Yukon Flats Soil Survey

General information

The Fairbanks soils staff begins work for the Yukon Flats Soil Survey. The proposed boundary for the survey coincides with the Yukon Flats Resource Conservation & Development Area (RC&D) and covers 35 million acres, an area approximately the same size as the state of New York.

A Soil Survey is sponsored by cooperative agreements between land owners and managers, community organizations and the NRCS. For the Yukon Flats, cooperators are largely tribal and village governments, native corporations, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Communities within the survey area include: Arctic Village, Beaver, Birch Creek, Canyon Village, Chalkyitsik, Circle, Fort Yukon, Rampart, Stevens Village, and Venetie.

2008 activities

During the winter of 2007-08 soils and ecology staff will be preparing for the survey, which consists of collecting spatial and other reference material, creating preliminary maps using an array of data, and logistical planning.

Summer 2008 will see the kick off of the field work. Teams of soil scientists and seasonal plant ecologists will collect, and interpret information about the natural resources in the area.

Detailed soil surveys will be made for the village of Rampart and Stevens Village. These surveys will be done at a scale of 1:25,000. A two mile corridor along the Yukon River between these two communities will also be mapped at a scale of 1:63,360. The remaining remote areas will be mapped at 1:500,000.

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