ational December 1999 Issue 9 N ooperative oil C urvey SS Newsletter

In This Issue— The Early Survey: uses, potentials, and limitations. This paper examines not only the history of Engine for the Soil soil surveys for soil conservation, but The Early Soil Survey: Engine for Conservation Movement also the relationship of the national soil the Soil Conservation Movement ... 1 By Douglas Helms, Historian, Natural survey program to the broader soil conservation movement. Wait Just One Minute! Where Do Resources Conservation Service, Washington, D.C. You Stand? ...... 5 spects of soil conservation and Soil Centennial Song ...... 7 Soluble Salts: Land Use and A avoidance of land degradation Land Degradation A Soil Survey Centennial are only a few of the interpretations Proclamation ...... 8 found in soil surveys. Our current level Soil survey cooperators have of knowledge of , their use, and the selected 1899 as the year in which the ability to advise land users arose from soil survey effort began in earnest. In several historic developments. First, 1899, the Division of Soils (which had one had to be able to identify and been established in USDA as the describe significant soil characteristics Division of Agricultural Soils in 1894) and to classify soil bodies (at least at sent soil surveyors to work in four the lowest level). Second, land users, locations—Cecil County, Maryland, the soil scientists, and other researchers, Connecticut Valley, the Salt Lake through a combination of empirical Valley of Utah, and the Pecos Valley of Editor’s Note observations and scientific research, New Mexico. At that time, there was a had to learn the factors leading to soil great deal yet to be learned about the Issues of this newsletter are degradation. Finally, they needed to science of the soil and its response to available on the World Wide Web develop recommendations, or management. The ability to map and (www.statlab.iastate.edu/soils/soildiv). interpretations. One interpretation classify soils and to measure Click on NCSS and then on the desired might be the recognition that some soils characteristics had to grow apace with issue number of the NCSS Newsletter. are not suited to particular uses. More the ability of scientists to make You are invited to submit stories for often, the interpretations involved a meaningful interpretations for land future issues of this newsletter to range of management users. In the realm of interpretations for Stanley Anderson, National Soil Survey recommendations. The interpretations soil conservation and good land use, Center, Lincoln, Nebraska. Phone— had to be related to a particular soil perhaps the most accurate and 402-437-5357; FAX—402-437-5336; type. To utilize the recommendations, financially valuable interpretation the email— one needed to identify the soil type on early soil surveyors could make rested [email protected]. the map and on the landscape. on their ability to identify soluble salts In the 100-year history of the in the soil and of Western states. National Cooperative Soil Survey, soil The information could help guide the scientists have mapped 90 percent of development of irrigation projects. In the Nation’s private land, 48 percent of irrigated areas in dry climates, soluble American Indian land, and 47 percent salts accumulated and crusted on the of the public lands. About 78 percent of surface through capillary action and the total land area of the evaporation. Often, the salts also has been mapped. Published soil became concentrated in a raised water surveys consist of maps, tables, and table. Both conditions restricted narrative information about soils—their growth but could often be corrected by

1 NCSS Newsletter

a drainage system that permitted water repayments should be based in part on Geological Survey in 1883, where he to flush the salts down through the soil differences in soil productivity. The soil published the first generalized geologic profile and into the drainage system. survey was a valuable tool in selecting map of the United States. McGee Identification of the potential problem Western lands for agriculture. followed Powell to the Bureau of called for added expense that needed to American Ethnology when Powell be calculated in the cost of opening Identifying Soil Erosion Phases became director in 1893. McGee land to agriculture. By the time the soil and Promoting Soil eventually published some 30 reports survey began, Eugene W. Hilgard of the Conservation on native peoples from 1894 to 1903. University of California had described He was appointed to the Bureau of most of the processes leading to white The Bureau of Soils (previously the Soils following a stint as director the St. and black alkali. His prescription for Division of Soils) furthered the Louis Public Museum. Whitney reclamation through a drainage system awareness of soil erosion as a problem recommended McGee to the Secretary for leaching, augmented by applications facing American agriculture. The of Agriculture on March 22, 1907, for of gypsum for the black alkali, bureau was also active in the wider the “purpose of enabling the bureau to corrected many situations. Lyman progressive conservation movement take up the important study of soil Briggs, the bureau’s soil physicist, and through William John McGee, one of erosion or wash, and sedimentation Thomas Means and Frank Gardner, the major scientific figures in the which has not hitherto been fully early surveyors in the West, built on the Federal Government in the 19th and investigated for inability to obtain a work of Hilgard in developing methods early 20th centuries. When McGee man with the necessary training and to identify soluble salts. joined the Bureau of Soils in 1907, attainments.” 1 Whitney informed the Local residents or land agents Milton Whitney, the chief of the bureau, Secretary that McGee had only recently sometimes voiced displeasure with placed him in charge of the unit “Soil been appointed by President Theodore surveys that pointed out the limitations Erosion Investigations.” The largely Roosevelt to the Inland Waterways of soils for particular uses. In 1899, self-taught McGee was already a man Commission, where he would be Milton Whitney, first head of the soil of importance in the infant conservation working with the Forest Service, with survey, sent Thomas H. Means and movement when he joined the bureau. the Engineering Department of the Frank D. Gardner to survey the valley At various times he listed his Army, and with the Hydrographic of the Pecos River at the invitation of occupations as geologist, ethnologist, Service of the Department of the local land developers. Their report anthropologist, and hydrologist. He had Interior. This position would afford suggested that, with a drainage system justifiable claims to all of those titles. McGee an “opportunity to push these for the alkali problem, farmers could The son of an Irish immigrant investigations with the assistance and raise alfalfa for livestock but that a farmer, McGee was born on April 17, advice from these other branches of the combination of soil, water, and climate 1853, near Farley in Dubuque County, Government service, whose work is made the area unsuited to vegetables Iowa. He left school at 14 but benefited really dependent upon and made and fruit crops. The Pecos Irrigation from tutoring in Latin, German, necessary to a large extent, by the and Improvement Company, which was mathematics, and astronomy by an erosion of the soil.” 2 His grasp of the then advertising the area as truck crop older brother who had attended college. interrelated nature of resources was and orchard land, requested and He learned blacksmithing and built and advanced for the time. As a member of received an investigation by the Office sold agricultural implements, when not the waterways commission, he pushed of the Secretary of Agriculture into the exploring the countryside with his for a natural resources conference. Pecos Valley report. The report largely brothers. In 1878, he published papers Finding that the Lakes-to-the-Gulf exonerated Whitney. on glacial drift and prehistoric burial Deep Waterways Association planned Some of the early Bureau of mounds. From 1877 to 1881, he carried to call together a score or more Reclamation projects suffered for lack out his own topographic and geological governors for a conference restricted to of attention to soil issues, including survey of 12,000 square miles in alkali problems. Farmers on northeastern Iowa and published “The 1 reclamation projects led the call for Pleistocene History of Northeastern W.J. McGee Personnel File, Selected Personnel Files, RG 16, NA. greater attention to soil when they Iowa.” 2 Milton Whitney to Secretary of Agriculture, testified to the Fact Finding John Wesley Powell hired McGee as March 22, 1907, W.J. McGee Personnel File, Commission of 1923-1924 that a permanent employee of the U.S. Selected Personnel Files, RG 16, NA.

2 NCSS Newsletter

waterways improvement needs and produced a Bureau of Soils bulletin on year, noted that cultivating slopes of water resources development, McGee soil erosion that was the bureau’s most Leonardtown loam resulted in “scalds and his colleagues won President complete treatment of the issue at that or washes” which needed permanent Theodore Roosevelt’s pledge to call a point. During the later part of his sod (Bonsteel, 1901). Bonsteel, while Conference of Governors on career, McGee studied ground water, or jointly serving as Professor of Soil Conservation of Natural Resources. what he called subsoil water. The Investigations at McGee, while employed in the Bureau bulletins that were published after his early in the century, examined the so- of Soils, and Gifford Pinchot, chief of death correctly identified the need to called worn-out soils around Ithaca. the Forest Service, shaped the view soils and water resources as a unit. Like Whitney and others of the period, conference. Pinchot helped organize the McGee is not remembered for his Bonsteel was among the ranks of those conference held at the White House in Bureau of Soils ground water bulletins, questioning Justus Liebig’s theory that May 1908 but recalled that it was mainly because they set forth theories repeated cropping diminished the McGee “who pulled the laboring oar” of capillary action, hydrology, and available plant food in the topsoil. (Pinchot, 1947). The governors were water cycle and consumption that Bonsteel believed that many farmers allowed to speak briefly, but the further scientific investigation has around Ithaca cultivated a subsoil far substance of the published proceedings found wanting. But McGee remains a different from the topsoil cultivated by rested on the presentations by the central figure among Federal employees their ancestors. The stone fences where experts in resources, whom McGee had in the progressive conservation the topsoil lodged provided the selected. The conference, along with movement. He was still employed in the evidence. Reacting perhaps too strongly the published volume of speeches, bureau when he died on September 4, to Liebig’s thesis, he averred that which called attention to the need for 1912, in his quarters at the Cosmos erosion was “one of the agencies totally conservation, was a seminal event in the Club. destroying the validity of the hypothesis history of the conservation movement. McGee’s prestige brought attention of soil deterioration by removal of Pinchot’s assessment of McGee’s status to the bureau’s role in soil conservation, crops.” Further, he cited the effects of in the conservation movement was but he by no means originated it. A wind erosion in the Northeast as a unqualified: “W.J. McGee was the cadre of young soil scientists concerned “greatly underestimated” factor in the scientific brains of the Conservation about the effects of soil erosion alteration of the soil (Bonsteel, 1905). movement all through its early critical developed in the early Bureau of Soils. In 1910, the surveyors began to stages” (Pinchot, 1947). The historian Published soil surveys increasingly identify “eroded” phases of established Samuel Hays, who examined what he referred to soil erosion and the need for soil types. As the soil survey matured, it termed the “progressive conservation soil conservation, along with some adopted a nomenclature that grouped movement” spanning 1890-1920, suggested lines of action. The early soil soil types into a soil series. The series concurred, calling McGee the “chief surveyors had taken notice of soil combined a place name followed by a theorist of the conservation movement” erosion from the beginning of their texture designation, as in Jordan sandy (Hays, 1959). work, both as a factor of soil loam. In time, the surveyors added McGee acquired his interest in classification and of soil management slope and degree to the soil type erosion during his studies for the U.S. recommendations. They were designation. In 1911, surveyors Geological Survey. While studying developing what we now call the soil identified a large area of “Rough erosion as a geological process, he type, soil bodies that share significant Gullied Land” in Fairfield County, became a prescient observer of human- soil properties. Soil surveyors began South Carolina. induced, accelerated erosion. In seeing separations based on erosion. Hugh Hammond Bennett, who had studying Mississippi’s coastal plain, he Clarence W. Dorsey surveyed the area joined the soil survey in 1903, began to found soils “adapted to distinct crops around Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in relate recommendations to particular and special modes of tillage; and they 1900 and described Hagerstown clay: soil types. For instance, concerning are differently affected by old-field “These soils may be said to be the Orangeburg sandy loam of Lauderdale erosion, which has already wrought Hagerstown loam from which the top County, Mississippi, he wrote, “If the lamentable destruction in different covering of loam has been removed, gentler slopes are not terraced and the portions of the coastal plain, and is exposing the clay subsoil....” (Dorsey, steep situations kept in timber, deep progressing with ever-increasing 1901). Jay A. Bonsteel, who surveyed gorgelike gullies or ‘caves’ gradually rapidity” (McGee, 1892). McGee also St. Marys County, Maryland, the same encroach upon cultivated fields,

3 NCSS Newsletter

eventually bringing about a topographic halting erosion. In 1894, before joining Bureau of Chemistry and Soils situation too broken for other than the Bureau of Soils, he had written a analyzed soils from various points patch cultivation” (Bennett et al., Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment around the country and made 1912). Bennett’s The Soils and Station bulletin on wind erosion and its substantial progress toward Agriculture of the Southern States amelioration. King left the bureau over understanding the complex chemical highlighted erosion and advised that a dispute with Whitney. Whitney and physical properties and processes some soil types were unsuitable for believed that most soils had sufficient related to erodibility. Simultaneously, cultivation or in need of conservation fertility for continuous and Hugh Hammond Bennett was gradually measures if used for agriculture undiminished crop production, whereas moving his campaign for soil (Bennett, 1921). Later, when Bennett King had demonstrated the value of soil conservation beyond the confines of the was head of the Soil Conservation amendments to increase production. soil survey division to educate the Service, he and his colleagues used Whitney added a disclaimer to one of public and politicians through writing susceptibility to erosion as a key King’s Bureau of Soils bulletins, and and speaking engagements. He had element in the land capability King had to publish some of his soil identified areas where the combination classification system. management bulletins privately after of geography and agricultural systems In time, Bennett became the most leaving the bureau. King nevertheless caused serious erosion. As a first step in recognizable link between the soil remained a very active, innovative soil attacking the problem, he wanted conservation movement and the early scientist and earned a reputation as one research on erosion conditions and Bureau of Soils. Rather than being a of the pioneering soil physicists in the conservation measures. Based largely lone voice, Bennett was in fact among United States. He studied his favorite on his campaign, Congress authorized a compatriots. Though not mentioning topic, soil management, in China, series of soil erosion experiment McGee specifically, Bennett made clear where he wrote Farmers of Forty stations. Bennett selected the locations the importance of atmosphere in the Centuries: Or, Permanent Agriculture for the stations, where interdisciplinary Bureau of Soils, created in part by in China, Korea and Japan. Decades teams of researchers established plots McGee. Bennett, a half century after later, the book so impressed Robert to measure erosion conditions under the event, recalled that it was Thomas Rodale, proponent of , different types of crops, soils, and Nelson Chamberlain’s paper on “Soil that his Rodale Press reprinted the 1911 rotations and various agricultural Wastage,” delivered at the conference publication. management practices and structures. A of governors in 1908, that “fixed my few state experiment station staff determination to pursue that subject to Expanding Soil Conservation members had carried out similar some possible point of counteraction” Research experiments, but the Federal impetus (Bennett, 1959). led eventually to an accumulation of One of Bennett’s college classmates, The Bureau of Soils ventured once national data on the erodibility of soils. Royall Oscar Eugene Davis, a chemist again into soil erosion research in the The origin of the erodibility data that in the Bureau of Soils, wrote bulletins late 1920’s and unleashed the energies currently supports conservation titled Soil Erosion in the South and of some staff interested in the topic. It planning tools, such as the Universal Economic Waste From Soil Erosion, as is probable that a change in leadership (and Revised) Soil Loss Equation, well as a bulletin on a different type of partially accounts for the reinvigorated stretches back to these pioneering soil degradation, The Effect of Soluble interest in soil erosion. A.G. McCall studies. Salts on the Physical Properties of replaced Whitney as chief of the bureau With the creation of the Soil Soils. While the bulletins by McGee, in 1927 and remained in charge of soil Conservation Service in 1935 and Bennett, and Davis gave water erosion investigations when the bureau was with Bennett as its first chief, the preeminence as a conservation concern, merged into the Bureau of Chemistry interpretation of soils for soil and water E.E. Free produced a classic treatment and Soils with Henry G. Knight as conservation was firmly established. of wind erosion in The Movement of chief. But Bennett’s success was not the Soil Material by Wind. Understanding and measuring the genesis of soil conservation and soil Franklin Hiram King’s pioneering properties related to erosion held great survey connections. Rather, he had built work in soil management addressed soil promise for devising soil conservation upon an earlier awareness in the Bureau conservation and maintenance in a practices. Working in the laboratory in of Soils of how the soil survey might broad sense, not just for the purpose of the late 1920’s, H.E. Middleton of the help to conserve the Nation’s soils.

4 NCSS Newsletter

References Wait Just One Minute! Bennett, Hugh H., et al. 1912. “Soil Where Do You Stand? Survey of Lauderdale County, By Dick Arnold, Senior Soil Scientist, Mississippi.” In Field Operations of Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Bureau of Soils, 1910, pp.733- Washington, D.C. 784. Washington, D.C.: Government e are close to arriving. It is the Printing Office. arrival of the end of a time Bennett, Hugh H. 1921. The Soils and W period—a year is passing; a decade is Agriculture of the Southern States. ending. A century ticks away, and a New York: The MacMillan millennium will soon flash by. There is Company. the pedosphere, the world out there that sadness because of the speed with Bennett, Hugh H. 1959. The Hugh has such a difficult time making inroads which days rush by; there is joy Bennett Lectures. Raleigh: The into the psyche of our culture, our because tomorrow’s dawn is bright and Agricultural Foundation, Inc., North department, our agency, and our people. full of promise. Carolina State College. A committee has been looking at the I look back on 50 years of Bonsteel, Jay A. 1901. “Soil Survey of future and its implications for the association with the National St. Marys County, Maryland.” In structure, function, and response of our Cooperative Soil Survey with complete Field Operations of the Division of agency in the years ahead. astonishment. It seems only a while ago Soils, 1900, pp. 125-145. I know your horizons are not limited that I was a student trainee with the Soil Washington, D.C.: Government by the edges of a pedon, or even a Conservation Service in southern Iowa Printing Office. polypedon, but I don’t know if you see and people were teaching me about Bonsteel, Jay A. 1905. “Worn Out the stars in the sky at night and think augers and spades, aerial photos and Soils.” In Bureau of Farmers’ about the names, the myths, and the alidades, landscapes and parent Institutes and Normal Institutes. support that the incomprehensible materials, and soils and how to Report for the Year 1904. Albany, universe has provided numerous recognize them as specific components New York: Brandow Printing generations before ours. I don’t know if within map units. Now, five decades Company. the rising sun and its steady march later, I often wonder about some of the Dorsey, Clarence W. 1901. “A Soil across the sky until the last rays of the marvelous things I was introduced to in Survey Around Lancaster, day’s sunset cause you to ponder the the beginning. Pennsylvania.” In Field Operations majesty of music and literature There are many new questions— of the Division of Soils, 1900, pp. throughout the world that draws its usually more philosophical. For 61-84. Washington, D.C.: sustenance from this daily event. I hope example, what is the need and meaning Government Printing Office. that your horizons are not limited by the of a basic unit? Is there one for Hays, Samuel P. 1959. Conservation physical constraints of yonder skyline classifying and another one for and the Gospel of Efficiency: The or by the lack of curiosity about what mapping? Is there a law or set of Progressive Conservation lies just beyond. principles that can help us explain and Movement, 1890-1920. Cambridge, I’d like to share with you a devise systems of information that Massachusetts: Harvard University viewpoint about our efforts as improve our understanding while Press. visionaries striving to “see beyond the contributing to the storehouse of McGee, W.J. 1892. “Report of Mr. W.J. obvious.” The obvious deals with scientific knowledge? What seems to McGee.” In Thirteenth Annual erratic events of weather and remain as a constant is the uncertainty Report of the U.S. Geological agriculture, elections and the power of with which we assimilate the facts Survey to the Secretary of the politics, a sense of tomorrow with its about our beloved pedosphere. Interior. 1891-1892. Part 1. nearsightedness and short-term gains Washington, D.C.: Government and losses, and the frustrations of Printing Office. Struggling to See Ahead budgeting, down sizing, marketing, Pinchot, Gifford. 1947. Breaking New partnering, survival, and image Ground. Washington, D.C.: Island I want to tell you about some events building. For me the obvious is here, Press. that are actively affecting the geoderma, but it is not a useful guide for

5 NCSS Newsletter

positioning the world on a better population all too often is less skilled in into nowhere. Poverty usually means track. the knowledge necessary to cope, lack of hope, lack of resources, lack of At the core of what lies ahead is the thereby setting in motion potentially support, lack of jobs, lack of concept of “sustainability.” This disastrous consequences. There are no opportunities to grow and prosper. And concept represents many things to many easy answers or solutions, just some if you have almost nothing, how do you people, and there must be a thousand potentially scary impacts if we continue become a productive world citizen? reports on all facets of it. Put simply, to do nothing. Civil unrest is all too often a likely sustainability is humankind’s need for The production and distribution of companion of the downtrodden, the harmony with this planet called Earth. food may seem closer to home because dispossessed, the hopeless. Many an earlier culture saw sanctity in we have lots of prime farmland, have Land degradation is something with Nature—a sacredness of belonging, of good range and pasture lands, and our which we are more comfortable. being a part and a partner. They had a forest reserves seem pretty secure. We Certainly, a half-century of saving land sense of togetherness, of harmony, and grow, process, package, and market for tomorrow’s children has given us a of a future that was undefined and food products as varied as there are legacy of understanding stewardship—a indeterminable. Sustainability in this imaginations. In some countries the concept yet to dominate land context is far, far beyond the daily basic food is still grain, or simple grain management in our country. Land care troubles and struggles each of us face, products, with only a glimmer of hope programs, as products of governments, isn’t it? Even if the concept does not of protein from meat. Is our food seem to make important strides in touch directly on religion, it does production sustainable? By what turning the tide of past land abuse. envelop values and principles, ethics definition? What level of inputs are Individuals in the Peace Corps and and morality. A sustainable Earth in needed now, next year, next decade, NGO’s (nongovernmental which humans are merely components, and how might it change in the future? organizations) have numerous stories of important ones, but only components in Three centuries from now there might success—but the progress is not fast a chain of events whose millennia are be a different perspective. How can soil enough or in enough places to stem the unnumbered is something that lies far science help? Do we know the tide of potential disaster in some food- beyond the obvious. limitations and resilience of our soil producing areas. Do you know how to I don’t have answers or solutions. resources? create new soils that are better than the Rather, I have this opportunity to The distribution of food has been existing ones? What are the criteria? mention what I call “global driving called a cause for starvation and What is the cost? Where do you stand? forces” and relate them to some malnutrition in some countries because Climate change is a driving force international conservation concerns. statistically there are enough supplies to that is always here. It has triggered Your list is likely better, and you can provide adequate nutrition for all. So major geologic events. It has forced expand it as you see fit. I have selected why isn’t it so? Why must we continue prior cultures to disappear, forced five driving forces that I believe will to produce lesser minds and bodies to people to leave their homes and influence the world so much that their populate the next society of humans? Is dissipate like snow in the wind. The big ramifications will markedly affect the it politics? Is it unbridled economic thing this time isn’t that CO2 will United States in the years ahead or will development? Is it the haves and the increase and influence the warming of dictate major changes in how and when have-nots? What conditions must the Earth (the Earth has been there policies are promulgated. The five are prevail for economic thresholds to be before). What seems to be significant population growth, food production and lowered? Is nutritious food not only a this time is the rapidity with which distribution, poverty, land degradation, basic human need but also right? change is occurring, and by most and climate change. Ouch. Poverty is something we don’t reports the problem is exacerbated by like to hear much about. Sure there’s a modern society and its dependence on Driving Forces little poverty down the road, at the fossil fuels to support its ever- other end of town, or way out in the increasing demand for energy. The Population growth is so fast in some rural areas. Watch your television; see industrial revolution initiated numerous parts of the world that people places that have no sanitary facilities, technological advances that each of us attempting to manage limited resources no clean water to drink, or cook with, enjoy today. But—as thermodynamics are pushed beyond their current or bathe in. See the bloated bellies of capacity. A younger and younger kids and those sunken sad eyes staring Arnold continued on page 9

6 NCSS Newsletter

Soil Centennial Song

This song was written by Charles Hibner and presented with guitar accompaniment at the beginning of the wrap-up session for the Santa Fe Soil Survey Field Review on October 7, 1999. It was written in celebration of our Soil Survey Centennial.

or the last 100 years we have been mapping soils. F We’ve mapped them from the mountains to the sea. In heat and cold, as we grow old, they have become our toils. We’ll keep on looking for that Bt. Some started out as Desert Soils back in the early days. And though they aged less than a hundred years, they became Durargids, then Argidurids, somewhere along the way. If they change again, it may bring us all to tears. Oh but how I love working with those soils. It’s about the best job that there is around. You work in the fresh air, and you haven’t got a care. You’re at home in that hole dug in the ground. The survey team dug out the pits for every soil pedon. They worked very hard to get them wide and deep. They were all scribed, as they described, the features that are on that profile whether on gentle slopes or steep. Oh but how they love working with those soils. It’s about the best job that there is around. They work in the fresh air, and they haven’t got a care. They’re at home in that hole dug in the ground. The MO office’s review team looked at all these pits. They made some notes and put in a word or two. Others had their say and along the way, it all began to fit, as we made adjustments to make the soils true. Oh but how they love working with those soils. It’s about the best job that there is around. They worked in the fresh air, and they didn’t have a care. They were at home in that hole dug in the ground. So now I hope the next 100 years are as good as the last. As we learn to map soils better than ever before, we’ll have our fun working in the Sun, and always have a blast, as field reviews go on forevermore. Oh but how we love working with those soils. It’s about the best job that there is around. We work in the fresh air, and we haven’t got a care. We’re at home in that hole dug in the ground.

7 NCSS Newsletter

A Soil Survey Centennial WHEREAS, 1999 marks the 100th Great Seal of the State of Nebraska to anniversary of soil surveys be affixed this Sixth day of October, in Proclamation the year of our Lord One Thousand NOW, THEREFORE, I, Mike Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine. By Nathan McCaleb, State Soil Scientist, Johanns, Governor of the State of Natural Resources Conservation Service, Nebraska, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM Attest: Signed by Secretary of State Lincoln, Nebraska. the year 1999, as Scott Moore and Governor Mike n October 6, 1999, Mike Johanns YEAR OF THE SOIL SURVEY Johanns, Governor of O CENTENNIAL Nebraska, signed a proclamation designating 1999 as the “Year of the In Nebraska, and I do hereby urge all Soil Survey Centennial.” municipalities, counties, health Representatives of the United States departments, planners and developers Department of Agriculture, Natural to use soil surveys in land use planning Resources Conservation Service, and decisions. the Nebraska Natural Resources I also hereby urge the Natural Commission were present at the Resources Conservation Service to ceremony. Following is the text of the complete the modernization of proclamation: Nebraska soil surveys according to federal appropriations and mandates and provide the Geographic State of Nebraska Information System databases to the Proclamation Nebraska Natural Resources Commission. WHEREAS, Soils are crucial to the IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have economic life and well-being of hereunto set my hand, and cause the Nebraska and have vital functions— including food and fiber production and carbon sequestration—as well as being the base for our homes, shopping centers, schools and industries; and WHEREAS, The understanding of soil is essential to good management and to building resources for the future. It is a wise investment to maintain and improve our knowledge of soils; and WHEREAS, The National Cooperative Soil Survey Program is a partnership led by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of federal land management agencies, state agricultural experiment stations and local units of government that provide soil information; and The Nebraska State Governor introduces key leaders of the Soil Survey Program in Nebraska. WHEREAS, Each state in the United From left to right: Nathan McCaleb, NRCS State Soil Scientist; Dayle Williamson, Director of the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission; Governor Mike Johanns; Mark States has selected a state soil. Kuzila, Director of the Conservation and Survey Division at the University of Nebraska in Nebraska established Holdrege silt Lincoln; Steve Chick, NRCS State Conservationist; and Gary Muckel, NRCS, National Soil loam as its official state soil; and Survey Center.

8 NCSS Newsletter

Arnold continued from page 1 • jobs and training people who speak and read other • education—present and languages, thereby becoming more like suggests—you cannot get something for lifelong a global community. Literacy and nothing. The balance, the harmony, the • declining productivity; land illiteracy would take on rather new cycling and renewal patterns have been degradation; soil quality meanings as we depend less on the disturbed, and, while trying to reach • loss of biodiversity written word. Others believe that the again a dynamic equilibrium, we are • water supply—quantity and written word will continue to be partners and victims of this huge, huge quality important for a long time to come uncontrolled global experiment. If we • energy conservation; because it enables us to refine and can’t stop it, can we mitigate the resource recycling sharpen our thoughts and ideas and to changes? • resource access; land tenure enjoy the beauty and emotion of such There are fascinating scenarios for • women’s role in society; thoughts. us to spin about where, when, and how world organizations Sustainable development can only be much change might occur. The • international aid; a product of human endeavor, and, pedosphere is the “excited skin,” the international research insofar as you are human, you can think geomembrane of the terrestrial • world negotiations, about it, care about it, discuss it, and act ecosystems, the source of functions that protocols, and treaties upon it. Governments are generally sustain us and make our environment • sustainability designed to be for the good of the tolerable for human habitation. Where • desertification people of a country, a nation, or a could we do triple cropping? Can • persistent organics region. Maybe a world government multiple cropping be a useful • fisheries could have the interests of a world and complement to the multinational • forests all of its component parts as its major monoculture operations that seem to • greenhouse emissions responsibility. take over? How do you predict failure • trade agreements; trade Just maybe you start with a little thresholds of soils, and what is the organizations horizon in a little pit and let it take you sequence in which such failures might • standards for almost where it will. As I reflect for a moment, occur? Can we make “anthropogenic” everything; the ISO’s I realize that I did and I have been most soils that give us a time window on fortunate. sustainability? And Then

Conservation Issues Some futurists believe that as voice recognition computers become more I’ve tried to give you an idea of available, people will talk more and driving forces that will change the write less. They think we will develop world we have known. Humankind has into an oral-aural society where speech been evident as a problem but is also can be translated easily and we can the solution. The uncertainty of the readily interact and be understood by limits of our brains gives us optimism for the future. There are lots of things to consider as we imagine the The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all conservation issues facing the world in its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, the next few decades or centuries. Let religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family me mention a few: status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information • increasing number of people (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at • food supplies; food safety; (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). food security To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil • demand for and supply of Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, energy Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). • health USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. • poverty

9