by Clay Brandow
Today informs tomorrow-or so it should. The 13th annual summer field meeting of the California Forest Soils Council held in Placerville, California on August 25th and 26th attempted to fulfill the promise of that proverb. The topic was "Soil and Vegetation Mapping: a Historical Perspective."
Cleverly, the organizers of this field meeting scheduled a Thursday evening of history and Friday morning field discussion of the California Soil Vegetation Survey (SoilVeg), followed by a Friday afternoon field discussion on Ecological Unit Inventory (EUI). The result was a lively and enlightening, inter-generational exchange.
The SoilVeg Survey began in 1947 and was concluded prior to statewide completion in 1992. EUI commenced in earnest a few years prior to the conclusion of SoilVeg. Most of the men who worked on the SoilVeg Survey are now retired. Most of the women and men executing EUI, particularly those doing the bulk of field work, are near the beginning of their careers. Both groups were well represented at the meeting.
The SoilVeg Survey mapped soils, vegetation and potential timber productivity. EUI maps soils, plants, geology and ecology. Needless to say, today's EUI mappers are facing many of the same problems faced earlier by SoilVeg mappers. This field trip brought the two groups together in the field to discuss those common problems. Judging by the frequency of "Aha! phenomenon" as the different generations exchanged ideas, the field meeting was a great success.
One key point on which there is general agreement is that the wealth of information contained in the SoilVeg Survey is still underutilized. SoilVeg maps can be difficult to interpret for land management decision making. Digitizing this information in a Geographic Information System (GIS) can help solve this problem. With GIS, simpler interpretative maps can be readily generated from the original mapping information. For example, say a land manager wants to find a number of sites within a large area that meet certain specified soil, vegetation and slope criteria. With the SoilVeg information in a GIS, producing a map of all the polygons likely to contain sites meeting specified criteria can be done quickly and efficiently. One take home lesson for all surveys and inventories is that even the best information remains underutilized if it's not made "user-friendly."
SoilVeg represents a wealth of information. New technology, properly applied, can make this information easier to use, promoting better utilization. The potential for making better use of the California SoilVeg Survey information brings a smile that spans the generations.
