MLRA REGION 10 NEWSLETTER--FEBRUARY 1, 1998

Becky Otto has joined the survey party in Keshena Wisconsin to assist in
the completion of the Menoninee County soil survey. She is a recent 
graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.

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            ALL EMPLOYEES MEETING SOIL DISPLAY

Soil Scientists from project offices in all MLRAs in
Wisconsin are putting together a soils display for the
upcoming April All Employees Meeting. The purpose is to help
create an awareness for all employees of the kinds and
diversity of soils in the state and to urge employees of
other disciplines to get advice and explanations from a soil
scientist to help them understand the information provided.
About 15-20 of the major parent materials found in Wisconsin
will be featured. About a 2-quart sample of each will be
available for observing, texturing, testing for carbonates,
and reading colors. Sand, silt, and clay percentages will be
provided by one of the local universities. We hope to have a
textural triangle display box with samples and soil survey
"antiques" on display as well. Observers will have to match
a soil series name with each sample using an information
sheet (similar to that shown below) and their observations.
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Marinette County

Map Unit Symbol:   EmC
Soil Series Name:   Emmet
Map Unit Name:   Emmet fine sandy loam, 6 to 12 percent
     slopes

Landform:   Moraines and drumlins
Dominant Parent Material of Sample:   Till; Middle Inlet
     member of the Kewaunee Formation (Green Bay Lobe)
     which was deposited between 12,000 and 11,000 Years
     Before Present

Flooding:   None
Drainage Class:   Well drained
Dominant Landuse:   Forest land
Primary Habitat Type:   AFD, Acer-Fagus/Dryopteris (Sugar
     Maple-American Beech/Spinulose Shield Fern)


SAMPLE:  Bt horizon (Argillic), slightly calcareous

%SAND               %SILT               %CLAY


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Submitted by: Packerland Soil Scientists

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                 PERSONNAL DATA ASSISTANTS

There is increased interest across the country in the use
of Personnal Data Assistants (PDAs) (various models) for
soil survey. Montana, Vermont, and Iowa are among the
states involved in testing them.

NHQ is working with Vermont to redesign the PEDON program
for use with a PDA. The PEDON data recorded in the field
will then be dumped directly into NASIS 4.0.  The research
is being done at Iowa State University as a followup to a
prototype done fortesting in Iowa.  Russ Kelsea (NSSC) is
the contact person.

Montana is currently testing a Hammerhead PDA. This device
uses windows driven software and uses a light pen instead of
a keyboard and mouse to enter data. It is designed to
withstand the wear and tear of field use by soil scientists.
This summer field season, it is planned for soil scientists
to use digital ortho photgraphy in the Hammerhead to draft
their soils maps.

NHQ has also been looking for a ruggedized laptop PC to load
ArcView, ArcImage Analyst, and ArcSpatial Analyst on to
allow touch screen digitizing (the mobile mapper concept).
Itronic has a laptop P.C. that allows touch screen
digitizing.  We will be experimenting with a loaner from the
company soon.  They claim you can see this laptop's screen
very well inthe bright sunlight. Henry Mount, Fred
Minzenmayer, and Dennis Lytle have additional information.

Mike Rasher at NCG is also looking into laptop PCs and will
be receiving a made for military unit with built in GPS
soon.

[Some of the above was excerpted from the MLRA Region Office 5
newsletter.]

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        MAP UNIT LOCATION AND ACRES TRACKING TOOL

In order to be able to keep track of map unit locations and
amounts, we have been using an application in RBase that was
written in the 1980's by Ken Lubich, State Soil Scientist
for Wisconsin.

When we started updating multiple subsets concurrently, we
knew we had to eliminate the tedious dot counting and manual
acre tabulations that were historically done in the past and
yet we needed to have a system in place to track map units
until soil layers are digitized and all polygons and acres
are accounted for.

This database can handle multiple subsets by numbering the
field sheets with a county code (i.e. 33-124 for Dunn County
field sheet #124), it has the ability to update it's mapunit
legend from the SOIL6 database where our tentative legend is
kept for now, it holds all the field sheet acreage info.,
including water >40 ac., reportable acres, and total acres;
it can handle included symbols, and it tracks the number of
a certain map unit on each photo.

The current application will give a variety of reports
including legends with acres by subset; map unit reports
showing which field sheets it was mapped on and acres; field
sheet reports showing map units and acres; and others.

We take all our field sheets at the end of the season to an
FSA office and use their electronic planimeters to quickly
go over each photo. Then the data is put into the ACRE
application in RBase. We can use non-soil scientist
personnel for both of these jobs when they are available.

I would like to see someone develop this application for use
with NASIS if that is possible. No computer jocks in this
office!

Some interesting data from our acre database....

Subset        Average acres/polygon     Polygons/section


Buffalo             18.8                     34
Dunn                22.5                     28
Eau Claire          19.3                     33
Pepin               20.4                     31
Pierce              23.9                     27

Submitted by Tim Meyer

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                     SATELLITE IMAGERY UPDATE
              High Tech Possibilities for Soil Survey

Satellite imagery and the software to use it should be
available in the future.

The Foreign Agriculture Service has acquired Landsat 4 data
and will give it to NRCS. This data could be very useful in
our new and updated soil surveys and also for the inventory
and monitoring pilots. 

Also, there are currently 1 or 2 satellites (soon be 6 or 8
satellites) that produce spectral and hyper-spectral data at
resolutions of < 1 meter.

ArcImage software (jointly developed by ESRI and ERDAS) will
allow project office staffs to use this satellite data
without having to learn complex remote sensing software. 
For example, the project staff could very easily import
satellite data and then use the point and click menus to
query the data.  The ArcSpatial Analysis software that was
recently released allows for the easy import of DEM data,
and easy menu point and click operation allows the
development of such things as slope and aspect maps, shaded
relief maps, adding and deleting contour lines, and much
more.

The combination of ArcSpatial Analysts and ArcImage will
provide a powerful tool for project offices.  It should
increase the quality and quantity of our inventory efforts.  
This approach could put the tools and the data in the hands
of the project staff where they can use it to help delineate
soil landscapes without relying just on the black and white
photo tone. 

Additionally, ways are being tested to delineate geologic
and pedologic features such as different clay minerals,
calcium, gypsum, iron and others.  The science and
experience in the use of these data have progressed a great
deal, especially in the minerals exploration industry, and
many of these techniques are readily applicable to soil
survey. 

Henry Mount and Fred Minzenmayer have been working with
Spatial Analyst; and when Image Analyst and 3D Viewer are
released, NRCS will obtain a copy so that we can develop the
expertise to be able to assist the project offices.

I have talked with Dick Folsche about a plan to work with
the NCG Remote Sensing Section to develop a cooperative
effort to acquire satellite data and provide training to the
project and state offices.

Landsat 7 will be launched in July 1998 and its
georeferenced data will be available from EROS Data Center
for about $600.

Also, there is a robust industry developing in the US and
Europe in the use  of satellite imagery for precision
agriculture.  Several companies are doing very well. 
Usually they cannot yet detect the exact reason for
differences in crops, but there is often enough financial
reward for just knowing that something is wrong in time to
possibly correct it immediately or at least in the next
cropping cycle.  Not surprisingly many reported that soil
moisture, either too much or too little, was often the
reason for differences.  The information that growers are
gathering could be very useful in augmenting our soil
survey.  However in order to use it, our project offices 
will have to have the appropriate pentium grade personal
computers and software such as ArcView Image and Spatial
Analyst.

Written by Dennis Lytle

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          SOIL DATA QUALITY SPECIALIST MEETING NOTE

John Handler and I attended the National Soil Survey Conference
in Atlanta, Georgia on January 12-16, 1988. This conference was
set up to evaluate how the MLRA correlation concept is working
since the NRCS re-organization.  It also provide each MLRA 
Regional Office the opportunity of discuss it's strenghths and
weaknesses.  

One of the overriding themes expressed by the the MLRA offices 
is the wide acceptance by the field soil scientists of the
MLRA correlation process.  The field has adapted to the process
of sharing data across geographic boundaries, working with 
others they never had a chance to work with and working to 
break down barriers between county and state lines.  
It is reassuring to know that the efforts of steering teams,
project offices and MLRA staff members has been successful
in making the transition to the "new way of doing business".

Al Giencke

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     VOICE MAIL (VOICE COMM) FOR MLRA REGION 10 STAFF

The MN State Office got VoiceMail capabilities as of January
20; the MLRA Region 10 Office was included as part of this
upgrade.  If you call to talk to a specific MLRA Region 10
Soil staff member and they are out of the office or away
from their desk, you have the option before you hang up to
leave a voicemail message (very similar to an answering
machine).

If you want to directly access the new VoiceComm/VoiceMail
system to leave aa message, then use one of these three
phone numbers, depending on your office's location: the
local number is 602-7950; long distance in Minnesota dial 1
800-652-9063 Ext. 7950; outside Minnesota dial 1-612-602
7850 (using Federal Calling Card if you have one).  The
VoiceComm/VoiceMail numbers are the last four digits of each
person's phone number:
McCloskey   7861
DesLauriers 7864
Giencke     7863
Handler     7894
Hempel      7893
Jahnke      7890
Matzdorf    7891
Osterman    7862
Walker      7892
West        7874

JUST A REMINDER:  The MLRA Regin 10 staff received new phone
numbers as of 7/97.  The old number (612) 290-3679 is no
longer in service and the operator will no longer redirect
your call.  The new MLRA Region 10 Directory that was
electronically sent to each office listed the new phone
numbers.

Rhonda Osterman
Region 10 MLRA Secretary

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Last month, the following x3780 files were sent to offices having SSSD:

	x3780.401frig	on Jan 22		(15 updated OSDs) @

@ Sent to offices using soils in the frigid soil temperature regime.
* Sent to offices using soils in the mesic soil temperature regime.
# Sent to all offices.	

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ACTIVITY SCHEDULE (through March 15--subject to change)

Feb 2-6    NASIS Editing--Taylor County WI staff            Handler
                                                            Jahnke
Feb 3-5    Humboldt County IA Final Correlation             Giencke
Feb 3-5    Clay County IA Final Correlation                 Giencke
Feb 9-11   Hubbard County MN Final Correlation              Giencke
Feb 9-13   Menominee County WI Quality Assurance            Jahnke
Feb 10-12  NASIS 3.1 Training--St. Louis County MN staff    Handler
Feb 24-26  NASIS 3.1 Training--Roseau Cty MN staff *        DesLauriers
Mar 2-6    NASIS Editing--Menominee County WI staff         Handler
                                                            Jahnke
Mar 2-6    MLRA 91 Steering Committee Meeting               Giencke
Mar 3-5    NASIS 3.1 Training--Clay County IA staff *       DesLauriers

* Tentative

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                   NASIS TRAINING RECEIVED

The following soil scientists received the NASIS 3.1
introductory training last month:

Duane Simonson
Phil Meyer
Matt Otto
Guyon Shipman
Donna Ferren
Tim Meyer
Deanna Anderson
Roger Dahl
Tim Miland
Doug Miller
April Gansen

Please feel free to use the NASIS expertise empowered in
these individuals to answer your questions.

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CHANGED ADDRESSES

Sarah Mase has changed her address to:
	U.S. Forest Service
	Ottawa National Forest
	1215 Rocklin Road
	Ontonagon, Michigan 49953

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CONTRIBUTIONS, IDEAS, SUGGESTIONS, AND QUESTIONS ARE WELCOME.

Please submit your items at least five days before the end of the month
for inclusion in that month's newsletter. Otherwise it will appear the
following month.
 
Thanks to those individuals who participated this month.

This newsletter is intended to be a forum to distribute information of
a general nature that will benefit soil scientists in soil survey project
offices. It is hoped that it will foster communications and sharing of
knowledge among those soil scientists in MLRA Region 10.

The format of this newsletter is intentionally simple so
that it can be received, printed, and read by the project
office having the least sophisticated computer setup.

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