Profiles in History

Abstract

2012 USDA-NRCS Soil Scientist Bry Schmidt (retired), in blue vest, records a soil profile description of Tulare clay while working on the Rapid Assessment of U.S. Soil Carbon (RaCA) in 2012 in the historic Tulare Lakebed of Kings County, California. Dr. Robin Roberts, historian and USDA-NRCS Earth Team Volunteer, photographs the soil profile. RaCA in Kings County, California. Schmidt retired in 2013 after 25 years of federal service, including service in the United States Navy and a tour in Vietnam. During his career with USDA-SCS/NRCS, Schmidt made valuable contributions while working on several soil surveys in California, including the Soil Surveys of Northeast Kern County, Southwest Kern County, Western Tulare County, Western Fresno County, and Yosemite National Park. He is a co-author of the Soil Survey of Kern County, Southwestern Part. During his career with USDA-NRCS, he was highly regarded for his proficiency in working with the NASIS database. Dr. Robin Roberts has served as a USDA-NRCS Earth Team Volunteer since 2005 and authored the “History and Development” sections for the Soil Surveys of Western Fresno County, Southwest Kern County, and Northeast Kern County. Photo courtesy of Kerry Arroues, USDA-NRCS, Hanford, California. 2013–2014 The steppes of the Central Russian Uplands and the U.S. Great Plains both have extensive histories of the use of tree windbreaks to improve the local climate for crop growth. When V.V. Dokuchaev was sent to southern Russia in 1892, tree windbreaks had been used for more than a century to protect crops from hot, dry winds blowing from deserts to the southeast. Dokuchaev recommended an aggressive tree planting campaign, and today the region has an extensive windbreak network. During the Dust Bowl, a similar scenario played out in the United States. In this case, U.S. Forest Service personnel were charged with planting windbreaks to control wind erosion in six drought-stricken plains states. A key figure in the Prairie States Forestry Project (PSFP) was a Russian-born forester, Raphael Zon, who applied knowledge from his experiences in Russia to the PSFP in the Great Plains. Dr. Chendev (in pit) confers with North Dakota State Soil Scientist Wade Bott in a crop field in southern North Dakota. In 2013 and 2014, Yury Chendev of Belgorod State University (BSU) led expeditions to Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Montana to study soil transformation following windbreak planting. A 1942 PSFP planting near Norfolk, NE was included in this study. Dr. Chendev and colleagues from BSU and Moscow State University were joined by U.S. partner Tom Sauer of the USDA-ARS and colleagues from Iowa State University. This project, funded by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation found strong similarities in soil organic carbon changes beneath the windbreaks that varied with climate and were consistent with findings from comparable sites in Russia. The results of this study will enable prediction of potential soil carbon sequestration and biomass production with tree planting in semiarid regions of the United States and Russia. Photo courtesy of Yury Chendev. Contributed by Tom Sauer. 2014 Resource Soil Scientist Greg Granger and State Soil Scientist Tony Jenkins analyze depth to bedrock distributions in potato fields of Northern Maine using ground penetrating radar. With the early April snowpack ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 m; snowshoes and a child's sled provide a relatively convenient way to traverse areas normally inaccessible to GPR due to crops and/or mud during warmer weather. The information gathered serves dual purposes: (i) field office assistance with on-site evaluation for planning conservation practices (specifically Subsurface Drainage 606) and (ii) Soil survey map unit evaluation pertinent to MLRA and National Initiative projects. NRCS Maine Soils Staff Use GPR for Bedrock Study. In the photo above, Resource Soil Scientist Greg Granger operates the GPR on a potato field buried under the snowpack. Information and Photo courtesy of Tony Jenkins, State Soil Scientist, USDA-NRCS, Maine.