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Minidry d EnvYonncnt Mhistry of Agricultm and Food SOILS OF SOUTHEAST VANCOUVER ISLAND DUNCAN-NANAIMO AREA MOE Technical Report 15 J.R.Jungen, P.Ag., P.Sanborn, P.J.Christie, P.Ag. SURVEYS AND RESOURCE MAPPING BRANCH Victoria, B.C. June 1985 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Jungen, J. R. (John Rudy), 1940- Soils of southeast Vancouver Island, Duncan- Nanaimo area (MOE technical report, ISSN 0821-0942 ; 15) Co-published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Bibliography: p. ISBN O-7718-8478-8 1. Soils - British Columbia - Duncan Region. 2. Soils - British Columbia - Nanaimo Region. 1. Sanborn, Paul Thomas, 1955- . II. Christie, P. J. (Philip James), 1952- . III. British Columbia. Ministry of Environment. IV. British Columbia. Ministry of Agriculture and Food. V. Title. .VI. Series. S599.1.BTJ86 1985 631.4'7'71134 c85-092154-6 0 Copyright 1985. B.C. Ninistry of Ewixormznt Fixst Printing 1985. PREFACE Sol Is of Southeast Vancouver Island, Duncan - Nanalmo Area was lnltlated thrcugh speclal Treasury Board fundlng and admlnlstered by the MIn1stt-y of AgrIcu Iture and Food. Surveys and Resource Mapplng Branch, Mtnlstry of Envlronment provlded supervlslon, CorrelatIon, Iaboratory and cartographlc servTces. The objectives Included mapplng SO~IS and agriculture capablllty at a scale of 1:20 000 for reglonal and nunlclpal planning, Agriculture Land Reserve fine tunlng, corridor development and resource planning, assessment and management. Thls report contalns detaIled Information on the sol1 resources of part of southeastern Vancouver Island and descrIbes the results of a detalled sol1 survey of the coastal plain from Nanoose Bay to Shawnlgan Lake. The report also contalns a general descrfptlon of the area wlth lnformatlon on hlstory and present land use, geology, surflclal deposlts, cllmate and native vegetatlon. The hlgh prlorlty glven b the Agrlcultural Land Commlsslon and the Mlnlstry of Agrfculture and Food provlded strong lnpetus for the project. - V SllHMJlY Thlrty-seven indivIduaI sotls are Identlfled in the map area. in addition, twenty-two phases and/or variants of these sol 1s were establ Ished. Sot I names taken from the original sol I survey (Day, 1959) ware used where appl lcable. The solls found wlthin the map area are malnly classlfled in the Brunlsollc Sot1 Order although soils of the Podzol lc Order are also common where wetter molsture regimes occur. The area 1s consldered a ESrunlsoI Ic to Podzol ic sol1 transltlon zone. SO~IS of the Organlc, Regosol Ic, Gleysol lc, and to very mtnor extent, Luvlsol lc orders also occur. The map area consIsts of about 76 500 ha. Of th 1s total, bedrodc occup les 2730 ha, mi scel- laneous land types occupy 7590 ha and various water bodies enconpass 1900 ha. vi i The authors gratefully adtnowledge all those who asslsted ln the ffeld mapplng and report con-p1 tatlon; in partlcular A. Burdett, T. Hilborn, T. Ovanfn and P. Phllp. V. Osborne and staff, Soi Is Laboratory, Mfnfstry of Environment, Kelcwna provided the physl- cal and chemlcal analysis. L. Houston, M. Bottlng and staff, Thematic Mappfng Unit, Surveys and Resource Mapp 1 ng Branch, Ml n Istry of Env 1 ronment, Victoria, and D. Bush, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Kelowna, suppl ied the cartography. Speclal recognltlon to B. Webb for word processing of the manuscr ipt. A. Green, Agriculture Canada, Vancouver, 1s speclal ly acknowledged for fleld correlatlon between this survey and the concurrent Gulf Islands survey. The pos.ltIve gufdance provided by the editorial committee under the chairmanshlp of 6. Loule 1s great ly appreciated. IX TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE . ..~........~...........~..................................... III SUMMARY . ..D..............................~....~..............~...........~~~~~~~ v ACKNOWLEGEMENTS . ..*.........*..........................~............................. vi 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS . ..~..........................................~........ IX LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................... X 1 L I ST OF PLATES ........................................................................... Xi 1 LI ST OF TABLES ........................................................................... xi 1 i HOW TO USE THE SOIL REPORT ............................................................... INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. CHAPTER ONE GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA ............................................. 1 .l Location ....................................................................... 1.2 Hfstory and Present Land-Use ................................................... 1.3 Physlography ................................................................... 1.4 Geology ........................................................................ 1.5 Pleistccene Hfstory and Surflclal Deposits ..................................... 8 1.6 CI lmate ........................................................................ 13 1.7 Native Vegetatlon .............................................................. 14 CHAPTER TW SOIL CLASSIFICATION AND MAF’PING MTHODOLOGY ................................. 15 2.1 Sol I Classif Icatlon ............................................................ 15 2.2 Fleld Procedures and Map Compilation ........................................... 20 2.3 Soil Legend Development ........................................................ 21 CHAPTER THREE GUIDELINES FOR SOIL DESCRIPTIONS .......................................... 23 3.1 Introduction ................................................................... 23 3.2 Guidel ines to Soi I Descriptions ................................................ 23 3.2-l Landscape Plcture and General Comments .................................. 23 3.2.2 Sol1 Landscape Cross-Section ............................................ 23 3.2.3 Landscape Characterlstics ............................................... 23 3.2.4 Typlcal Sol1 Profile .................................................... 25 3.2.5 Soll Characteristics .................................................... 25 3.2.5.1 Soil Physlcal Properties ....................................... 31 3.2.5.2 Sot1 Chemlcal Properties ....................................... 33 3.2.6 Soit Phases and Variants ................................................ 39 3.2.7 Inferred Soil Properties ................................................ 40 CHAPTER FOUR SOIL DESCRIPTIONS ......................................................... 45 4.1 I ntroduct ion ................................................................... 45 Arrowsmith (AR) SOI Is .......................................................... 46 Beddis (BD) SO~IS .............................................................. 49 Bel Ihouse (BH) Soi Is ........................................................... 52 Bcwser (BO) Soils .............................................................. 55 Brlgantlne (BE) Soi Is .......................................................... 58 Cassfdy (CA) Solls ............................................................. 61 X TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUEO) Page Chemalnus (CH) SOI~S ........................................................... 64 Comtaken (CN) Softs ............................................................ 67 Corydon (CR) Soils ............................................................. 70 Cowichan (CO) SO~IS ............................................................ 73 Crofton (CF) Solls ............................................................. 76 Dashwood (DW) So/ls ............................................................ 79 Deerholme (DE) Soils ........................................................... 82 Denman Island (DA) Solls ....................................................... 85 Dougan (DN) Soils .............................................................. 88 Falrbridge (FB) Sol Is .......................................................... 91 Flewett (FT) Solls ............................................................. 94 Galiano (GA) Solls ............................................................. 97 Hlllbank (HT) SO~IS ............................................................ 100 Hol Ilngs (HO) Sofls ............................................................ 103 Kaptara (KP) Sol Is ............................................................. 106 Koksl lah (KH) Solls ............................................................ 109 Kulleet (KT) Solls ............................................................. 112 Maple Bay (MY) Sofls ........................................................... 115 M-tchosln (MT) Sol)s ........................................................... 118 MexIcana (ME) Soils ............................................................ 121 MIII Bay (MB) Sofls ............................................................ 124 Parksvl I le (PA) Soi Is .......................................................... 127 Qualicum (QU) SO~IS ............................................................ 130 Quennell (QL) SO~IS ............................................................ 133 Quinsam (QN) SO~IS ............................................................. 136 Royston (RN) Solls ............................................................. 139 Rumsley (RY) Solls ............................................................. 142 Salalakim (SL) Solls ........................................................... 145