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Located in

San Juan Islands Conservation District
Friday Harbor, Washington 98250
Call 360.378.6621

Soils of San Juan County

SPECIAL San Juan County
Soil Workshop

Dates:
Public Presentation,
April 6th, 7:30 pm
San Juan Island Public Library Meeting Room,
1010 Guard St, Friday Harbor

San Juan County, Junior Districts, Researchers,
April 7th, 9-11:00 am
Council Chambers, Legislative Building,
55 Second St, Friday Harbor

Presenters:
Chuck Natsuhara, Soil Scientist, USDA- Natural Resources Conservation Service, Puyallup WA

Erik Dahlke, Soil Survey Office Leader, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Olympia WA

Topics:
How the Soil Survey update was created and changes from the 1962 soil survey maps.

Available data, how to access it and answers to your soil questions.

Plus a FREE USDA-NRCS Soil Survey CD and Demonstration. 

Presented by:
The San Juan Islands Conservation District in cooperation with The United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service


WHAT IS A SOIL SURVEY?
A soil survey is an inventory of the distribution of different types of soils in a given area. Through a soil survey, soil scientists create a map that characterizes soil types to provide useful information about their suitability for various land uses. Soil surveys help us to determine such characteristics as water infiltration, root penetration, acidity, alkalinity, erosion susceptibility and suitability for various types of plants. USDA-NRCS soil scientists conduct the survey.

SAN JUAN COUNTY SOIL SURVEY UPDATE
In 2006 the USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service (in cooperation with the SJI Conservation District, San Juan County, and Washington State Univ) began to update the previous 1962 Survey. The new survey provides more accurate soil identification. It was published in 2007 and 2009 and is available online. If you have questions, or if you would like to have a soils map for your property, please contact the Conservation District.

The updated Soil Survey for San Juan County is available online through the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service. The web address is:

http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/

When you start the WSS (Web Soil Survey) you will want to navigate to your area of interest (AOI), you can do this by address, or a custom area defined by you through the interactive map.

Supervisor Henning Sehmsdorf's S&S Homestead Farm Soil

If you need help you can contact us or the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Soil Testing
If you need to test your soil here's a quick reference on how to do it:

Soil Testing (PDF 96 KB)