Soil Survey Offers New Management Tool on Grand Staircase Monument

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact information:
Kent Sutcliff, NRCS,  (435) 586-2429 x13
Marietta Eaton, BLM, (435) 644-4320

Under a cooperative, inter-agency agreement, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has completed a 1.9 million acre soil survey on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument near Kanab, Utah. The Monument, managed by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), was created by Presidential Proclamation in 1996 and represents a unique combination of archaeological, historical, paleontological, geological, and biological resources.

The Soil Survey Program, now in its 106th year, has long been a major function of the NRCS, charged with conservation of natural resources on private lands. With their expertise in private land soil surveying, NRCS is now working with the BLM and other national parks, in surveying soil resources to better serve public land managers as well as the visiting public.

The advanced technology used in this particular soil survey allows managers and the public to see the properties, limitations, and the potential of soils in one place that can be transferred to similar soils in other places. The digitized mapping data was collected using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that allows managers to produce an array of thematic maps.

Following are a few examples of benefits provided by the new soil survey:

• Each type of soil was correlated to an ecological site, thus allowing monument staff to better plan for restoration efforts dealing with such issues as invasive plant species and other land use decisions.
• Tables with a large number of physical and chemical properties on various soils are available to help guide erosion control and other management decisions.  The official soil survey report was handed over to Monument Manager David Hunsaker by NRCS State Conservationist Sylvia Gillen at an open house on April 20, at the Monument’s visitor center in Kanab.

Gillen reports her agency is undertaking other soil survey work to assist the Southeast Group of National Parks in Utah. “Such partnership efforts between federal agencies will continue to benefit the public who visit these beautiful locations,” she said

.

###

NRCS—Helping people help the land.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service provides leadership in a partnership effort to help people
conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and environment.

An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer

< Back to News