Features Agronomy Soil
Conservation Hall of Fame inductee

July 21, 2015 - The Soil Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC) has announced that Dr. David Allen Lobb is the 2015 inductee to the Canadian Conservation Hall of Fame. He will be officially inducted at a ceremony to be held this December at the SCCC sponsored Summit on the State of Canada's Soils.

In 1990, SCCC established the Canadian Conservation Hall of Fame, which to date, has recognized 27 Canadians who have made a significant contribution through their dedication to promoting soil conservation in Canada.

Dr. Lobb grew up on a family farm in Huron County, Ontario, where he learned the importance of practical agriculture and soil care. Work in Ontario, the Atlantic Provinces and Manitoba has contributed to his distinguished and highly productive career in the understanding and management of soil erosion processes.

Lobb is internationally recognized for his research in tillage translocation and tillage erosion, particularly for his advances in experimental methods and modelling. At the University of Manitoba, he has established the Tillage Translocation Laboratory - the only laboratory in the world capable of measuring soil translocation by tillage and tillage erosion. He also established the Landscapes Dynamics Laboratory, which is the largest laboratory in Canada for analyzing the radiochemistry of soil and sediments. In addition to his teaching responsibilities and many professional commitments, Lobb has been a prolific publisher of scientific papers and book chapters on soil erosion and soil conservation, and made more than 400 presentations (300 scientific). His expertise in soil erosion and conservation has been sought by provincial and federal government agencies in Canada, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Lobb's work has challenged traditional thinking as his investigations bring forth new evidence about erosion, erosion processes, and environmental impacts. This work is contributing to the integrated management of soil erosion by tillage, water and wind in a way that will increasingly benefit agriculture. His work on soil landscape restoration on eroded fields demonstrates that crop yield variability can be reduced and overall crop yield increased. He has raised the profile of soil to a new generation of students and has been keen to be out on the land where he could directly assist farmers in addressing soil management challenges. David Lobb has and is making an important contribution to sustainable agriculture in Canada and around the world.

David and his wife Petra Loro live in Winnipeg with their daughter, Isabell and son, Quinten.

July 22, 2015  By News release