(Conservation Currents,
Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District, Jan
2003)
 Don’t
be alarmed if you see the men pictured here digging holes in
the ground in your neighborhood. They’re not archeologists,
nor are they developers, but they are looking for clues. David
Harper and Garland Robertson are part of a three-member team
that is going to complete and update the map of Fairfax County
soils. They are both soil scientists from the Natural Resources
Conservation Service. (In the photo, each holds an auger, a
soil coring device that equally collects soil from the surface
through the entire sampling depth.)
The original Fairfax County Soil Survey
was published in 1963 by the USDA-Soil Conservation Service.
It was based on field work completed in 1955 and covered about
60% of the County. Over the course of the next thirty years,
the County’s soil science office transferred the survey
to maps that were at the same scale as the County zoning maps
and continued to map another 20% of the land scattered throughout
the County.
The County soil science office developed a
unique numbering system, added new soils, focused on development-related
factors, and created the soil problem rating system. However,
the County’s survey was never certified to the national
standard and incorporated into the National Soil Information
System. The soil science office closed in 1996. Approximately
40,000 acres, predominantly in the southeastern part of the
County, remain unmapped.
Currently, developers are required to obtain
soil surveys when an area is unmapped, but these surveys are
not subjected to any quality review to verify they are consistent
with national standards.
The Fairfax soil survey update will enable
planners, individuals, scientists, farmers, foresters, and anyone
involved with land use planning to make smart land use decisions
that will work to save money and conserve valuable natural resources.
When most of Fairfax County was mapped and
published in 1963, the soil mapping was geared toward agricultural
interpretations. Over time, with urban growth and changes in
land use, the demand for more detailed soil information has
grown.
The soil survey update of Fairfax County
is centered on more clearly defining the properties of the soil
map unit. The soil survey update will better describe, characterize,
and define the properties of the soil components within the
existing delineations.
“As a result,” said project leader
David Harper, “the soil survey will be a powerful tool
to display soil information more accurately while providing
information and interpretations not available at the time of
the original publication.”
The project involves a unique working arrangement
among Fairfax County, the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation
Service, and the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation
District.
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