Major Land Resource Area

[Cedars]

I found this site:

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) | NRCS Soils

and ordered the cd via an email to the person listed on this page. I couldnt get the order form to work. The amount of data on it is fantastic. Bummer is, its PDF format so I have to hand type all relevant info.

 

Sample of data pulled (out of 3 pages of data pulled):

 

Region K Area 57

Major Hydrologic Unit Areas:

 

Mississippi Headwaters (0701) 67%

Red (0902) 22%

Rainy (0903) 10%

Western Lake Superior (0401) 1%

 

Geology

 

Wisconsin-age glacial drift covers entire area. Glacial deposits from four major ice lobes:

Des Moines

Rainy

Superior

Wadena

 

Thickness of glacial till ranges from 300-600 feet (90 to 185 meters).

 

Soils

 

Dominant soil orders:

Alfisols

Entisols

Histosols

 

Some Mollisols in western most part of this region.

 

At the bottom of this page is a US map which brings you here:

 

Soil Landscapes

 

Theres alot of good info there on soils across the US.

 

Not knowing much about soil I googled some of the soil orders and found this site:

 

Soil Classification | NRCS Soils

 

The distribution maps of dominant soil orders link is very good for a beginner.

 

Hope someone finds these links useful.

[freeztar]

If you want to dig a little deeper (excuse the pun), I'd recommend trying the web soil survey: NCSS Web Soil Survey

 

;)

[Cedars]

One thing lacking on the disk I received was the global aspect of the Land use. I can accept that being as it was labeled US, Carribean and S.Pacific.

 

So roaming around the www today looking up definitions (what the heck is a soil series exactly?) I ran across this website:

 

Soil Orders

 

I love Ah HA! moments....

And to think, I used to call it dirt.... :)

 

And after a bit of googling (one try actually) I found a good quality map of global soils here:

 

Global Soil Regions Map | NRCS Soils

[freeztar]

I like that global soils map, nice find!

Have you tried the web soil survey for your property yet? :hihi:

[Cedars]

I like that global soils map, nice find!

Have you tried the web soil survey for your property yet? :)

 

Yes I have been using it. The photos on the site are kinda old, the development across the road from me is not shown and thats around 10 years old now.

 

I was roaming around this area yesterday:

Scientific and Natural Areas: Falls Creek SNA: Minnesota DNR: Minnesota DNR

 

A snapshot from the soils site of the area:

http://www.geocities.com/mn_cedars/FallsCreek.jpg

 

The above snapshot was taken during winter sometime. The snows are apparent. The areas that seem to be void of trees are actually deciduous areas surrounded by the dark (and very large) white pines.

 

Its a steep ravine area that has many plants unique to cool ravines. According to the soil survey 70 acres is steep slopes (25 to 40 percent slope) with 87 acres as Mahtomedi loamy sand, and 29 acres as Santiago silt loam for the majority of the soil type. The people who owned the property around this area took very good care of the land. There is a brook running thru it and a shallow well that was old when I hung around there as a kid, still bubbling out water.

 

I wish I would have brought a camera with me, but it was on a whim that I ended up there. We found lots of plants begining to leaf out and some of the spring flowers are begining to bloom. White violets ringed the upper edges of the forest, blood roots were blooming where good sun exposure exists.

 

Maybe I will return there with a camera this weekend and try to capture the growth.

[Cedars]

Some interesting info here about existing carbon in soils in the usa. Kinda technical though.

 

USGS Professional Paper 1686-A

[Cedars]

A very detailed map of some interesting features of the Earth:

Geologic Investigations Map I-2800: This Dynamic Planet

 

text files that could easily be imported into excel or databases covering information on earthquakes, volcanos, impact areas and more:

 

This Dynamic Planet, Downloads

 

The related PDF file:

 

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.pdf