Soil

Healthy soil gives us clean air and water, bountiful crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes.

Soils Data and Technical Resources

Online Web Soil Survey – Official USDA soil information as viewable maps and tables for more than 3200 soil surveys.
 

• NRCS National Soil Survey Webpage
• Soil Geography (LRAs, MLRAs, LRUs)
• Soil Classification
• National Cooperative Soil Survey Soil Characterization Data
• NRCS World Soil Resources
• NRCS National Soils Webpage
• NRCS Publications and Resources – Soils 
• NRCS Soil Education
• Official Series Descriptions (OSDs)
   
• National Soil Information System (NASIS): Consists of multiple interrelated soil applications and databases. This data system aids in the collection, storage, manipulation and dissemination of soil information.
   
• NRCS National Soil Survey Handbook - Provides the main operational and procedural guidance for conducting the NRCS portion of the National Cooperative Soil Survey program
   
• NRCS Technical Soil Services Handbook: The Technical Soil Services Handbook is a subdivision of the NRCS directives system. The handbook provides operational and procedural policy and guidance for technical soil services within NRCS. Staff of the Soils Division are primary authors of this handbook.
   
• NRCS Soil Change Guide -- Procedures for Soil Survey and Resource Inventory: This Guide is designed for soil survey, vegetation, and ecological site or unit inventory work in order to help soil scientists and other inventory specialists collect interpretable data about soil change within the human time scale. This Guide describes a sampling system to measure dynamic soil properties for all major land uses (except urban lands where the land and soil have been significantly reshaped).
   
• Soil Data Viewer (SDV): Tool built as an extension to ArcMap that allows a user to create soil-based thematic maps. The application can also be run independent of ArcMap, but output is then limited to a tabular report.
   
• National Soil Survey Lab Data: This application allows you to generate, print, and download reports containing soil characterization data from the National Soil Survey Center (NSSC) Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory (KSSL) and cooperating laboratories. The data are stored and maintained by the NSSC–KSSL. Data can be viewed onscreen or downloaded in comma-delimited text files for use in other applications.
   
• Field Manual for Describing and Sampling Soils: summarizes the present science and art of describing and documenting soils and soilscapes in the USA. The intended audience is professionals who describe soils for various purposes.
   
• Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)      :The Soil Science Society of America is a group of professional soil experts who study how soil impacts our society, food, environment and more!

Contact
Cory Cole, State Soil Scientist
USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service
(907) 761-7759   
E-mail: cory.cole@ak.usda.gov