Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3. Measuring tape
4. Water for estimating soil texture
5. Knife or other tool for picking the soil surface
6. Munsell soil color chart
7. Clipboard
8. Pencil or pen
9. Data sheets
10. You may also want to contact your local Resource Soil Scientist to determine if
there are any other tools you may need. For example, in areas where Mn may be
used as a Field Indicator, it is useful to carry hydrogen peroxide to determine if
dark mottles in the soil are in fact redox concentrations that contain Mn.
Procedures:
Once in the field, locate an area that you feel is on the wet side of the hydric/non-
hydric soil boundary and fill out the soils portion of the wetland delineation data sheet
completely. Go to the drier side and complete another data sheet filling out the soils
portion completely. Make sure you describe all the information that you will need to
identify the Field Indicators of Hydric Soils the soil might meet. For example, if you
are in a sandy soil with dark matrices, it is important to record an estimate of masked
vs. unmasked sand grains because this is a characteristic that can separate hydric soils
from non-hydric soils. Once you have completed your descriptions, go through the
Field Indicators in the field to identify all those indicators your soil meets. You should
record all the Field Indicators met, although only one indicator is required. Once
you become familiar with the Field Indicators, you can begin completing your
descriptions in the field and going through the Field Indicators following the field
visit, but for this exercise, you should attempt to determine the indicators that are met
in the field in case you need to go back and identify features you may have forgotten
to record. Note the importance of recording colors, soil textures, accurate depths,
percentage and location of redoximorphic features, masked vs. unmasked sand
grains, and, if it applies, the type of organic soil material (muck, muck peat, peat).
If you have gone through your exercise and were not able to identify a Field
Indicator in a site that you feel should contain hydric soils, you may be in a
problematic soil situation. The first step in identifying a problematic soil situation
is to address the following questions:
1. Look at the big picture.
2. What landscape are you in?
3. Does the vegetative community make sense?
4. Are the soil characteristics what you expect?
Read the information on problematic hydric soils and then go back to the
information you have gathered to determine if your site fits any of the problematic
hydric soil situations described in your Regional Supplement and whether the
information provided can assist you to identify the soil as hydric. If you have not
already asked for assistance from the local Resource Soil Scientist, you may want to
contact them to discuss whether it is likely that the site is problematic.
