Helpful Heaps of Soil Survey Data to Assist in Forest Management

The sun peeks through a canopy of old growth trees towering over undisturbed acres of ferns and other plants shimmering in the light. Soil scientists from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) join an archaeologist from the Umpqua National Forest to look at, listen to, and learn from the soil beneath their feet and the sea of green leaves surrounding them. Time seems to stand still in the quiet forest, but a modern collection of data is afoot. 

The last time the NRCS produced any kind of soil map on the Forest was in the 1970s, long before the advent of LiDAR, GPS, and computers. With today’s technology, the soil scientists’ work will culminate in modern mapping information placed in the Soil Survey Geographic Database, or SSURGO, a source of soils data collected by NRCS and other partners over the last century.