Updates to Wisconsin Soil Survey
2016
- NRCS
Project Media
Soil Survey interpretations predict soil behavior for specific soil uses. The soil survey is used to assist in planning of broad categories of land use and specific management practices that are applied to soils such as nutrient management. As with everything we do in conservation planning, the most critical piece of using soil survey products is making sure we are recording observable site specific criteria along with the predictive models.
Each year soil science is updated based on additional studies and efforts to make a uniform quality product. In recent years, the Soil Data Join Recorrelation (SDJR) has been instrumental in making sure there is uniformity across county and state lines. As a result of this effort, there have been changes to the T (maximum tolerable soil loss that sustains crop productivity) and K (Soil’s susceptibility to erosion).
The purpose behind updates to the Soil Survey is to provide a quality foundation for the next generation of soil survey users where discrepancies are corrected and soil properties are identified uniformly across the state.