In My Backyard
How to practice responsible Land Management no matter the characteristics of your property.
By Nick Machinski
Part 3: Web Soil Survey
It has been a while since Part 2: Map Washtenaw, but it is still winter out there (at least according to the calendar). So, we’ll cover another tool that you can use in planning projects for your backyard.
If you think soil is just soil, you’re wrong. There are many different soil types out there each, with their own properties. Knowing what soil you have and what its characteristics are can really help when it comes to planning what to plant where.
For many years we carried hard copies of soil maps in the office. But it’s unnecessary now because we have Web Soil Survey (https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm). Web Soil Survey is the most up-to-date catalog of soils in the entire country. It’s available to anyone with internet access and you can print you very own maps.
Web Soil Survey has a bunch of tools within it, but I’m going to keep it basic for today and just show you how to make a soil map and get a description of your soils.
First go to the Web Soil Survey link I listed above. It’ll take you to the home page and you will want to click on the giant green button saying, “Start WSS” (you can’t miss it). You’ll get an image like the one below:
It has been a while since Part 2: Map Washtenaw, but it is still winter out there (at least according to the calendar). So, we’ll cover another tool that you can use in planning projects for your backyard.
If you think soil is just soil, you’re wrong. There are many different soil types out there each, with their own properties. Knowing what soil you have and what its characteristics are can really help when it comes to planning what to plant where.
For many years we carried hard copies of soil maps in the office. But it’s unnecessary now because we have Web Soil Survey (https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm). Web Soil Survey is the most up-to-date catalog of soils in the entire country. It’s available to anyone with internet access and you can print you very own maps.
Web Soil Survey has a bunch of tools within it, but I’m going to keep it basic for today and just show you how to make a soil map and get a description of your soils.
First go to the Web Soil Survey link I listed above. It’ll take you to the home page and you will want to click on the giant green button saying, “Start WSS” (you can’t miss it). You’ll get an image like the one below:
Now zoom into an area that you’re interested in. You have a little toolbar just above the image of North America. Click on the magnifying glass with a “+.” This tool allows you to zoom in. Click and drag to draw a box. That is the area that you will zoom into. You may have to do this a few times to zoom to the area that you want to. The following image is an area that I zoomed into:
For the purpose of this article, I’m going to do a soil map of a farm field as its more likely I’ll find different soil types. But again, you can easily do this to your home as well.
There are two tools at the opposite end of the toolbar that show a rectangle and the other, a polygon. Each say AOI (Area of Interest). You can select either one, however, one simply allows you to draw a rectangle, whereas the other one allows you to draw polygons. Using either tool, draw the area you want to analyze. You will get an image similar to this one:
There are two tools at the opposite end of the toolbar that show a rectangle and the other, a polygon. Each say AOI (Area of Interest). You can select either one, however, one simply allows you to draw a rectangle, whereas the other one allows you to draw polygons. Using either tool, draw the area you want to analyze. You will get an image similar to this one:
This is the area in which we’ll see what soils are present. But you won’t see any soils just yet. For that we need to go to the “Soil Map” tab at the top. Click that and you’ll get an image like the following:
Now, we have a soil Map. You see the field divided into different section (five in this case) each with a notation. That notation corresponds to the “Map Unit Legend” on the left of the screen. And it is here were you can find out what soil you have on your property. For example we have “CoB” or “Conover loam” that only takes up 1.3% of the area I selected for, while “BntaaB” or “Blount loam” takes 21.6%.
But what do these different soil types mean? Well, we can see, by clicking on their Map Unit Name. Click one, to see the soil description like the one below:
But what do these different soil types mean? Well, we can see, by clicking on their Map Unit Name. Click one, to see the soil description like the one below:
Here you can see where this soil typically occurs (under Map Unit Setting), where it is typically found and formed (setting). Blount Loam also has different layers (Typical profile). What I tend to find useful is the drainage class and runoff class (Properties and qualities). This all can give you important information so you can be better informed when deciding what to plant in a given area. For example, knowing that the soil has some clay characteristics and is poorly drained, I don’t want to plant a tree that likes well drained soils, such as a red oak.
To print a map, click: “Printable View” on the upper right of the screen then click “View.” This will create a pdf of your map that you will be able to print. Follow similar steps for the soils description if you’d like to have that information on hand as well.
There are many other tools on Web Soil Survey that you can explore to discover more about your property, all based on what soil you have (head to the Soil Data Explorer to view limitations of your soils). However, that is a bit more detail, than I have space for in this article; so, we’ll leave it there for today. Next time I’ll guide you through how to discover what your property was like not only before you arrived, but before Europeans settled the area.
To print a map, click: “Printable View” on the upper right of the screen then click “View.” This will create a pdf of your map that you will be able to print. Follow similar steps for the soils description if you’d like to have that information on hand as well.
There are many other tools on Web Soil Survey that you can explore to discover more about your property, all based on what soil you have (head to the Soil Data Explorer to view limitations of your soils). However, that is a bit more detail, than I have space for in this article; so, we’ll leave it there for today. Next time I’ll guide you through how to discover what your property was like not only before you arrived, but before Europeans settled the area.
