Featured Article

Island County Soil Survey

Submitted By Bruce Lindsay, MLRA Project Leader, Mount Vernon

Island County has gone through immense changes in population and land use in the last 50 years but has successfully managed to implement programs and organizations to help preserve the wonderful environment and lifestyle of the islands.

Island County was predominantly dairy farms and logging areas with some farm areas. Now it has become more and more urbanized. Fortunately, many things have been done to preserve the agricultural focus of the area and protect the scenic beauty while at the same time allowing population growth. In 1961, Camano Island became part of the already established Snohomish Conservation District. The Whidbey Island Conservation District was established in 1967. The Whidbey Island and Snohomish Conservation Districts work to protect and restore the natural resources of Island County. Local conservation districts offer free technical assistance to landowners as well as education and information about best management practices for agriculture, forestry and residential lands.

Aerial photo looking south toward Whidbey Island from Goose Rock.

There was a soil survey published in 1953 and it has been in use by the farmers, ranchers and conservation organizations until this day. However, in 2003 a memorandum of understanding was signed between the NRCS, Whidbey Island Conservation District, Snohomish Conservation District, Washington State University and the National Park Service to update the soil survey. The Ebeys Landing National Historic Preserve was completed first and was submitted to the Park Service last year as an interim report. The field work for the remainder of the county was completed last field season and the manuscript has been submitted for editing. ‘Now days’ because of tremendous advancements in the NRCS capability of delivering soil survey products, the information will be available by the end of the fiscal year in a digital form. In the “Old Days” it would take several years to publish a hard copy manuscript. Now, because of the Soil Data Mart and Web Soil Survey, products are available much faster and in a form that is much more usable.

The soils themselves have not changed much but the soil survey has better imagery than the old survey which did not even have a photographic base. The new survey will have more detail and will be in a digital form. There are some differences in the soil types mapped, especially in the hills. This is due to the tools we have now that use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on computers. The ability to zoom in and out and even see three dimensionally using GIS makes it much easier to plan where to look at important soil areas and where to put the soil polygon lines on the map.

In addition to the efforts to preserve farmland and wild areas, the new big issues are water conservation and quality. With increased urbanization and limited available land space, good water management is essential. The Whidbey Island Conservation District says “Better soil information will undoubtedly help our efforts with Low Impact Development (LID) encouraging infiltration of runoff, aquifer recharge, etc.”

The NRCS has again provided a much needed tool to a highly motivated and capable local population and local government.
 

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