Soils tours

Abstract

Soils tours provide the best mechanism to teach students, special interest groups, and the general public about soils. During a tour of soils in the field, each participant can relate the soil map and report to soil profile and landscape characteristics according to each individual’s perspective. In New York State, a systematic sustained program of soils tours is under way to communicate soil survey information to decision makers. The base for the program is a series of published “Soil Tour Fact Sheets” which outline a route and observations on a soil map sheet. Published photographs and descriptions of soil conditions emphasize the important things to be observed on the tour. With the Soils Tour Fact Sheet, a county road map, the soil survey report, a shovel, and a Cornell pH test kit, a tour group can then determine the actual field conditions of the soils in relation to their location on the map. In New York State, Soils Tour Fact Sheets are under preparation in a number of counties, and have already been published for the following counties: Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Cortland, Genesee, Herkimer, Lewis, Monroe, Montgomery, Niagara, Onondaga, Ontario, Orleans, Schenectady, Schoharie, Schuyler, Seneca, Suffolk, Tioga, Tompkins, Ulster, Washington, Wayne, Westchester, Wyoming, and Yates. A walking soils tour has even been prepared for Central Park in New York City! Following this brief description is an example of one of the published soils tours, titled “Soils Tour near Chenango Bridge, Broome County [New York].”