MLRA REGION 10 NEWSLETTER--FEBRUARY 1, 1998 Becky Otto has joined the survey party in Keshena Wisconsin to assist in the completion of the Menoninee County soil survey. She is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. ######################################################################### ALL EMPLOYEES MEETING SOIL DISPLAY Soil Scientists from project offices in all MLRAs in Wisconsin are putting together a soils display for the upcoming April All Employees Meeting. The purpose is to help create an awareness for all employees of the kinds and diversity of soils in the state and to urge employees of other disciplines to get advice and explanations from a soil scientist to help them understand the information provided. About 15-20 of the major parent materials found in Wisconsin will be featured. About a 2-quart sample of each will be available for observing, texturing, testing for carbonates, and reading colors. Sand, silt, and clay percentages will be provided by one of the local universities. We hope to have a textural triangle display box with samples and soil survey "antiques" on display as well. Observers will have to match a soil series name with each sample using an information sheet (similar to that shown below) and their observations. ************************************************************ Marinette County Map Unit Symbol: EmC Soil Series Name: Emmet Map Unit Name: Emmet fine sandy loam, 6 to 12 percent slopes Landform: Moraines and drumlins Dominant Parent Material of Sample: Till; Middle Inlet member of the Kewaunee Formation (Green Bay Lobe) which was deposited between 12,000 and 11,000 Years Before Present Flooding: None Drainage Class: Well drained Dominant Landuse: Forest land Primary Habitat Type: AFD, Acer-Fagus/Dryopteris (Sugar Maple-American Beech/Spinulose Shield Fern) SAMPLE: Bt horizon (Argillic), slightly calcareous %SAND %SILT %CLAY *********************************************************** Submitted by: Packerland Soil Scientists ######################################################################### PERSONNAL DATA ASSISTANTS There is increased interest across the country in the use of Personnal Data Assistants (PDAs) (various models) for soil survey. Montana, Vermont, and Iowa are among the states involved in testing them. NHQ is working with Vermont to redesign the PEDON program for use with a PDA. The PEDON data recorded in the field will then be dumped directly into NASIS 4.0. The research is being done at Iowa State University as a followup to a prototype done fortesting in Iowa. Russ Kelsea (NSSC) is the contact person. Montana is currently testing a Hammerhead PDA. This device uses windows driven software and uses a light pen instead of a keyboard and mouse to enter data. It is designed to withstand the wear and tear of field use by soil scientists. This summer field season, it is planned for soil scientists to use digital ortho photgraphy in the Hammerhead to draft their soils maps. NHQ has also been looking for a ruggedized laptop PC to load ArcView, ArcImage Analyst, and ArcSpatial Analyst on to allow touch screen digitizing (the mobile mapper concept). Itronic has a laptop P.C. that allows touch screen digitizing. We will be experimenting with a loaner from the company soon. They claim you can see this laptop's screen very well inthe bright sunlight. Henry Mount, Fred Minzenmayer, and Dennis Lytle have additional information. Mike Rasher at NCG is also looking into laptop PCs and will be receiving a made for military unit with built in GPS soon. [Some of the above was excerpted from the MLRA Region Office 5 newsletter.] ######################################################################### MAP UNIT LOCATION AND ACRES TRACKING TOOL In order to be able to keep track of map unit locations and amounts, we have been using an application in RBase that was written in the 1980's by Ken Lubich, State Soil Scientist for Wisconsin. When we started updating multiple subsets concurrently, we knew we had to eliminate the tedious dot counting and manual acre tabulations that were historically done in the past and yet we needed to have a system in place to track map units until soil layers are digitized and all polygons and acres are accounted for. This database can handle multiple subsets by numbering the field sheets with a county code (i.e. 33-124 for Dunn County field sheet #124), it has the ability to update it's mapunit legend from the SOIL6 database where our tentative legend is kept for now, it holds all the field sheet acreage info., including water >40 ac., reportable acres, and total acres; it can handle included symbols, and it tracks the number of a certain map unit on each photo. The current application will give a variety of reports including legends with acres by subset; map unit reports showing which field sheets it was mapped on and acres; field sheet reports showing map units and acres; and others. We take all our field sheets at the end of the season to an FSA office and use their electronic planimeters to quickly go over each photo. Then the data is put into the ACRE application in RBase. We can use non-soil scientist personnel for both of these jobs when they are available. I would like to see someone develop this application for use with NASIS if that is possible. No computer jocks in this office! Some interesting data from our acre database.... Subset Average acres/polygon Polygons/section Buffalo 18.8 34 Dunn 22.5 28 Eau Claire 19.3 33 Pepin 20.4 31 Pierce 23.9 27 Submitted by Tim Meyer ######################################################################### SATELLITE IMAGERY UPDATE High Tech Possibilities for Soil Survey Satellite imagery and the software to use it should be available in the future. The Foreign Agriculture Service has acquired Landsat 4 data and will give it to NRCS. This data could be very useful in our new and updated soil surveys and also for the inventory and monitoring pilots. Also, there are currently 1 or 2 satellites (soon be 6 or 8 satellites) that produce spectral and hyper-spectral data at resolutions of < 1 meter. ArcImage software (jointly developed by ESRI and ERDAS) will allow project office staffs to use this satellite data without having to learn complex remote sensing software. For example, the project staff could very easily import satellite data and then use the point and click menus to query the data. The ArcSpatial Analysis software that was recently released allows for the easy import of DEM data, and easy menu point and click operation allows the development of such things as slope and aspect maps, shaded relief maps, adding and deleting contour lines, and much more. The combination of ArcSpatial Analysts and ArcImage will provide a powerful tool for project offices. It should increase the quality and quantity of our inventory efforts. This approach could put the tools and the data in the hands of the project staff where they can use it to help delineate soil landscapes without relying just on the black and white photo tone. Additionally, ways are being tested to delineate geologic and pedologic features such as different clay minerals, calcium, gypsum, iron and others. The science and experience in the use of these data have progressed a great deal, especially in the minerals exploration industry, and many of these techniques are readily applicable to soil survey. Henry Mount and Fred Minzenmayer have been working with Spatial Analyst; and when Image Analyst and 3D Viewer are released, NRCS will obtain a copy so that we can develop the expertise to be able to assist the project offices. I have talked with Dick Folsche about a plan to work with the NCG Remote Sensing Section to develop a cooperative effort to acquire satellite data and provide training to the project and state offices. Landsat 7 will be launched in July 1998 and its georeferenced data will be available from EROS Data Center for about $600. Also, there is a robust industry developing in the US and Europe in the use of satellite imagery for precision agriculture. Several companies are doing very well. Usually they cannot yet detect the exact reason for differences in crops, but there is often enough financial reward for just knowing that something is wrong in time to possibly correct it immediately or at least in the next cropping cycle. Not surprisingly many reported that soil moisture, either too much or too little, was often the reason for differences. The information that growers are gathering could be very useful in augmenting our soil survey. However in order to use it, our project offices will have to have the appropriate pentium grade personal computers and software such as ArcView Image and Spatial Analyst. Written by Dennis Lytle ######################################################################### SOIL DATA QUALITY SPECIALIST MEETING NOTE John Handler and I attended the National Soil Survey Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on January 12-16, 1988. This conference was set up to evaluate how the MLRA correlation concept is working since the NRCS re-organization. It also provide each MLRA Regional Office the opportunity of discuss it's strenghths and weaknesses. One of the overriding themes expressed by the the MLRA offices is the wide acceptance by the field soil scientists of the MLRA correlation process. The field has adapted to the process of sharing data across geographic boundaries, working with others they never had a chance to work with and working to break down barriers between county and state lines. It is reassuring to know that the efforts of steering teams, project offices and MLRA staff members has been successful in making the transition to the "new way of doing business". Al Giencke ######################################################################### VOICE MAIL (VOICE COMM) FOR MLRA REGION 10 STAFF The MN State Office got VoiceMail capabilities as of January 20; the MLRA Region 10 Office was included as part of this upgrade. If you call to talk to a specific MLRA Region 10 Soil staff member and they are out of the office or away from their desk, you have the option before you hang up to leave a voicemail message (very similar to an answering machine). If you want to directly access the new VoiceComm/VoiceMail system to leave aa message, then use one of these three phone numbers, depending on your office's location: the local number is 602-7950; long distance in Minnesota dial 1 800-652-9063 Ext. 7950; outside Minnesota dial 1-612-602 7850 (using Federal Calling Card if you have one). The VoiceComm/VoiceMail numbers are the last four digits of each person's phone number: McCloskey 7861 DesLauriers 7864 Giencke 7863 Handler 7894 Hempel 7893 Jahnke 7890 Matzdorf 7891 Osterman 7862 Walker 7892 West 7874 JUST A REMINDER: The MLRA Regin 10 staff received new phone numbers as of 7/97. The old number (612) 290-3679 is no longer in service and the operator will no longer redirect your call. The new MLRA Region 10 Directory that was electronically sent to each office listed the new phone numbers. Rhonda Osterman Region 10 MLRA Secretary ######################################################################### Last month, the following x3780 files were sent to offices having SSSD: x3780.401frig on Jan 22 (15 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 March 15--subject to change) Feb 2-6 NASIS Editing--Taylor County WI staff Handler Jahnke Feb 3-5 Humboldt County IA Final Correlation Giencke Feb 3-5 Clay County IA Final Correlation Giencke Feb 9-11 Hubbard County MN Final Correlation Giencke Feb 9-13 Menominee County WI Quality Assurance Jahnke Feb 10-12 NASIS 3.1 Training--St. Louis County MN staff Handler Feb 24-26 NASIS 3.1 Training--Roseau Cty MN staff * DesLauriers Mar 2-6 NASIS Editing--Menominee County WI staff Handler Jahnke Mar 2-6 MLRA 91 Steering Committee Meeting Giencke Mar 3-5 NASIS 3.1 Training--Clay County IA staff * DesLauriers * Tentative ######################################################################### NASIS TRAINING RECEIVED The following soil scientists received the NASIS 3.1 introductory training last month: Duane Simonson Phil Meyer Matt Otto Guyon Shipman Donna Ferren Tim Meyer Deanna Anderson Roger Dahl Tim Miland Doug Miller April Gansen Please feel free to use the NASIS expertise empowered in these individuals to answer your questions. ######################################################################### CHANGED ADDRESSES Sarah Mase has changed her address to: U.S. Forest Service Ottawa National Forest 1215 Rocklin Road Ontonagon, Michigan 49953 ######################################################################### 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. #########################################################################