NRCS Alaska News

February 2, 2007

In This Issue

Alaska Soil Predictions Maybe Possible with Techniques Under Evaluation

Car Recycling Work Featured at AFE

Hone Your Bear Knowledge and Skills Before Field Season

Changes to Service Center Map

Personnel Actions

Alaska Soil Predictions Maybe Possible with Techniques Under Evaluation

Soil survey in Alaska is moving into a new era using tools and techniques that we have been building upon in recent years.  Soil survey already makes use of digital information and products in the cartographic portion of survey production.  Secondary products derived from elevation models are regularly used to examine slopes, aspect, and elevations as part of premapping and map unit design.  Web soil survey and Soil Datamart products including Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) Database data and maps are provided in digital format.  Alaskan soil scientists work in the ArcGIS environment everyday.

New techniques made possible by an expanded base of experience and knowledge now offer the chance to model and predict soil occurrence using some of these familiar digital layers and tools.  These models go by various acronyms such as SoLIM (Soil Land Inference Model), SIE (Soil Inference Engine), PURC (Pedogenic Understanding Raster Classification), TEUI (Terrestrial Ecosystem Unit Inventory). 

Across the U.S., these models have been developed and applied to soil survey, in coordination with academics and private consultants, with good results.  Alaska soil scientists are evaluating a method of soil prediction labeled RASP (Remote Access Soil Proxy) to determine if in our areas of limited accessibility we can apply a predictive method that is accurate, explicit, and useful. 

These models are only as accurate as the soil scientist’s understanding for the landscape is complete.  Thorough and efficient field data collection is absolutely vital in the development of a good predictive model.   Modeling, in theory, can lower the cost and improve the accuracy of soil surveys.  Allied techniques can focus the soil scientists sampling design.  For the soil scientists of Alaska this represents not so much anything brand new but a more complete use of the ArcGIS toolbox and a more rigorous and formal development of our comprehension of the soil forming factors which is then reproducible.

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Car Recycling Success Featured at AFE

Copper Valley RC&D Coordinator Arlene Rosenkrans will be a speaker during the Alaska Forum on the Environment during the session “Building a Statewide Coalition for Abandoned Automobile Removal and Recycling” on Friday, February 16th starting at 10:45 a.m. 

In 2006, the Copper Valley Development Authority’s Abandoned Car Project, headed up by Arlene, removed more than 300 abandoned cars and inventoried another 350 for removal by contractors. 

Funding through the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Land Management and Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Kenny Lake Soil and Water Conservation District, landowners and the State of Alaska, along with support from Mt. Sanford Tribal Consortium, and the villages of Cheesh’Na, Gakona and Gulkana will allow the project to continue through 2007, extending north to Slana.

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Hone Your Bear Knowledge and Skills Before Field Season

All NRCS Alaska employees that do extensive fieldwork are required to take a full day Bear Behavior and Firearms Safety course, followed by a half day firearms proficiency certification class.  The firearms proficiency certification class requires annual recertification. These courses are taught by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Bureau of Land Management or National Rifle Association instructors depending on office location.

The Bear Behavior portion of the course focuses on the two types of bears that are commonly encountered in the field in Alaska: the grizzly or brown bear and the black bear.  The grizzly and brown bear are the same species but different in size due to habitat and food sources.  The brown bear is more of a coastal/forest bear and has access to a large amount of protein by feeding on salmon through the summer and fall.  These bears commonly grow to be 1,000 to 1,200 lbs and ten feet tall when standing on their hind legs.  The grizzly bear is an interior bear and it does not have access to the salmon protein source.  They are often more blonde colored and occupy the tundra regions of the state.  These bears usually are in the 500 to 600 lb range and up to eight feet in height.  The grizzly/brown bear are not true hibernators and will stay active as long as there is food available.  They also will rise from their den in the middle of winter during a warm spell.  They have been observed a couple of different years in January by cross country skiers in an area called the stadium inside Kincaid Park just south of Anchorage International Airport. 

The distinguishing characteristics between grizzly/brown bears and black bears is that the brown bear has a massive head, a dog face with an upturned muzzle, long claws, and a distinctive hump above its front shoulder blades.  Black bears have a smaller, less robust build, a straight muzzle, no hump and shorter, curved claws. 

Both bears are omnivorous; they eat any high-protein, high-fat, high-energy food available.  The grizzly/brown bear is more prone to maul humans when protecting a food cache or their young, whereas the black bear is more likely to stalk and kill humans.  There were 189 recorded bear attacks from 1900 to 1998 and only 30 fatalities.

NRCS field employees are issued 12-guage shotguns for bear protection if they complete the training and are certified. To get certified in the USFWS course taught in Anchorage, employees are required to shoot two complete sequences of fire at a silhouette target, and one sequence at a charging target.  The silhouette target is 8 ½” x 11” and is placed 15 yards from the firing line. 

1. On command to fire from the instructor, the trainee starts with an empty chamber, the slide action closed and locked with the trigger safety on.  The trainee must load a round into the chamber from a full magazine (4 rounds, all slugs).

2. The shotgun will be shouldered, aligned with the target, safety switched to fire position, and the round will be fired. Three more rounds from the magazine will be fired in rapid succession at the target.  The four shots will be fired within a five second period. 

3. Upon completion of firing, one additional round will be loaded directly into the chamber and fired at the target within a five second period.  After firing, the safety will be moved to the safe position, the shell will be ejected from the chamber and the action will be left open. 

4. Certification requires that 70 % of the shots be on target and that all sequences be fired within the allowable time of ten seconds for one sequence.  For a charging target/bear, the 8 ½” x 11” targets will start 25 yards from the firing line; three rounds will be in the magazine with the chamber empty.  Upon the start of the target moving, the trainee will shoulder the shotgun and fire 3 rounds before the target gets to the firing line.  To qualify as a shooter, 2 out of 3 shots need to be in the kill zone.  To be a shotgun carrier, you need 1 out of 3 shots to be in the kill zone.  If you hit 0 out of 3 shots in the kill zone, you are a statistic.

It is also important to note that without firearms handling and shooting practice, your skills will fade dramatically.  Therefore, before taking responsibility with other NRCS employees’ lives, it is important that you put forth the effort to hone your skills, and recognize any firearm proficiency limitations you may have.

How often do we encounter bears on the job?  This past summer we installed a site that bears frequented due to wild strawberries, but they left us and our equipment alone and we left them alone. Soil scientists reporting seeing bear signs frequently in the course of their work.  An NRCS employee had a bear run-in while out on a Sunday morning walk. Bear encounters are quite frequent and do occur anywhere in Alaska.  The NRCS provides excellent training to avoid bears and, if necessary, to protect yourself.

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Changes to Service Center Map

Some minor changes were made to the Service Center boundary map to move the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District to the Anchorage Field Office area. Please use the new map for any future publications. The maps can be found in Adobe Acrobat and photo formats at the links below:

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Personnel Actions

Job Announcement

• Soil Conservationist, GS09, Delta Junction, closes 2/22/07
• Soil Conservationist Technician, GS 05/06/07/08, Delta Junction, closes 2/22/07

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