Roadside Revegetation

PLANNING PHASE ONE: ORIENT
NRCS maintains a website, www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow, that reports historic and real-time
weather data from automatic weather stations located in remote mountainous areas of the
western United States. If your project is near one of these stations, then it is easy to monitor
current weather conditions.
4.3.2 SOILS
More than 95 percent of the counties in the United States have soil surveys either completed or
in the process of completion by Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS). Information
from these surveys is available on the Web Soil Survey website http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.
usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm. By delineating the road project area on the Web Soil Survey
map, a customized soils report specific to the project area is generated (Figure 4-5). Included in
the report are profile descriptions, characteristics, and capabilities for each soil mapping unit.
A typical profile description is provided and includes topsoil depth, soil textures, rock content,
soil depth, available water holding capacity, permeability rates, and drainage classes. More
detailed information on each soil series, such as laboratory results for nutrients, water retention
curves, and other soil properties, is available at http://ncsslabdatamart.sc.egov.usda.gov/.
Figure 4-5 | Soils maps generated
from the Web Soil Survey website
The Web Soil Survey, http://websoilsurvey.
sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm, can
be used to develop a custom soils report for
most highway projects in the U.S. On Figure
4-5, a 10-mile stretch of road is being proposed
for reconstruction through several counties
in Kansas. To understand the soils, the study
area is delineated on the Web Soil Survey
Interactive Map of the U.S. which generates a
site-specific soils report (A). Within the report
is a map of the project area with the locations
of each soil mapping unit. For each mapping
unit, the report describes the soil profile and
soil characteristics (C). In this example, a prominent
soil mapping unit in the planning area
is “7170—Reading silt loam” (B). It is a deep
stream terrace soil described in the report (C).
The Web Soil Survey also allows the user to
query the project site for areas of similar land
capabilities or limitations. For this project site,
one of the maps generated was areas where
high seedling mortalities may be expected (D).
Grouping of soil mapping units can also be
used in the development of revegetation units.
Roadside Revegetation: An Integrated Approach to Establishing Native Plants and Pollinator Habitat
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