MLRA REGION 10 NEWSLETTER--JUNE 1, 1998 NEW ARRIVAL Tim and Lisa Miland are the proud parents of a healthy baby girl, their first child. Hailey Marie was born May 17th at 4:42 a.m. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches long. Tim is a soil scientist at the Eau Clarie Soil Survey Office. Submitted by; Tim Meyer ######################################################################### CHANGES IN FORESTRY INTERPRETATIONS Submitted by Lynn DesLauriers SDQS (Manuscripts and Interpretations) Recently, it has come to our attention that the woodland management interpretations, such as equipment limitations, windthrow, plant competition, etc., that were stored in the woodmgt table in SSSD are not accessible in NASIS. Ordination species, ordination class, ordination subclass, and ordination group are also inaccessible. Tables containing the data are stored in the database and reports of the data can be generated, but the data is not visible in the NASIS database and cannot be edited. A few week ago, I had a discussion with Johnny Patterson, Forester at the National Soil Survey Center. He explained that there are 12 new forestry interpretations in the National Forestry Manual that are supported nationally. The older interpretations are not being supported and will be dropped from NASIS beginning with versions following NASIS 4.0. The new interpretations are based only on soil properties. Some of the old interpretations, such as windthrow were based on more than soil properties. In the future the new forestry interpretations can be used (these are currently available in the NASIS interpretations generator) or new interpretations can be developed using the NASIS interpretations generator. I have attended meetings with foresters and most would prefer to have the flexibility to develop interpretations on a regional, mlra, or local basis, rather than nationally. NASIS allows this flexibility. ######################################################################### SOIL SURVEY DOCUMENTATION - A STATISTICAL APPROACH Two of the most frequently ask questions I have heard down through the years regarding correlation has been "How much documentation do I need?" and "How do I gather adequate documentation for map units?". Both of these are good questions and may have different answers based on one's past experiences. The Region 10 staff is developing procedures to help answer these questions more definetively. The basic premise is to develop a statistically sound method to gather and analyze data. In the past we have not typically set out to determine the full population of soil components and properties. We tended to seek out the "modal" or "typical" pedons. We treated other components as inclusions in map units. The goal now is to gather unbiased documentation for the full range of properties and then use statistical programs like MS-Excell (Data Analysis) to arrive at the mean, mode, median and standard deviations to build the central concept of an MLRA data mapunit. To gather this data we are looking at systematic step transects, interval transects and random point data. By building scientifically sound and statistically significant data mapunits for the MLRA, users will be able to better interpret soil survey information and have more confidence in the data we present. We will be working in the field this spring in MLRA-91 to test the procedures be developed. If you have any questions or want some input please contact the Region 10 office. Al Giencke Region 10 Correlator ######################################################################### WEB SITES OF INTEREST http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/soils/soildiv/surveys Contains soil survey reports available on the Internet. The files are "pdf" files, meaning that Acrobat Reader is used to access and read them. (wijack5_18.pdf is the Soil Survey of Jackson County, Wisconsin.) Web site does not include the soil survey maps. Please note that this site is not simply a list of soil surveys, but actual soil survey reports. http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/soils/hydric Hydric Soils of the United States. Site includes criteria; national, state, and county lists; technical notes; and field indicators of hydric soils. ######################################################################### CHANGED ADDRESSES AND PHONE NUMBERS 1. William Fiala indicates that the Ladysmith, WI soil survey office address and phone number has changed to (FAX number remains the same): NATRL RESOURCES CONSV SRVC 1120 WEST LAKE AVENUE LADYSMITH WI 54848-0222 1-715-532-7629 2. Wisconsin State Office: Ken Lubich 1-608-276-8732 X 248 FAX 1-608-276-5890 3. Steve Lawler has a new email address: slawler@sparc.isl.net ######################################################################### Last month, the following x3780 files were sent to offices having SSSD: x3780.418frig on May 1 (22 updated OSDs) @ x3780.419frig on May 7 ( 9 updated OSDs) @ x3780.420mes on May 11 ( 1 updated OSD ) * x3780.421frig on May 12 (27 updated OSDs) @ @ Sent to offices using soils in the frigid soil temperature regime. * Sent to offices using soils in the mesic soil temperature regime. # Sent to all offices. ######################################################################### ACTIVITY SCHEDULE (through July 15--subject to change) Jun 01-05 MLRA 104: Quality Assurance Visit (Fillmore County) Hempel Jun 08-09 MO 10-11 Board of Director's Meeting McCloskey Giencke West Jun 17-19 MLRA 105: La Crosse County Final Field Review Jahnke Jun 22-26 MLRA 94B: Geomorphlogy Tour (Alger and Luce ctys) Jahnke Jul 06-10 MLRAs 90, 93, 94A: Menominee Cty Final Field Review Jahnke Jul 13-17 MLRA 90: Taylor County Final Field Review Jahnke Handler ######################################################################### CONTRIBUTIONS, IDEAS, SUGGESTIONS, AND QUESTIONS ARE WELCOME. Please submit your items at least five days before the end of the month for inclusion in that month's newsletter. Otherwise it will appear the following month. Thanks to those individuals who participated this month. This newsletter is intended to be a forum to distribute information of a general nature that will benefit soil scientists in soil survey project offices. It is hoped that it will foster communications and sharing of knowledge among those soil scientists in MLRA Region 10. The format of this newsletter is intentionally simple so that it can be received, printed, and read by the project office having the least sophisticated computer setup. #########################################################################