WCAHS investigator Dr. Chris Simmons is helping Chico based almond grower Rory Crowley improve his orchard's health with biosolarization, an alternative to toxic soil fumigation.
Crowley mixed left-over almond hulls and shells into the soil, irrigated it, and covered it with a plastic tarp for 6 weeks. The combination of the trapped heat from the sun and byproducts from soil microbes created "beautiful soil" that can now be planted with new trees.