Pye Farm sits on leased Crown land in the floodplain of the Churchill River, within about 50 metres of the river, near Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The soils are of very recent origin, being alluvial deposits left after the glacial removal of soil at the end of the last ice age. The land was cleared from virgin ground with no history of farming and has a mixture of short trees (mainly larch with spruce and birch) and bog, with a very high water table. The site experiences the regular fire cycles typical of Labrador, with the most recent fire around 1975.

The farm was managed until 2018 by the Pye family and is now part of Memorial University's Labrador Campus as the Pye Centre for Northern Boreal Food Systems. It can be divided into three major areas: a southern field of low fertility farmed since the land was cleared; a western field of mixed fertility with hay and berries; and a northern field cleared in 2016 for vegetable production.

Initial assessment

Data gathering took place in August 2019, with general soil sampling (Jeremiah Vallotton) and an EMI survey (Daniel Altdorff); a year later an assessment of soil nematode feeding-group abundance and diversity was carried out (Erika Young). Samples were collected over two weeks in a grid pattern at two depths (0-15 cm and 15-30 cm), dried at 40 C, sieved to 2 mm, and processed. A vascular plant survey by AAFC researchers in 2019 recorded 138 vascular plant species (87 native to Labrador, 51 not native).