Soils

Partnerships

2008 National State Soil Scientist’s Workshop

“Technical Soil Services and Technology for the Future”

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Monday, March 17, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008

PDF files require Acrobat Reader and PPT files require Microsoft Powerpoint.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Afternoon Session – Opening Remarks
Moderator – Bill Craddock, MO Leader / Kentucky State Soil Scientist

Time	Activity	Presenter(s)
3:00PM - 3:10PM	Welcome (PDF; 1.9 MB)	Mike Hubbs, Kentucky State Conservationist
3:10PM - 3:20PM	Introductions and Expectations	Paul Benedict Maxine Levin
3:20PM - 3:30PM	Development of Action Register (Assignment of Action Register Team to follow presentations and facilitate recording of Action items with flip charts and note-taking)	Team Leader – Cam Loerch, SSS-NE Team Members – Ron Myhru, SSS-WA; Mike Domeier, SSS-UT; Jerry Schaar, SSS-SD; Ron L. Taylor, SSS-NJ
3:30PM - 4:00PM	FY08 Soil Survey Division Priorities (PDF; 1.2 MB)	Micheal Golden, Director
4:00PM - 4:15PM	Soils and the Future of the Agency (by teleconference at 1-866-854-0310 with passcode 5463354)	Arlen Lancaster, Chief
4:15PM - 4:30PM	Expectations from the SSRA Deputy Area	Wayne Maresch, Deputy Chief, Soil Survey and Resource Assessment
4:30PM - 5:00PM	What’s New on the Horizon for Technical Services – Making Soil Surveys and Interpretations Relevant for Users (PDF; 21 KB)	Chris Smith, National Leader for Technical Soil Services
5:00PM - 7:30PM	Soils Social Hour Computer Technology Demo Forum (Salon I, II)	State Soil Scientists are encouraged to bring CDs or demos of their products to show on laptop systems

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Morning Session
Moderator – Douglas Slabaugh, Tennessee State Soil Scientist

Time	Activity	Presenter(s)
8:00AM - 8:30AM	Linking Research to Soil Interpretations and MLRA Updates: Focusing on the Benchmarks (PDF; 127 KB)	Larry West, National Leader for Soil Research, NSSC
8:30AM - 9:00AM	Minimum Data Set and the Framework for Sampling Dynamic Soil Properties (including background of ecological site description framework) (PPT; 1.3 MB)	Arlene Tugel, Soil Scientist, UNM/NSSC
9:00AM - 9:30AM	NASIS 6.0 Overview for the New Soil Survey (PDF; 421 KB)	Jim Fortner, Soil Scientist, NSSC
9:30AM - 10:00AM	Break
10:00AM - 12:00PM	MLRA Restructuring Plans and MLRA Project Management – the vision and progress including evaluations, planning, and reporting including A76 and Placement Plan (by teleconference for NHQ HR Staff and NRCS State SAOs at 1-866-854-0310 with passcode 5463354; please call in at 10 AM Eastern Time to start the session with HR issues addressed first) Soil Survey Restructure Plan (PDF; 373 KB) State Soil Scientist Roles in the New MLRA Soil Survey Office Structure (PDF; 146 KB)	Soils leadership, Paul Benedict, Maxine Levin and Craig Ditzler; NHQ Human Resources Staff, BJ Scruggs
12:00PM - 1:00PM	Lunch

Afternoon Session
Moderator – Wayne Hoar, Maine State Soil Scientist

Time	Activity	Presenter(s)
1:00PM - 1:15PM	Involving Customer Criteria in the Use of Interpretations	Rich Gehring, Ohio State Soil Scientist
1:15PM - 2:30PM	Panel of Soil Scientists from the Field: Case Studies Providing Technical Soil Services and Using Interpretations Modules in the Field Office Kip Kolesinkas – Customizing Soil Survey Interpretations for Connecticut Customers (PDF; 1.7 MB) (some new things with interps, especially with our subaqueous soil survey and displayed on maps) Clayton Lee – Customer Derived and Customer Driven Interpretation (PDF; 1.6 MB) Rich Gehring and Rick Griffin – Using GIS to Create Useable Christmas Tree Growing Interpretations (PDF; 3.6 MB)	Kip Kolesinkas, CT Clayton Lee, MO Rich Gehring and Rick Griffin, OH
2:30PM - 3:00PM	Break
3:00PM - 3:55PM 4:00PM - 5:00PM	Mini-Sessions (each participant will attend two sessions)
	Group 1 (Salon I & II) – Using Core Data Layer File Geo-Databases to Perform MLRA Region-Wide Assessments to Assist in Soil Correlation Decision Making Process (PPT; 14.1 MB)	Sharon Waltman, NGDC Amanda Moore, NGDC Sam Brown, NCGC
	Group 2 (Salon VI) – Preparing and Planning for Dynamic Soil Property Work (PDF; 915 KB) Summary (PDF; 18 KB)	Arlene Tugel Larry West Karl Hipple Chris Smith
	Group 3 (Salon IV & V) – Understanding National Park Service Soil Survey Deliverables (mechanisms for delivery of point data, a special NPS SSURGO template, query themes, NPS lands overlap issues, boundary issues in setting up new NPS non-MLRA soil survey areas, SSURGO export needs for the NPS) (PDF; 6.6 MB)	Sue Southard, National Liaison to NPS
	Group 4 (Salon VII) – MLRA Project Plans – Annual and Long Term (PDF; 67 KB) MO7 Implementation Plan Synopsis (PDF; 12 KB) MO7 Implementation Plan (PDF; 2.4 MB) MO13 Implementation Guide (PDF; 88 KB) Summary (PDF; 13 KB)	Paul Benedict Craig Ditzler Steve Park Cleveland Watts Clayton Lee
5:00PM	Reconvene (Salon I, II, and III)
5:00PM - 7:30PM	Soils Social Hour Poster Session and Marketing Demo Forum (Salon I, II)	State Soil Scientists are encouraged to bring posters of ongoing research and/or CDs or demos of their marketing products

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Morning Session
Moderator – Will Bowman, Michigan State Soil Scientist

Time	Activity	Presenter(s)
8:00AM - 9:00AM	Notes from the Underground – What is NGDC Working On? What Are the Tools of the Future? (PDF; 43 KB) Soil Resource Inventory Tool Box (SRITB) (PDF; 2.5 MB)	Jon Hempel, Director, NGDC Henry Ferguson, NGDC Caryl Radatz, NRCS, Missouri
9:00AM - 9:30AM	Web Soil Survey, Soils Data, Open File System and Information – The Public Interface Participants submit questions for the panel on Monday PM and Tuesday AM Moderator will ask questions to panel members NASIS 6.0; Central Server; Soil Data Warehouse; Soil Data Viewer & Customer Service Tool Kit; Web access to soil survey data; data requirements for program delivery; and data population workload and responsibility	Alan Price, ITC Jim Fortner, NSSC Sam Brown, NCGC NGDC Staff
9:30AM - 10:00AM	Break
10:00AM - 10:55AM 11:00AM - 12:00PM	Mini-Sessions (each participant will attend two more sessions)
	Group 1 (Salon I & II) – Using Core Data Layer File Geo-Databases to Perform MLRA Region-Wide Assessments to Assist in Soil Correlation Decision Making Process (PPT; 14.1 MB)	Sharon Waltman, NGDC Amanda Moore, NGDC Sam Brown, NCGC
	Group 2 (Salon VI) – Preparing and Planning for Dynamic Soil Property Work (PDF; 915 KB) Summary (PDF; 18 KB)	Arlene Tugel Larry West Karl Hipple Chris Smith
	Group 3 (Salon IV & V) – Understanding National Park Service Soil Survey Deliverables (mechanisms for delivery of point data, a special NPS SSURGO template, query themes, NPS lands overlap issues, boundary issues in setting up new NPS non-MLRA soil survey areas, SSURGO export needs for the NPS) (PDF; 6.6 MB)	Sue Southard, National Liaison to NPS
	Group 4 (Salon VII) – MLRA Project Plans – Annual and Long Term (PDF; 67 KB) MO7 Implementation Plan Synopsis (PDF; 12 KB) MO7 Implementation Plan (PDF; 2.4 MB) MO13 Implementation Guide (PDF; 88 KB) Summary (PDF; 13 KB)	Paul Benedict Craig Ditzler Steve Park Cleveland Watts Clayton Lee
12:00PM - 1:00PM	Lunch

Afternoon Session
Moderator – Pam Thomas, South Carolina State Soil Scientist

Time	Activity	Presenter(s)
1:00PM - 1:20PM	National Commodity Crop Productivity Index (PDF; 288 KB) (by teleconference for NHQ Staff and NRCS State Soil Scientists at 1-866-854-0310 with passcode 5463354)	Ray Sinclair, NSSC Bob Dobos, NSSC
1:20PM - 1:40PM	Calculations and Plans for T, K, I, WEG, HSGs, NCCPI, and Corrosivity (PDF; 1.8 MB) Text only (PDF; 15 KB)	Karl Hipple, NSSC
1:40PM - 2:05PM	Field Indicators of Hydric Soils and Regional Supplements to the Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual / Technical Soil Services Manual Hydric Soils Chapter and Other Wetland Issues (PDF; 1.4 MB)	Lenore Vasilas, NHQ
2:05PM - 2:20PM	Geospatial Resources Data Support (PDF; 8.8 MB)	Sam Brown, NCGC
2:20PM - 2:45PM	Geophysical Methods Within NRCS: Applications (PDF; 8.6 MB)	Wes Tuttle, NSSC, NC
2:45PM - 3:15PM	Break
3:15PM - 5:00PM	Panel – Landscape Analysis Applications for Field Soil Survey and Mapping of Soil Properties for Interpretations (NGDC Staff with representatives from 3 Field Projects) Amanda Moore – Spatial Disaggregation Techniques for Visualizing and Evaluating Map Unit Composition (PDF; 3.1 MB) Jessica Philippe – Digital Soil Mapping and SIE in Essex County, Vermont (PDF; 3.3 MB) Eric Wolfbrandt – Soil Survey Projects Using GIS/RS Methods (PPT; 26.7 MB) Alina Rice – SoilMap at Oregon State University	Amanda Moore, NGDC Jessica Philippe, NRCS, Vermont Eric Wolfbrandt, GIS Specialist, Phoenix, AZ Alina Rice, NRCS, Oregon
6:00PM - ??	Hospitality Room or on your own

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Morning Session
Moderator – Edward Ealy, Georgia State Soil Scientist

Time	Activity	Presenter(s)
8:00AM - 8:45AM	Soil Survey Schedule (PDF; 136 KB) / NASIS 6.0 / PRS / Soil Survey Reportable Codes / EDAAR (PDF; 47 KB) and CASPeR (PDF; 13 KB) – progress and policies Soil Survey Schedule schema (PDF; 872 KB)	Jim Fortner Jon Gerken Chris Smith
8:45AM - 9:15AM	Priority Content Management and Delivery Needs within the National Soil Information System (PDF; 994 KB)	Darrell Kautz
9:15AM - 9:45AM	National Geospatial Strategy Update (PDF; 424 KB)	Tommie Parham, NCGC
9:45AM - 10:15AM	Break
10:15AM - 10:45AM	Research to Determine the Economic Benefits of Soil Survey Information (PDF; 468 KB) (by teleconference for NHQ Staff and NRCS State Soil Scientists at 1-866-854-0310 with passcode 5463354)	Dr. Jerry Fletcher, WVU
10:45AM - 11:15AM	Soil Survey Training (PDF; 23 KB), Our New Frontier (i.e., NASIS 6.0, MLRA Management Course, TSS Courses) On-the-job training (OJT) (PDF; 54 KB) OJT cover sheet (PDF; 233 KB) OJT volunteers (PDF; 33 KB)	Marc Crouch, NSSC
11:15AM - 11:30AM	Recruitment (PDF; 230 KB) – Civil Rights, Outreach, OPM Standards / Needs, Career Intern Program, Progress in Recruitment (by teleconference for NHQ HR Staff and NRCS State SAOs at 1-866-854-0310 with passcode 5463354)	Gilbert Guerrero, Civil Rights Division Astrid Martinez
11:30AM - 12:00PM	National Technical Support Centers – Soil Scientists’ Activities and Progress in Technical Services (PDF; 567 KB)	Ed Griffin Leander Brown
12:00PM - 1:00PM	Lunch

Afternoon Session

Time	Activity	Presenter(s)
1:00PM - 2:30PM	Discussion Groups in Breakout Rooms – Emerging Issues (concurrent; choose one)
	Group 1 (Salon I and II) – Federal Lands Initiative (PDF; 14 KB) How will we maintain staff to support continuing Initial mapping on Federal lands into 2020? What are the issues and barriers? FLAG group priorities? How will we do the ESDs on federal lands?	Maxine Levin (Leader) Paul Benedict (Recorder)
	Group 2 (Salon VI) – National Legend (PDF; 9 KB) How will we build the Corporate Soil database and what is the need for a unified Soil Survey legend?	Jerry Daigle (Leader) Jim Fortner (Recorder)
	Group 3 (Salon IV and V) – Content Manager / Open File System (PDF; 19 KB) How can we document our Research and Technical Services and organize the information for the future?	Darrell Kautz and Larry West (Leaders) Lenore Vasilas (Recorder)
	Group 4 (Salon VII) – Technical Services (PDF; 9 KB) What are the best techniques for integrating Technical Soil Services into mainstream conservation planning and programs?	Chris Smith (Leader) Leander Brown, Ed Griffin, NSTC Soil Scientists (Recorders)
2:30PM - 3:00PM	Break

Moderator – Deanna Anderson-Peterson, Florida State Soil Scientist

Time	Activity	Presenter(s)
3:00PM - 3:30PM	Review of the Discussion Groups (three major points discussed from each leader)
3:30PM - 4:00PM	Review of Action Register Team
4:00PM - 5:00PM	Director’s Forum – Panel / Discussion of Further Issues and Questions	Mike Golden, Bob Ahrens, Paul Benedict, Maxine Levin, Karl Hipple, Larry West, Chris Smith, Jon Hempel, Craig Ditzler, Tommie Parham
5:00PM	Adjourn

Friday, March 21, 2008

Activity	Presenter(s)
Wrap Up Compile Information and Organize for Proceedings	Chris Smith Paul Benedict

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