Nebraska Soils Field Trip - Virginia Tech

4th IUSS Soil Classification Conference Field Tour Guidebook
Richard Lensch
Richard Lensch, retired, worked 36 years as a soil scientist for NRCS. He has extensive experience
throughout Iowa where he has worked in 12 counties. He has also served as Resource soil scientist for 2
years in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He wrote 4 soil survey manuscripts that include Cass, Adams, Hancock, and
Woodbury Counties. Richard has been retired for a year and a half.
Shawn McVey
Shawn is a Soil Scientist at the National Soil Survey Center, USDA-NRCS. Received a Master of Science in
Soil Classification from the Plant Science Department at the University of Connecticut and a Bachelor of
Science in Agronomy from Iowa State University. Currently, and since 2010, Shawn works at the National
Soil Survey Center on the Soil Survey Standards staff where he provides training coordination and
maintenance of soil survey technical standards.
Previous professional experience includes conducting subaerial and subaqueous soil surveys, authoring
two soil survey manuscripts, providing Farm Bill technical soil services in Idaho, Montana, Connecticut
and Rhode Island, perfecting conservation easements for the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program
and teaching Soil Formation and Classification at the University of Connecticut as an adjunct faculty
member in the Plant Science Department. Shawn has volunteered for three soil survey details
throughout Idaho and Montana as well as served a detail to Vermont to assist with programmatic
requirements of Farm Bill programs.
Shawn has served as the AAPI SEPM in CT and was elected to the APIO National Council in 2009 as the
East Region Representative. He has returned to the National Council as the Northern Plains
Representative and serves as the current AAPI SEPM in Nebraska. Shawn is a Lifetime member of the
Asian Pacific Islander Organization, member of the Soil Science Society of America and certified by
ARCPACS, the national soil science certification authority, as a Certified Professional Soil Classifier.
Dan Pulido
Work Experience
Dan Pulido is a Soil Scientist with the NRCS and is currently an MLRA Project Leader stationed in Atlantic,
Iowa. He is responsible for MLRAs 107A, 107B, and 108D, which are dominantly located in the western
third of Iowa.
He has worked 13 years with the USDA—11 years with NRCS and 2 years with ARS. He was also the
Project Leader for two soil survey update counties on the Des Moines Lobe in MLRA 103.
Education
• 1999 B.S. Agronomy—Soils Emphasis- Iowa State University
• 2001 M.S. in Soil Morphology and Genesis- Iowa State University
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