Soil information one day will be available for all areas of Fairfax County thanks to a soil surveying and mapping project now underway. The original soil survey, published in 1963, was never completed. The new Fairfax County soil survey will reclassify soils, provide updated interpretive information, and include previously unmapped areas. The soil survey is a cooperative effort of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, and Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District.

What Is a Soil Survey?
A soil survey is a collection of maps, tables, and written text that can be used for land use planning. It contains predictions of soil behavior for selected land uses. The survey also highlights limitations and hazards inherent in the soil, improvements needed to overcome the limitations, and the impact of selected land uses on the environment.

For example, community officials, planners, engineers, landowners, home buyers, developers, and builders can use the survey to plan land use, select sites for construction, and identify special practices needed to ensure proper performance. The survey is useful in identifying drainage issues, erosion potential, and foundation support.

Farmers, foresters, and agronomists can use it to evaluate the potential of the soil and the management needed for maximum food and fiber production. Conservationists, teachers, students, and specialists in recreation, wildlife management, waste disposal, and pollution control can use the survey to help them understand, protect, and enhance the environment.

How Is a Soil Survey Made?
To update soil maps, soil scientists must travel throughout Fairfax County, systematically gathering data and reviewing the old soil mapping. They will examine the soil wherever possible through exposed road cuts or holes bored into the soil with hand augers. To accomplish this, soil scientists must have access to both public and private lands.

David Harper, Project Manager, Natural Resources Conservation Service	Garland Robertson, Soil Scientist, Natural Resources Conservation Service	Dan Schwartz, Soil Scientist, Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District
If you see the soil survey staff in your neighborhood, don't be afraid to ask questions and learn more about soil and its relationship to land use and the environment.

History of the Soil Survey

The original soil survey was conducted by the USDA's Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service) prior to the adoption of a modern system of classifying and interpreting soils. It was based on fieldwork completed in 1955 and covered about 60% of the County.

Over the course of the next thirty years, Fairfax 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 County's soil science office closed in 1996. Approximately 40,000 acres, predominantly in the southeastern part of the County, remain unmapped.

When it is finished in four years or so, the new Fairfax County soil survey will be published and made available to the public.

For more information about the soil survey, please call the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District at 703-324-1460 or send an e-mail.