Web Soil Survey

 For my class work, I had the experience of getting to become acquainted with the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Web Soil Survey. This on-line platform allows you to highlight your area of interest, get detailed information on soil in your area of choice and run reports to determine suitability of soil for different purposes. Currently, 95% of the US soil is accessible on this site with the hopes of having 100% coverage very soon. Here is the link to the Web Soil Survey: https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm 

I was able to watch a 45 minute YouTube "training" or walk-through to assist me in capturing my Area of Interest (AOI) which is Buffalo Mountain. I entered in the street address of 890 Moles Rd SW, Willis, VA, 24380.

Here is a screen grab from the Web Soil Survey showing the pin for the provided address. Next, I clicked on the "Download Soils Data" tab along the top of the page. When I tried to access the tab, I was told an AOI had not been established. I backed up to the Web Soil Survey AOI tab and this time I selected a state and county (Floyd County, Virginia), I selected it from the left hand side once displayed and clicked "Set as AOI". Here is the result of that action:

I again clicked on the "Download Soils Data" tab and was provided with the following information: "Your Area of Interest is a Soil Survey Area. Open the Soil Survey Area (SSURGO) form to download the Soil Survey Area download data package."

Just below the message was a clickable tab "Soil Survey Area (SSURGO)" and I selected it. Here are the results:

From here, I downloaded a zip file containing the spatial data, soil tabular data, map unit lines and points, special feature lines, points and descriptions. When I attempted to click on the zip file and extract the data, I was presented with some "Read Me.txt" files. This walks you through what all is contained in the zip file you downloaded and informs you in order to see the data in a more understandable format, you have to put it into a SSURGO Template Database. I clicked on the SSURGO Template Database tab and was able to select a link for "US". The state of VA was not an option in the list. 

Here is where I had a few hours stoppage due to security concerns, trusted certificates, macros, pop-ups, etc. My computer is not wholly managed by myself, but by my school/work at Virginia Tech. I tried to work my way through getting to access the soil data I downloaded but came to a stopping point where I was not able to administratively allow files to be exported.

IT was able to help me get the soil survey files I downloaded loaded into the SSURGO Template in Microsoft Access. Once that opened, I opened the file on the left hand side titled " Report- How to Understand and Use this Database". Honestly, this was not helpful to me. Microsoft Access is not an intuitive program. I was already flipping back and forth between the Web Soil Survey training on YouTube, all the files I downloaded, Access, the map on the Web Soil Survey....but I was able to finally generate a report from the zip file I downloaded called "Acreage and Proportionate Extent of the Soils" for Floyd County, VA and pulled up a map on the Web Soil Survey of the area which can be seen here:

The report I pulled down from the Microsoft Access data that goes along with the map above specifies there is no prime farmland in the AOI, there is a lot of sloping in the area, a lot of different types of loam soil with descriptors from frequently flooded to very stony. There was only a little sliver of rarely flooded and extremely stony equaling 601 acres or .2% of the AOI. The largest area in this AOI was 10.6% equating to 25,941 acres made of Glenelg loam in 8-15% slopes. A web search pointed me to a USDA text.file on Glenelg Soil definition which can be found here: https://soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/osd_docs/g/glenelg.html 

One thing I discovered is the Glenelg Loam soils typically drain well, are used in residential crop farming and are not always conducive to septic system implementation. 

It is very interesting to discover how much data our federal government has collected and made available to anyone who is interested. I can see how all these data types could be extremely useful to certain fields of study, professionals and students. The course I am currently enrolled in at Virginia Tech, Biodiversity Stewardship, is allowing me the time and ability to explore all types of databases with a focus on the project area I chose for the course- Buffalo Mountain Natural Area Preserve. It has been absolutely amazing having this opportunity to explore, learn and write about my experiences!