SOIL
This natural resource is the foundation for growing food and is home to billions of tiny organisms.
What is soil?
What do we call rainwater that flows over roofs, roads, parking lots and other surfaces instead of soaking into the ground?
What is stormwater runoff?
Bees, butterflies and many other animals perform this important job when they move pollen from one flower to another.
What is pollination?
Rhode Island DEM notes that approximately 90% of plants require an animal pollinator to reproduce.
Instead of sending your banana peels and vegetable scraps to the trash, you can turn them into this soil-building material.
What is compost?
ERICD works primarily in these two Rhode Island counties.
What are Newport and Bristol Counties?
When wind or water carries away the valuable top layer of soil, this process is called what?
What is erosion?
This famous Rhode Island body of water is an estuary, where fresh water and salt water mix.
What is Narragansett Bay?
A plant or animal that naturally occurs in a particular region is called this.
What is native?
Plogging combines jogging or walking with doing what?
What is picking up litter?
ERICD was established during the era when the Dust Bowl and severe soil erosion were inspiring communities across America to protect their land. In which year was ERICD founded?
A. 1924
B. 1944
C. 1964
D. 1984
Answer: B — 1944
Farmers sometimes plant these crops between growing seasons—not primarily to harvest them, but to protect and improve the soil.
What are cover crops?
Cover crops can reduce erosion, improve soil organic matter, increase water infiltration and help build soil health.
An area of land where water drains to a common body of water.
What is a watershed?
This type of species is introduced to an area where it is not native and can cause ecological harm by outcompeting native species.
What is an invasive species?
Rhode Island DEM specifically notes that invasive plants can outcompete native plants.
Composting does more than keep your kitchen scraps out of the trash. Which of these is another benefit of composting?
A. It eliminates all need for landfills
B. It makes food scraps disappear instantly
C. It turns food scraps into recyclable nonorganic materials
D. It creates a material that can add nutrients and organic matter to soil
Answer: D
ERICD distributed these devices during its 2025 Earth Month activities to help residents capture rainwater before it becomes stormwater runoff.
What are rain barrels?
ERICD distributed 75 in 2025 and has distributed 272 since the program began in 2022, according to the information you provided.
This material made from decomposed food scraps and yard waste, can improve soil, help it hold water, and return nutrients to the ground.
What is compost?
EPA notes that compost adds organic matter, improves water retention and can reduce erosion and runoff.
These gardens are specifically designed to capture and absorb rainwater rather than letting it rush into streets and storm drains.
What are rain gardens?
Rhode Island DEM identifies rain gardens as a stormwater-management strategy, and ERICD has been involved in local rain-garden projects.
Rhode Island's wetlands act like nature's filter. They can help clean water by trapping things like excess nutrients and sediment before they reach our rivers and bays. What is another important thing wetlands provide?
A. Habitat and food for wildlife
B. A way to slow or prevent flooding
C. A filter for dirty water
D. All of the above
Answer: D — All of the above
This greenhouse gas is produced when organic materials such as food waste break down without oxygen in a landfill.
What is methane?
EPA identifies landfills as a significant source of methane and explains that composting food waste can reduce landfill methane emissions.
ERICD helped launch community composting programs in Newport, Bristol, and Barrington in 2025. What is one of the biggest environmental benefits of composting food scraps?
A. It turns food scraps into plastic
B. It makes trash decompose faster in the ocean
C. It keeps food waste out of landfills
D. It eliminates the need to recycle
Answer: C. It keeps food waste out of landfills
Healthy soil can help fight climate change by storing this element that plants remove from the atmosphere.
What is carbon?
Rhode Island wetlands can help protect communities from flooding because they perform this very useful job during heavy rain: they temporarily do what with water?
What is store/hold water?
Wetlands can temporarily hold rain and surface water, reducing flood and storm damage, while also improving water quality and providing habitat.
Rhode Island DEM identifies this native plant as a major food source and egg-laying plant for monarch butterflies. Planting this native plant is one simple way people can help provide habitat for monarchs.
What is milkweed?
Food is the single most common material sent to U.S. landfills. About what percentage of municipal solid waste in landfills is food?
About what percentage?
A. 5%
B. 10%
C. 24%
D. 40%
Answer: C- 24%
ERICD's 2025 plogging events removed more than 480 pounds of this from Newport County, with help from more than 150 volunteers.
What is litter/trash?
Farmers can improve soil health by disturbing the soil less, keeping it covered, growing diverse crops, and keeping living roots in the ground. These are four basic principles of what?
What is soil health management?
Narragansett Bay's watershed covers roughly 2,000 square miles and crosses the Rhode Island–Massachusetts border. Approximately what percentage of the watershed is in Rhode Island: 20%, 40%, 60%, or 80%?
What is 40%?
The watershed is approximately 60% in Massachusetts and 40% in Rhode Island.
Not every plant growing in Rhode Island is supposed to be here. Invasive plants can spread quickly and push out plants that naturally belong in an area. Which of these is a good reason invasive species can be a problem?
A. They can crowd out native plants and change habitats
B. They always grow faster than trees
C. They make all soil unhealthy
D. They prevent insects from reproducing
Answer: A
EPA calls composting "nature's way of recycling." Besides reducing landfill waste, compost can improve soil's ability to do this with rainwater.
What is absorb and retain it?
Compost improves soil's ability to absorb and retain water, which can reduce runoff, erosion and flooding while helping during drought.
A farmer wants to improve the health of their soil but isn't sure what conservation practices would work on their land—and needs help paying for the improvements. Who could ERICD connect them with?
A. A conservation expert and potential financial assistance
B. A code enforcement officer who issues a fine
C. A real estate agent who sells the property
D. A landscaping company that maintains lawns
Answer: A. A conservation expert and potential financial assistance