Improving Soil with Wood Chips

I just happened to notice the difference in soil this spring while digging a hole for a new orchard tree. This ground does not get managed in any way with soil health in mind yet there is clearly something positive happening here. This spot does not receive any irrigation water, has nothing growing in it except a few weeds that usually get sprayed and is generally ignored. The only benefit it has received in the past decade or more is a layer of wood chips to suppress weeds.

As you can see, the wood chips have mixed with the top inch of soil thanks to the weather and the chickens roaming through. Below that is a couple inches of nice-looking top soil with a nice dark color and lots of worm holes. The next layers are rather poor soil as one would expect from heavily leveled and ignored high desert dirt.

I find the results rather amazing considering the lack of effort on this piece of the farm.