A total of $141,600 in grant funding is coming to two Franklin County organizations as part of more than $1 million awarded statewide by the Healey-Driscoll administration to protect soil health.

The Franklin Conservation District received $75,000 and Just Roots farm in Greenfield received $66,600 as part of Healthy Soils Plan Implementation Challenge Grants from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

“Healthy soils mean less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, increased earnings for farmers and more fresh local produce to feed the people of our commonwealth,” Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, said in a statement. “I have been proud to work on healthy soils, from passing one of the first laws in the nation focused specifically on soil health to securing funding for implementation of the state Healthy Soils Action Plan. Today I am so pleased to see this work bearing fruit, with groups in my district ... receiving funding for exciting projects.”

Just Roots has been experimenting with reduced-till and no-till practices in its pick-your-own vegetable field. The $66,600 grant enables the farm to expand and continue this work, with the goal of being able to create a demonstration field where it can host a conference to share what is possible, according to Director of Farm Operations Meryl LaTronica.

“It’s basically allowing us to experiment with … more innovative ways of growing that incorporate less tractor work and less disturbing of the soil,” LaTronica explained. “It’s allowing us to … pay for our team to be able to focus on exploring and practicing new ways of growing.”

LaTronica said the reason to reduce tilling is to protect what lives in the soil.

“Anytime you’re disturbing the soil, you’re disturbing the life in that soil,” she explained. “You’re disturbing the structure of the soil, you’re disturbing the living organisms in there.”

Just Roots plans to host at least one conference in the future to share the results of its reduced-till and no-till experimentation with other farmers.

“As a pretty small agricultural entity, a lot of what we’re trying to do is just provide some education opportunities,” LaTronica said. “Because we’re talking about a half-acre of agricultural land, the impacts of what we can do is more of, ‘Hey, everybody, come see what we’re doing, come see these methods. Get a chance to see if this is something you might want to incorporate on your farm as well.’”

The funding will also go toward helping the farm be able to increase its use of pollinator-supporting perennial hedgerows, which provide habitat for native pollinators and promote biodiversity on the farm, LaTronica said.

Because of the timing of the grant, LaTronica added, “we’re already up and running,” so most of the work in the field will happen in the fall and spring.

“Over the next 18 months will be the majority of establishing a new native-pollinator hedgerow, establishing the permanent beds, and probably sometime next year is when we would do a workshop to share what we’ve been exploring,” LaTronica said.

The Franklin Conservation District was also awarded $75,000, which will go toward creating a strip tiller — a piece of equipment that will enable plastic-free weed control in no-till farming — to the Western Massachusetts Regional No-Till Equipment Rental Program offered in partnership with the Berkshire and Hampden-Hampshire conservation districts.

Gideon Porth of Atlas Farm has researched and experimented with the device design, and will create a strip tiller that will be owned by the Franklin Conservation District and available for farmers to rent. The conservation district will buy the components for the strip tiller, and Porth and Lincoln Fishman of Momentum Ag will provide any mechanical servicing needed.

Functionally similar to finger-tilling, the machine will gently disrupt the soil around plants to prevent weeds, which is difficult to do in organic farming, according to Meghan Siudzinski, grants administrator and public outreach coordinator for the Franklin Conservation District. This innovation allows for weed control without the use of chemical sprays.

The machine will be added to a fleet of other equipment available for rental through the Western Massachusetts Regional No-Till Equipment Rental Program, such as no-till seed drills and a BCS tractor with various attachments.

Along with that, the Franklin Conservation District will offer free soil testing and mentoring for farmers, host a three-part workshop series on sustainable landscaping practices and sponsor a local Envirothon team. Envirothon is a competition for high school students to find creative solutions to issues caused by climate change.

“We want to engage youth. And kids are really overwhelmed with climate change,” said Carolyn Shores Ness, chair of the Franklin Conservation District and a member of the State Commission for Conservation of Soil, Water & Related Resources.

The soil testing will include baseline soil tests to determine what the makeup of the soil is before the implementation of no-till practices, and follow-up tests to measure if the changes implemented are improving soil health.

Shores Ness said the Pioneer Valley is an ideal place for a program like this because of the quality of the soil.

“Here in the valley, we have the top 5% soil in the world,” Shores Ness said. “It’s rich, it grows incredible crops.”

Shores Ness also emphasized the importance of healthy soil.

“Healthy soil means that you are sequestering carbon at a higher rate,” she explained, “and will have a better ability to meet the state’s climate goals.”