United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service		 Soils Go to Accessibility Information
Skip to Page Content





2007 NCSS National Conference

“Soil Survey — Future Directions in Soil Health and Supporting Productive Lands”

Committees

Standing Committees
Research Agenda Standing Committee
NCSS Standards Standing Committee
New Technology Standing Committee

In-Conference 2007 Committees
Committee 1: Ecological Principles in Soil Survey
Committee 2: Future of Soil Survey
Committee 3: Interpretations
Committee 4: Water Movement and Water Table Monitoring in Soil Survey

Standing Committees — General Descriptions (DRAFT)

Research Agenda Standing Committee

Co-Chairs:

David Hammer, National Leader, Investigations, NSSC, NRCS (david.hammer@lin.usda.gov)
Nancy Cavallaro, CSREES, Soils (ncavallaro@csrees.usda.gov)
TBA

Charges:

  1. Review reports and recommendations from 2006 NCSS Regional Conferences.
  2. Identify, document, prioritize, and address the critical research and development issues within the NCSS.
  3. Identify opportunities for partnering on priority research needs.
  4. Identify opportunities for funding priority research needs.
  5. Continue Task Force Activities:
    1. Benchmark Soils and Landscapes in Soil Survey. The purpose of the Task Force will be to formulate a plan to re-establish a targeted measurement program of chemical and physical relationships in soil properties and conditions through NCSS partnerships on Benchmark Soils and Landscapes for the U.S. Soil Survey. This task force would also address compilation of NCSS cooperator laboratory databases of soil properties into LIMS and database models for this effort. The NCSS Research Agenda Standing Committee will report the Task Force’s recommendations at the NCSS.
    2. Gypsum and Expanding Salts in Western States. The purpose of the Task Force will be to formulate a plan to produce a targeted measurement program of chemical and physical relationships in soil properties and conditions through NCSS partnerships on Gypsum and Expanding Salts for the U.S. Soil Survey. The NCSS Research Agenda Standing Committee will report the Task Force’s recommendations at the NCSS.
    3. Open File Task Force. The purpose of this Task Force will be to institutionalize the open file system.
  6. Identify an Outstanding Research Project within the NCSS partnership to present at the National NCSS Conference.
  7. The NCSS Research Agenda Standing Committee will be required to report its activities at each National Conference.

 

NCSS Standards Standing Committee

Co-Chairs:

Craig Ditzler, National Leader, Soil Classification and Standards, NSSC, NRCS (craig.ditzler@lin.usda.gov)
Duane Lammers, USFS (dlammers@fs.fed.us)
Tom Hahn (tom.hahn@co.usda.gov)

Charges:

  1. Receive recommendations from other regional committees and be the clearinghouse for issues dealing with standards. Establish subcommittees, as needed, to deal with issues identified. For this conference the issues are:
    • Mica study and taxonomy (Tom Reedy, NRCS)
    • Evaluating the Anthropogenic Deviant Proposal (Neil Smeck, OH, North Central Region)
    • Subaqueous Soils in Soil Survey (Ongoing; update)
      • Taxonomy Proposal for subaqueous soils.
  2. The NCSS Standards Standing Committee will be required to report its activities at each National Conference.

 

New Technology Standing Committee

Co-Chairs:

Pete Biggam, NPS (pete_biggam@nps.gov)
Jon Hempel, NGDC, NRCS (jon.hempel@wv.usda.gov)

Charges:

To develop and document procedures, processes, and standards that will be used to integrate GIS, remote sensing, landscape modeling, and other similar technologies into the mainstream of the soil mapping and landscape inventory program.

  1. Review and document progress on recommendations from 2005 report.
  2. Review recommendations from 2006 Regional Conference reports.
  3. The NCSS New Technology Standing Committee will be required to report its activities at each National Conference.
  4. Identify an Outstanding New Technology Transfer Project within the NCSS partnership to present at the National NCSS Conference.
  5. What new inventory techniques have emerged recently and what are the strengths and weaknesses of these new techniques?
  6. How will database strategies change with new inventory techniques and the desire for more complex analysis of soil inventory information?

 

In-Conference 2007 Committees — General Descriptions (DRAFT)

Committee 1: Ecological Principles in Soil Survey

This Committee should review classical references and University curricula for ecological principles and associations with soil and natural resource inventories. The Committee should investigate new interpretations and management recommendations associated with state and transition models; ecological frameworks; ecological site inventories; and ecological land use inventories and discuss how they may be incorporated into soil survey.

Charges:

  1. Review Ecological Principles committee report from 2003 and 2005. Identify terminology of emerging ecological theories for use in soil survey inventories.
  2. Select and explore proposals of how ecological principles may be incorporated into the New Soil Survey and databases. Establish subcommittees to explore selected topics. Examples of possible subjects to explore:
    1. What interpretations and management recommendations from soil surveys are needed that relate to ecological problems?
    2. What NCSS soil survey inventory protocols and standards are needed to better represent ecological principles in soil survey?
    3. How could new inventory techniques of soil survey help to interpret natural and altered landscapes to better represent emerging ecological models?

Co-Chairs:

Curtis Talbot, NSSC, NRCS (curtis.talbot@lin.usda.gov)
Randy Davis, USFS, Washington, DC (rdavis03@fs.fed.us)

 

Committee 2: Future of Soil Survey

This Committee will review past documents on the subject and explore the subject with the intent to produce a series of white papers for review by the conference.

Charges:

  1. Review report from 2006 North Central Region Committee on Future Direction of Soil Survey. Gather recommendations from past national and regional committee reports for material on this subject.
  2. Invite members of NCSS to produce white papers for discussion and possible presentation in the Future of Soil Survey Forum in conference.
  3. What are the reasons that students do not apply for federal jobs when they are made available?
  4. Explore options for electronic or internet clearinghouse that improves information flow on positions, student applicants, scholarships, grants, and contacts within NCSS.
  5. Promote internships and career intern program in federal government to provide more opportunities for high school and college age students to consider soil science as a career.

Co-Chairs:

Philip Owens, Purdue University, IN (powens@purdue.edu)
TBA

 

Committee 3: Interpretations

This Committee will explore and discuss how soil survey should address interpretations for regional updates of the soil survey and database representation.

Charges:

  1. Review and document progress from 2006 Regional Committees on Interpretations in the West, North Central, and South NCSS regions.
  2. To establish a formal mechanism (charter) within the NCSS to:
    1. Identify, document, prioritize, and address the critical interpretation and technical development issues within the NCSS.
    2. Identify opportunities for partnering on investigation, validation, documentation, and delivery of newly developed interpretations within NCSS.
    3. Identify opportunities for funding validation of interpretations in the soil survey.
    4. Identify coordination and communication protocol with ongoing Standing Committees of NCSS (Research Needs, New Technology, Standards/Taxonomy).
  3. Consider request from Regions to set up a new NCSS Standing Committee for soil interpretations.

Co-Chairs:

Karl Hipple, National Leader, Interpretations, NSSC, NRCS (karl.hipple@lin.usda.gov)
Chris Smith, National Leader, Technical Soil Services, NHQ, NRCS (christopherw.smith@wdc.usda.gov)

 

Committee 4: Water Movement and Water Table Monitoring in Soil Survey

This committee will explore and discuss how soil survey should address water movement and water tables for regional updates of the soil survey and database representation.

Charges:

  1. Review and document progress from the 2005 Committee on Water Movement and Water Table Monitoring in Soil Survey.
  2. This committee will review water table studies nationally to formulate regional guidance of measurement techniques, database documentation and interpretations for taxonomy, and practical user applications in soil survey.
  3. How might studies of regional or local hydrology apply to updating and refining soil survey information?
  4. Document progress of hydropedology research in soil survey and applications to interpretations.

Co-Chairs:

Henry Lin, Penn State Univ. (henrylin@psu.edu)
Steven Sprecher, NRCS, Lafayette, IN (steven.sprecher@in.usda.gov)
 

< Back to NCSS 2007 National Conference Index