According to the Natural Resources

Conservation Service and backed by decades of research: reduce tillage, keep living roots in the soil, promote a diverse array of plant and animal life, armor the soil with living or dead plant material, and utilize grazing animals where possible.

And don’t think because you’re not a farmer or rancher, this doesn’t apply to you. Lawns are actually the largest crop we grow in the U.S., and limiting over-chemigated and over-irrigated lawns is one of the best ways to address a host of environmental issues, including lack of pollinator habitat and poor soil health.

These same concerns are confounding resource managers all across the West. Issues around land use, agricultural practices, urban development, energy generation and conservation, the loss of insect abundance and diversity, etc., are or should be front and center. Facing it head-on and putting partisanship aside is our only hope. We need education and exploration. We need curiosity and a willingness to address the role we each play in a sustainable and water-wise future.