31 Years Experience In Forest Soil Fertility – Would Wilde Be Proud?.

 S.A. Wilde provided us with a rich history of first order ideas, punctuated with first class stories of his exploits. Both have been propagated through his graduate students. Soil fertility was a major interest of Doc Wilde and often a mainstay of his students like Al Leaf, Earl Stone,  Garth Voigt, and Chuck Davey, to name a few. Since his time, soil fertility has been redefined. The question is: “Would Doc Wilde be pleased with the progress”. This presentation is one person’s perspective on aspects of forest soil fertility ranging from the definition of nutrient bioavailability, to the adequacy of quick tests for soil fertility evaluation, to the measurement of nutrient pools, to the role of roots and microbial interactions with roots; to the modeling of soil fertility; and to current trends that one feels are positive and negative to the advancement of forest soil science.  One would hope that in the final analysis S.A. Wilde would be pleased, but expect more from the new generation of better trained and more innovative forest soil scientists.