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Soil Alive!

October 18, 2025 – March 29, 2026

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Soil is made from minerals, air, water and decaying bits of organisms. But soil is not just a bed of crunched up rocks and other materials. Soil is alive.

Soil Alive! beckons visitors underground to explore the subterranean world beneath us in a family-friendly, interactive exhibition. 

Like fingerprints, every region’s soil is unique. Many factors inform a soil’s individual characteristics. These factors can range from volcanic eruptions and historic floods to droughts, snowfall and wildfires. Soil is also the result of living organisms, which perform a delicate exchange of moisture, nutrients and carbon. 

It’s this idea that Soil Alive! hopes to communicate above any other — that healthy soils are the result of thousands of relationships. From the Ponderosa Pine Forest to the Sagebrush Steppe, Flooded Wetlands and Alfalfa Seed Field, go on an adventure to learn how these relationships turn ordinary dirt into living soil.

Visitors can see, touch, smell and even hear life underground. In the Sagebrush Steppe, a giant magnifying glass points at a wall-sized digital illustration, enlarging soil areas and illuminating hidden animals. Over in the Ponderosa Pine Forest, visitors can help mycelium “arms” connect their home in one root system to a ponderosa sapling nearby in a motion-activated digital experience.

In addition to showcasing the wonders of this subterranean community, Soil Alive! digs into the issue of invasive species such as the jumping worm and cheatgrass. Visitors will learn how to protect and conserve soil including staying on designated trails, growing native plants and letting those pesky piles of fallen leaves become homes for small mammals and insects.

Just below our feet, there is a universe that is busy, active and alive. Are you ready to go on a subterranean adventure?