NRCS Alaska News

April 4, 2008

Click Here to View Archive Editions

Off Roading with NRCS Leadership 

NRCS Regional Assistant Chief Sara Schmidt and Alaska State Conservationist Bob Jones boarded an Alaska Airlines jet in Anchorage last week to fly some 400 miles west over the Alaskan Range to the remote city of Bethel. Bethel is the hub community for more than 56 villages in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta and also home to a USDA Service Center.

Once on the ground, the pair kept a busy schedule meeting with representatives from various tribal governments, Alaskan Native non-profit organizations, and other federal agencies based in Bethel. Numerous matters concerning Farm Bill program delivery in Bush Alaska, Tribal Conservation District formation and the Lower Kuskokwim RC&D program were discussed.  These conversations provided NRCS leadership an opportunity to hear first hand about the opportunities and challenges present in providing technical and financial assistance to traditionally underserved customers from a remote field office. 

Late winter’s long hours of sunlight afforded time at the end of the day for a 40-minute drive on the frozen Kuskokwim River to the Native Village of Kwethluk. There, the group met with a representative of Kwethluk Incorporated, the tribe’s Village Corporation, and heard details of the natural resource management and conservation issues facing the community and its neighbors.

Ecological Site Descriptions - Exposed

Twenty-two ecological site descriptions (ESDs) are being posted in section II of the electronic Field Office Technical Guide (eFOTG) for Multiple Land Resource Area (MLRA) 227- Copper River Basin. Once the State and Transition models are complete, 101 ESD’s for MLRA’s 223, 224, 228, 229 and 230 are next in line to be posted to eFOTG. So what does this all mean? Read on.

What Are They?

An ecological site is a basic unit of ecological land classification and represents a type of land with a distinctive combination of potential natural plant communities, soils, landforms, hydrology, climate, and ecological properties and processes.  These processes are included in the ecological site description.

What Purposes Do They Serve?

Landscapes are divided into ecological sites for the purposes of inventory, evaluation, and management. Ecological sites are used in conservation planning for evaluating ecosystem health. They are also a critical interpretation for the soil survey program, and are necessary for program planning. They can valuable information in wetland, riparian and fire mitigation; provide insight on management for rare and endangered species; and provide benchmarks in monitoring programs for effects of climate change.

Ecological Site Descriptions include a section on the interpretations for the use and management for the site.  The type of interpretations can be site and/or area dependent, and updated as more information is gathered.  Interpretations can include those for grazing, forest productivity, wildlife habitat, recreation, plant preference and use by animal species.

What is the relationship between soils and ecological sites?

Soils are the building blocks of ecological sites.  Usually, soils have a more narrowly defined range of morphological, physical, and chemical properties than an ecological site.  One or more soils that have similar vegetative and ecological potentials and processes are grouped together to define an ecological site.

To effectively build an ecological site classification from the soil classification, a high degree of correlation between soils, vegetation, and ecological potential is necessary.  To establish the relationships and maintain correlation, vegetative characteristics and ecological patterns and processes observed in the field are used in conjunction with soil characteristics and other criteria specified in “Soil Taxonomy” and “Keys to Soil Taxonomy” (Soil Survey Staff 1975; 1996b).  Soils are classified to the series, subgroup, and great group levels (see “Classification of the Soils”) depending on the scale of mapping.  Soil phases (Soil Survey Staff 1996c) are defined if the range in properties for a soil is too broad to maintain the correlation with the vegetative and other ecological properties.  Phases are applied at any level of the soil classification.  When a soil is split into multiple soil phases, phase name modifiers are added to the soil name to identify the phases.  Some rules for establishing ecological sites are:

•  Ecological sites are unique to an MLRA.
• A soil component-phase combination is assigned a single ecological site.
• An ecological site has one historic potential natural plant community (HPNC) that is unique to the MLRA.

What is the relationship between vegetation and ecological sites?

Traditionally an ecological site is defined as a rangeland ecological site or forest land ecological site.  Rangeland is a distinctive kind of land on which the historic climax vegetation was predominantly grasses, grass-like plants, forbs, or shrubs. Rangeland includes natural grasslands, savannas, most deserts, tundra, alpine plant communities, coastal and freshwater marshes, and wet meadows.  Forest land typically provides a diverse range of commodity and non-commodity products and values, including wood products, grazing for wildlife and livestock, high quality water, wildlife and fish habitat, recreational opportunities, and aesthetic and spiritual values.  Ecological site classification in Alaska is not oriented to any type of land or land use.  The relationship between climate, landforms, soils, and vegetation, and the ability to discern differences in the cumulative effect of these factors from one site to another is the basis for ecological site classification.  Vegetation is considered to be an indicator of the integrated factors of the environment.

In Alaska, the most efficient and accurate measure in describing and comparing plant communities is percent canopy cover by species.  By definition, an ecological site is characterized by a single historic potential natural plant community (HPNC).  The HPNC is the assemblage of plant species that most nearly achieves a long-term steady state of productivity, structure, and composition on a site.  The occurrence of a single potential plant community is based on the notion, that over time, and in the absence of disturbances to the vegetation and changes in the site, succession (the gradual and successive replacement of one plant community by another) eventually leads to a single plant community which best reflects the integrated factors of the environment.  The HCPNC provides a benchmark from which long and short term responses of the vegetation to disturbances, and pathways and processes of succession, can be related. 

What is a State and Transition Model?

A ‘state and transition’ model describes the gradual and progressive changes over time to the physical and environmental conditions of the site that result in a different HCPNC.  A 'state' is a stable and resilient complex of both the physical environment and the biotic communities. A state is capable of absorbing disturbance or stress, defined by the model as 'community pathways.' The pathways and the communities they shape are dynamic. The boundary of a state is defined as a 'threshold.' If a particular disturbance or stress crosses this threshold, a change in state occurs. This process represents a 'transition.' A return to the previous state is not dynamic on a practical time scale without significant inputs or accelerating practices.

Primary succession is the formation process that begins on substrates having never previously supported any vegetation (e.g., lava flows, flood plains).  Secondary succession occurs on previously formed soil from which the vegetation has been partially or completely removed.

How is an ecological site named?

Ecological sites are unique to a Major Land Resource Area (MLRA).  Alaska is stratified into 27 MLRA’s which are intended to represent areas of sub regional physiographic and geomorphic patterns and processes and general vegetation potentials.  Ecological sites are numbered for use in the Ecological Site Information System (ESIS.)  The site number is 10-characters and consists of five parts:

•  The letter R (rangeland) is used to identify an ecological site when the HNPC is dominated by vegetation with less than 25% tree cover.  The letter F (forest land) is to identify an ecological site when the HNPC is dominated by vegetation with 25% or greater tree cover. 
• A three-digit number and a one-digit letter MLRA.  In Alaska we only have three-digit numbers for MLRA’s so an “X” is used after the MLRA number.
• A single letter “Y” which is used when no Land Resource Unit is applicable such as in Alaska.
• A three-digit site number, assigned by the state.
• A two-digit letter state postal code, AK.

 An example of an ecological site number for an ecological site with a HNPC of Balsam poplar-white spruce/bluejoint in the MLRA 227 – Copper River Basin is:  F227XY101AK

 Where are ecological site descriptions kept?

Ecological Site Descriptions are normally referenced in Section II of the eFOTG and located in a separate location such as the ESIS. ESIS is the official repository for all vegetation data collected on forestland and rangeland.  ESIS is organized into two applications:  The Ecological Site Description (ESD) application, and the Ecological Site Inventory (ESI) application.  ESD stores the ecological site descriptions while ESI stores the plot and point vegetation data.  However, due to limitations of ESIS, some ecological site descriptions will be posted directly in eFOTG as part of the ongoing soil surveys in Alaska.  

If there are any further questions about ecological sites and how they may assist in getting conservation on the ground, feel free to call me at 761-7781 or email me at michelle.schuman@ak.usda.gov.

Roots of NRCS, Civilian Conservation Corps, Celebrates 75th Anniversary

In 1932 more than half of America’s men between the ages of 15 and 25 were underemployed. The Civilian Conservation Corps, created "to be used in simple work, and confining itself to the prevention of soil erosion and similar projects," also helped give birth to NRCS by providing labor to demonstrate soil conservation techniques to cash-strapped farmers.  March 31, 2008, marks the 75th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of the law authorizing the Emergency Conservation Work, the earlier official name of the CCC.  Learn more about the CCC and the roots of NRCS at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/anniversaryccc/cccopy.html.

(Back to Top)

SSNs No Longer Required for Volunteer Applications

Effective immediately, volunteer coordinators no longer need to collect social security numbers from Earth Team Volunteers. The state Earth Team coordinator should still be provided with copies of all volunteer application forms, but records regarding NEW volunteer hours need to be kept by the volunteer’s supervisor until the new Earth Team database is launched some time in the future. Work hours for volunteers already in the database can still be kept electronically.

(Back to Top)

Personal Benefits Statements

The 2007 Personal Benefits Statements are now available to view on the NFC Employee Personal Page (EPP) at https://www.nfc.usda.gov/personal/ep_warning.asp.

NFC is in the process of printing and mailing the hard copy statements. The Benefits Statement is an annual notification of your compensation and fringe benefits. It provides you with an estimate of your benefits relating to your current position. Please contact me at 761-7743 if you do not receive your statement in the mail or on EPP.

(Back to Top)

Pay your Bank of America Card Online

NRCS employees can now pay their Bank of America travel card online at https://www.myeasypayment.com/ . Please make sure to check the option "Federal Government Charge Card" before you begin. In order to make a payment you'll need your bank's routing number and your account number. For questions regarding your account please contact Bank of America at 1-800-472-1424.

Personnel Actions

Back to Alaska NRCS Intranet