The Coastal Plainer: Fall 2011

Message from the MO–Leader’s Desk

By Charles Love, MO–15 Team Leader

Again, greetings everyone!

Looking back over the summer, I have been very impressed with our MLRA soil survey offices. They demonstrated strong communication and collaboration across the region to meet our key priorities, including completing phase 1 of the Rapid Carbon Assessment Project and completing the mapping for the first generation soil survey of all private lands in the MO–15 region.

What an outstanding job everyone did working together on the regional Rapid Carbon Assessment Project! We completed 100 percent of our soil sampling for the project and are working closely with Auburn and Tuskegee Universities to carry out the sample processing. About eight students and faculty members are assisting with processing over 9,000 samples. They are doing a great job. We have completed about 26 percent of phase II of the Rapid Carbon Assessment Project. This project has provided work experience to students in agricultural majors and exposed them to soil survey activities across the MO–15 region. Because of this great collaborative effort, the NRCS staff has been able to share their skills in soil science with faculty and students. Also, we have been able to identify some great students with potential for future employment with NRCS.

On behalf of the MO–15 Board of Directors, I am very excited to inform you that the first generation of the soil survey is now completed for all private lands in the MO–15 region. This is truly a great milestone for the region, and I want to thank our State Conservationists, state soil scientists, other soil scientists, cooperators, and partners that have contributed to this great effort over the years. We could not have achieved this great milestone without a strong commitment from you and many others. This is a great accomplishment for the benefit of natural resources in the region and is something we can all be proud of. Of course, we are still working hard to finish the American Indian and Federal lands in the region in the very near future.

Well, what’s next for the MO–15 soil survey program? I am glad you asked. We want to complete an evaluation and harmonization initiative of the soil survey information from the first generation of the soil survey program. The first step of the phase I initiative for the MLRA update concept is to identify inconsistencies that require little or no fieldwork to correct and that can be addressed using the MLRA update approach. We want to use a “do no harm approach” for harmonizing information between soil survey offices. The technical teams will definitely need to help with soil data re-correlations. Then we will proceed to refresh the NASIS database with known soil information. The Soil Survey Division is asking us to complete phase I within the next 3 years. I really think we can accomplish this regional priority as well as maintain a good workflow of some of our existing project plans from the MLRA soil survey offices. So, join me in kicking off the first part of the next generation of MO–15 soil survey updates.

We here at MO–15 have had some great brainstorming sessions leading to the development of a comprehensive workflow chart for project plans. The chart documents our method for obtaining the board of director’s approval for implementing MLRA-based project plans in the region. This workflow method ensures that all draft MLRA SSO project plans undergo quality control and quality assurance before being sent to the board for approval and that the plans are properly populated in NASIS. (See next page.) This workflow chart really gives us a good vision of project planning processes throughout the region.

During fiscal year 2011, we held a number of meetings, conferences, and teleconferences that contributed to strong communication, including state soil survey work planning conferences, meetings and teleconferences in support of the rapid carbon assessment and the ecological site inventory, and meetings of the Board of Directors, management teams, technical teams, and MLRA soil survey leaders. During fiscal year 2012, we will expand the use of teleconferences.

I have asked Scott Anderson, senior regional soil scientist, to conduct quarterly teleconferences with the MLRA soil survey leaders. The teleconferences will help monitor milestones of the evaluation and harmonization project plans for each MLRA soil survey office. These meetings will also serve as a collective voice from the MLRA soil survey leaders to the management team.

We want to welcome the new ecological site inventory (ESI) specialists in the region. They are Dee Pederson, Athens, Georgia; Susan Carr, Tavares, Florida; and Karrie Pennington, Jackson, Mississippi. The ESI quality-control specialist position at Auburn has been advertised and should be filled by the end of December. Also, the MO–15 management team has drafted a proposal for identifying areas of responsibilities for the ecological site inventory specialists by MLRA and MLRA SSO. The management team envisions the nine MLRA SSOs and the ecological site inventory specialists collaborating on all phases of the inventory for developing ecological site descriptions across the region. Before implementation, the proposal for the areas of responsibilities will be presented to the Board of Directors for review and approval.

I know we will continue with strong communication and collaboration as we move forward with the MLRA update and maintenance. We will meet the exciting challenges of the next generation soil survey program across the MLRA soil survey office boundaries and across our MO boundaries in the southeast.

As always, thank you for your support.

—Charles

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