Inside This Issue
3	Glacial Deposits of Williamson County
7 9  13	ECS of the Shawnee National Forest Hydric Soil Monitoring  ISCA Minutes

 

ISCA Elections

 

President-Elect

 

Mark Bramstedt graduated from the University of Montana with a B.S. in Forest Soils.  He began his soil career with SCS in Knox County and also mapped on the Peoria County survey.  He was the Soil Survey Party Leader in Jasper County and Edgar County.  After mapping, Mark moved into the Area Soil Scientist position in old Area 2.  Currently Mark is the Area Soil Scientist with NRCS in Area 3 stationed in Watseka.  Mark has been a member of ISCA since 1978 and Certified with ISCA since 1982.  Mark is also ARCPAC Certified and a Registered Indiana Soil Scientist (pending).

 

Bruce Houghtby is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Agronomy.  He has worked in Orange County and Randolph County in Indiana.  In Illinois Bruce has mapped in Knox, Coles, Macoupin and White Counties.  Currently he is employed with John Raber and Associates Inc. in McHenry, Illinois.  Bruce was ARCPAC Certified in 1980 and been a member of ISCA since 1988.  He is also Certified with ISCA.

 

Vice-President

 

Steve Elmer is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, with a B.S. in Resource Management/Soils Emphasis.  He began his soil career in Wisconsin mapping on three soil survey projects.  Steve then moved to Connecticut as a Soil Survey Party Leader.  In 1977 he came to Illinois as a Party leader and headed four Northwest Illinois Soil Survey Projects.  Currently Steve is the MLRA Party Leader in the Rock Falls office.  Steve is ISCA and ARCPAC Certified.

 

Don Fehrenbacher graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Forestry.  He then received his M.S. in Soils also from the University of Illinois.  He started his SCS/NRCS career mapping in Iroquois County and then moved west as the Soil Survey Party Leader in Ford County.  For a short time Don was the Party Leader in White County before accepting the Area Soil Scientist position in Bourbonnais.  Don is currently stationed in Plainfield as the Watershed Team Leader.  Don is a Charter member of ISCA and is also ISCA Certified.

 

Secretary

 

Chris Cochran received his B.S. in Forest Science from the University of Illinois and began working with SCS as a party member of the Kane County and Champaign County soil surveys before serving as Area Soil Scientist in Macomb.  In 1980, Chris headed west to Arizona still working for SCS/NRCS.  While in Arizona he also spent time mapping in North Dakota and New Mexico.  Chris continues to work for NRCS as the MLRA party leader in Charleston.  Chris is a Charter member of ISCA.

 

 

Tom D'Avello graduated from Ohio State University where he received his B.S. in Agronomy.  He began his career with SCS in eastern Ohio in 1981.  He has also mapped in Florida and Montana.  In 1988, he went back to school at Michigan Tech and received is M.S. in Forest Soils.  After receiving his M.S., he went back to Ohio where he was the survey leader in Ross County.  Tom has been the GIS specialist in Illinois since 1990 working on projects such as Soilview, SSURGO, bathymetric mapping, GPS and general GIS applications.

 

ISCA Annual Meeting

The ISCA Annual Meeting has been planned for March 29^th, 2003.  No details about the location or the time have been established as of this date.  More information on the meeting will be forthcoming from Program Chairman and or the Current President.

 

Nominations for the bent auger award will be made at the annual meeting.  Below we have a picture of a Humvee high centered, and four innocent people.  A couple of ISCA members caught a ride back to town and left these four helpless people stranded in a strip mine in Randolph County.  It was a very cold day in December 2001.  Just remember sometimes when people leave to go get help, they never come back.  The names of Jerry Berning and Sam Indorante were not used in this story in order to protect their innocence. 

 

 

 

Glacial Deposits of Williamson County

 

Leon Follmer

ISGS

 

 

Glaciers are masses of ice that can grow to immense size and cover an extensive area.  All of Williamson County was once covered by a continental-size glacier during the next to the last glacial stage 125,000 to 180,000 years ago, named for Illinois.  Glaciers disturb the ground as they pass over and create a large variety of deposits and landform features.   To the careful observer it is relatively obvious that glaciers eroded and deposited a mixture of bedrock materials in the process of a glaciation. The evidence is first noticed in the gravel and boulders of the deposits that we call till, which is a relatively uniform mixture of clay, silt, sand and gravel deposited by a glacier.   This may seem straight forward but sometimes we find parts of the glacial landscape that are not easily explained, i.e., it is not clear how some of the glacial features and deposits were formed.  Some features are quite mysterious on first observation because they do not seem to be compatible with the present landscape.  To deal with this we often dismiss the odd relationships we can not explain. 

 

A typical familiar pattern on the Illinoian till plain of southern Illinois is to find thick glacial deposits under level or gently rolling landscapes.  This conjures up an image of the glacier carrying the materials or even pushing it along and smearing it out as a more or less homogenous mixture.   But when we find stratified glacial deposits scattered around on bedrock controlled upland hills it may seem a bit odd.  In a re-examination of the surficial geology of Williamson County, Illinois, a model has been developed to explain the origin of stratified glacial deposits found in many places in the Shawnee Hills and on the bedrock controlled upland hills to the north that have been overridden by the Illinoian glacier.

 

The odd observations.  In many places of Williamson County isolated nearly level areas are scattered throughout the bedrock uplands.  In places they join to produce a stepped geomorphic surface.  In some views they appear like terraces or benches.  The underlying deposits have been examined in only a few places.  In places normal till is present but in other places the “odd” observations of stratified glacial deposits have been found or no glacial drift at all.  All of these settings have a loess cover up to 8 feet thick.  The loess cover is a sequence of Peoria-Roxana-Loveland loesses more than 5 feet thick in most places and covers the underlying materials that range from Pennsylvanian bedrock to a large variety of glacial deposits.  The glacial deposits include till, stratified diamicton, sand and silt with some gravel and clay.  Diamicton is a mixture of fine-grained sediments and pebbles.  In all these settings the soils have been mapped as upland types such as Ava, Hosmer and related soils.  The stratified deposits are commonly silty but range from fine silt to coarse sand with lenses of loamy diamicton and clay.  They underlie somewhat level areas, which are terraces of a special kind. Where loess directly overlies bedrock in level areas, they are presumably erosional benches.  Under soils in sloping areas, the sediments vary from one type to another. In a few places loess-covered stratified glacial deposits are on the highest parts of the local landscape.

 

The idea for the model comes from places where ice-walled glacial lakes have been studied, such as in North Dakota, Canada, and other parts of the world.  During the melting phase of a stagnant glacier, much of the meltwater runs off into glacial streams and away from the area.   A large portion of the sediments that had been entrained in the glacier is carried away but some of it remains in place forming normal till.   In places some of the meltwater has nowhere to go and collects in basins forming lakes on the glacier.  Sediments that collect in the lakes promote melting of the surrounding ice, which promotes the size of the lakes to grow.  As lakes grow, they can merge with nearest neighbors to form larger lakes.  Eventually the lake bottom melts through the ice down to the ground.  At this point the lake becomes surrounded by the remnants of the stagnant glacier, thus becoming an ice-walled lake. 

 

Sediments accumulate in the ice-walled lakes until the glacier finally melts away.  In some places the top of the lake sediment is above the surrounding land and stands out like a flat-topped mesa.  Where these features occur depends on how the total glacial sediment load is distributed and the melting processes.   In hilly bedrock terrain the distribution of glacial sediments is highly irregular compared to a typical ground moraine on a flat landscape where a diamicton layer can have a uniform thickness over large distances. The nature of the ground beneath the glacier seems to have little connection to where ice-walled lakes occur.  Thus the lakes deposits can seem to occur anywhere.  There may be a few ice-wall lake remnants on the highest parts of some hills in Williamson County, but none have been verified yet.  However, there seems to be evidence for several ice-walled lakes on every topographic quadrangle in Williamson County.

 

The ice-wall lake model also explains how a series of stepped surfaces on lake sediments can form.  A lake at a high level could by chance drain into an adjacent lower lake and eventually merge.  Where a series of lakes merged in this way it would produce a stepped geomorphic surface on the lake deposits.  In a general sense, ice-walled lake sediments are a special type of basin-fill deposits.  They have a facies (lateral) relationship with normal till that is deposited directly from the glacier as well as with glacial lacustrine deposits formed on the glacier or a stable substrate.  In general the ice-walled basin deposits are intermediate between what we would call normal till and normal lake deposits.  Also, it is reasonable to expect normal till under stratified glacial basin deposits in this model.

 

The glacial basin model solves another problem in the region.  Glacial Lake Muddy covered the northwest corner of Williamson County.  It was a glacial slack water lake that formed during the last glaciation [Late Wisconsinan, 14,000 to 25,000 years ago] and produced the Equality Formation, which is largely stratified silty clay loam to clay.  It occurs only in the lowest parts of the Big Muddy River watershed and covers parts of five counties north and west of Williamson County.  In this regional lowland there are many little hills within the relatively flat lowland.  The cores of many of these hills are presumable composed of glacial drift that has been called Illinoian till by many people.  Some are bedrock highs or kames of Illinoian sand and gravel, and all are covered by variable amounts of loess.

 

Where the drift in the hills has been examined it commonly is a soft ablation type of till and commonly contains lenses of fine sand.  The upper part of the drift is weathered by Sangamon soil formation.  All across this regional lowland, a loess-covered Sangamon Geosol has been found in a variety of parent materials, particularly in fine sand.  [Geosol: a paleosol catena defined in stratigraphic terms.]  At this point a big picture begins to emerge -- The whole watershed of the modern Big Muddy River system was a big basin formed during deglaciation.  When the Illinoian glacier stagnated, the melt water in this region was not able to flow away and accumulated into a gigantic glacial lake.  This formed the lowland of the Big Muddy watershed.  It would have been a temporary lake of Late Illinoian age similar in character to the large glacial lakes that formed on the Late Wisconsinan till plain of northeastern Illinois.  Eventually the late Illinoian lake in the Big Muddy lowland found an outlet to the Mississippi River forming the modern course of the Big Muddy River through the Shawnee Hills.  The lowland evolved into a Sangamonian wetland producing thick accretion gley profiles [cumulic Aquolls].  

 

Recent observations of thick till in buried bedrock valleys of southwestern Williamson County suggests that the pre-Illinoian Big Muddy River flowed southwards out of the county before the Illinoian glaciation.   In this area the glacier totally changed the drainage pattern.  Following the time of Sangamon soil formation [Sangamonian Stage], the rivers of the Midwest during Early Wisconsinan time went into an erosional phase and caused deep incision of the main rivers and significant headward erosion of first order streams into the upland areas.  The Mississippi River base level at the time was about 60 to 80 feet below the present level.  A portion of the Big Muddy lowland was eroded out and was later refilled with the Equality slack water deposits.  The Late Wisconsinan lake did not reach the heights of the Illinoian lake and its deposits completely covered up any expression of the previous topography in the basin.  There is some evidence for a middle Wisconsinan [Altonian] lake but it did reach the level of the Late Wisconsinan maximum and its deposits [lower Equality] are now deeply buried. The total Equality thickness is up to 50 feet in the lowest parts of the Big Muddy basin.

 

When the Illinoian glacier advanced to its limit just south of Williamson County, it filled former valleys with drift and "dehorned" the bedrock hills and leveled them out somewhat.  Over the glaciated part of the Shawnee Hills the ice thickness and amount drift in the ice would have been variable from place to place.  When the glacier stagnated some of the water and sediments would have collected in low spots forming lakes of various sizes.  The glacier was sufficiently thick to cover all of Williamson County which made it possible for ice-walled basins to form anywhere where the local conditions were suitable, even on top of what turns out to be the hill tops of the present topography.   So far, coarse channel deposits of Illinoian meltwater streams have not been found, which indicates a lack of an integrated drainage system in Williamson County during the late Illinoian.

 

The border zones around ice-walled basins would be unstable and generate mass wasting deposits that flow into the basins as the ice melts.  This is probably the major producer of the stratified sandy silty diamicton we see in many places.  It is the most likely explanation of how diamicton layers become interstratified with bedded clay, silt, sand and gravel.   [Note: Diamicton is a textural name equivalent to pebbly loamy sediments.  A diamicton may or may not be a till].  The soft somewhat stratified diamicton is often called ablation till because it is assumed that it accumulated on the glacier as the glacier melted.  It is generally not very compact and described by civil engineers as normally consolidated. 

 

Diamicton deposited below a glacier, a good till, is usually compressed and dewatered by weight of the glacier and is usually more uniform and dense.  It commonly shows evidence of deformation.  If a deposit is compressed by a force greater than the normal overburden pressure, it is called over consolidated by engineers.  However, if water is trapped in the diamicton it will not be compressed or over consolidated.  Diamicton deposited by a glacier is till and rarely shows much stratification.  Diamicton that is mobilized by some event after it was released from a glacier is better called debris flow deposits or stratified drift.  In a broad sense this creates three classes of diamicton:  good till, ablation till, and diamicton debris or debris flow deposits.

 

In the investigations so far, the stratified Illinoian glacial sediments appear to be scattered across the uplands of Williamson County and commonly occur under terrace-like landform features.   They appear to be related to the location of the present day drainage pattern.  Also, they appear to be wide spread across the level areas of the Illinoian till plain in general.  In Williamson County the higher terrace features have no concordant relationships with their nearest neighbor.  The bigger ones that are larger than a square mile in size usually show some stepped surface features in cross section. At most places the slopes are gradual and are interrupted by flat spots [A slopes on soil maps].  In a few places distinct changes in slope or scarps [C slopes on soil maps] separate terrace levels.  The Illinoian sediments underlying terrace remnants are informally called Glasford basin-fill deposits if they are stratified and contain diamicton, or they are correlated with the Pearl Formation if they are dominated by stratified sand and silt.  If areas can be delineated that are dominated by bedded silt and clay, they will be correlated with the Teneriffe Formation.  All have a mature Sangamon soil profile developed in them.

 

At lower elevations there are more occurrences of terrace remnants that have concordant relationships, where surfaces on the landform segments have about the same elevation.  The lowest level is the most widespread and consistent.  These observations lead to a conclusion that the ice-walled lakes that formed during the deglaciation of the Illinoian glacier started out with no pattern.  With time the lakes either dried up or coalesced.  Surviving lakes at the lower elevations merged to form a final big lake stage in the Big Muddy River basin.  The big lake phase had a shore line that ranged from about 400 to 420 feet in elevation.  At this time sediments of this lake are correlated with the Pearl Formation because they appear to be dominated by fine sand.  A full range of glaciofluvial-lacustrine deposits is expected to occur in other places, but at this time we don’t know their distribution. This lake is informally called glacial lake Herrin after the town which is located on the south shore of this late Illinoian lake.  It is speculated that at the highest contiguous lake level extended north to beyond Mt Vernon and covered the region that is the present day lowland of the Big Muddy River watershed. 

 

Conclusions.  The interpretation of ice-walled, glacial basin features in Williamson County raises other questions that are the focus of a continuing investigation.  Primary issues are how many geological units can be differentiated on 1:24,000 scale geologic maps of the county and how the geologic units should relate to the soils of Williamson County.   A  report will be prepared after the 2003 field season.  Work in this project is jointly supported by the Illinois State Geological Survey and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

 

 

WILLIAMSON COUNTY QUATERNARY MAPPING LEGEND FOR 1:24,000 QUADRANGLES   1/23/03 draft
SYMBOL*	NAME	DESCRIPTION
c	Cahokia	Alluvium.  Silt to clay rich, poorly stratified sediments, weathered and leached in most places.  Has a weakly developed soil profile in the upper 5 feet.  Underlain by Equality clay or fine sand at most places.
e	Equality	Lacustrine silt and clay, interbedded, has a thin covering of alluvial or eolian deposits.  Commonly laminated below the zone of weathering and interbedded with some sand.  Weathered and leached to 10 feet.  Has a well developed soil profile in the upper part and is calcareous in the lower part.  Subdivided into 3 map units:
e-1	Low Terrace	Mostly clayey deposits on a surface slightly above the flood plain ranging up to an elevation of about 380 feet.  Covered by an indeterminant amount of alluvium (<0-5 feet) which is masked by a well developed soil profile.
e-2	High Terrace	Silt and clay deposits on a surface above e-1 that ranges up to an elevation of about 395 feet.  Usually covered by 3 to 6 feet of eolian silt or fine sand.  Soils are well developed and more oxidized than e-1 soils.
e-s	Sandy Equality	Sandy facies of e-1 and e-2 in bar or natural levee landforms.  Loess and fine sand up to 10' thick in places overlying bedded clay, silt and sand.  Soils are well developed and more oxidized that e-2 soils.
pe	Pearl	Fine sand with a Sangamon Geosol in the upper 10 feet.  On a terrace level above e-2 at an elevation of about 400 feet near Herrin and rises to a level of about 440 to the east and south.  Underlies the Equality north and west of Herrin.  Overlain by 5-10 feet of loess (Peoria, Roxana and Loveland), which has a well developed soil in the upper part.  Contains beds of sand and gravel where thick.  Has a facies relationship with Glasford basin fill (g-b) and Glasford till (g).
g-b	Glasford basin fill	Stratified silt with lenses of sand and loamy diamicton. Upper part modified by the Sangamon Geosol and is overlain by 5-10 of loess (Peoria, Roxana and Loveland), which has a well developed soil in the upper part.  Appears as discontinuous terrace levels across the upland at elevations from 420 up to 550 feet.   Has a facies relationship with Glasford till (g) at higher elevations and Pearl (pe) at lower elevations.  Likely contains gravel at the base and overlies till where glacial deposits are thick.  Loess over eroded bedrock  may be common where depth to bedrock is shallow.
g	Glasford till	Silty diamicton in most places.  Modified by the Sangamon Geosol in the upper part and covered by 5-10 feet of loess (Peoria, Roxana and Loveland), which has a well developed soil in the upper part.  Usually more dense and uniform than the diamicon in g-b.  Is the upland member of a facies with g-b and pe.  Overlies Pennsylvanian bedrock and is discontinuous in places.
B	Bedrock	Pensylvanian sandstone, shale and limestone with less than 4 feet of loess cover.  Outcrops of bedrock are common.  Discontinuous patched of glacial deposits are common.  Surface soils are well developed but variable.
L	Loess over Bedrock	Loess, 4-8 feet thick overlying bedrock.  Discontinous patches of glacial deposits are common.  Area of strongly developed Grantsburg soils.
ML	Made Land	Disturbed land, unclassified.
SM	Strip Mine	Surface coal mines that are reclaimed to various degrees.

 

*  Lower case letters are map symbols used by the ISGS.  The prefex Q is dropped for convenience.  The capital letters are symbols selected for this mapping project.

Ecological Classification System of the Shawnee National Forest

 

Bryan Fitch

Soil Scientist

Shawnee National Forest

 

The Shawnee National Forest working with Southern Illinois University (SIU) and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has recently developed an ecological classification system for the Shawnee National Forest using the Forest Services hierarchal classification system (USDA Forest Service, 1995*).  The ecological classification system describes the ecologic potential of the landscape based on soils, geology, physiography and vegetation.  This knowledge is helpful in making silivicultural recommendations, identifying potential habitat for rare plant species, wildlife management, and recreation planning.

 

In accordance with the national ecosystem classification system presettlement forest vegetation along with geology and soil associations, more specifically loess depth, were used to characterize the Shawnee National Forest into subsections (tens to hundreds of square miles), and land type associations (LTAs: thousands of acres).

 

A USGS stack unit map of Shawnee National Forest was primarily used along with forest vegetation and soils to determine subsection boundaries.  The soil association map (University of Illinois Bulletin 778, 1984) and loess depth maps along with presettlement vegetation data was used to map land type associations. The presettlement data was taken from the Illinois land survey records of 1806-1810.

      

The publication that describes in detail the subsections, landtype associations and the ecological land types on the Shawnee National Forest is entitled Presettlement, Present, and Projected Forest Communities of the Shawnee National Forest which at his time is still in draft form. 

 

It was interesting to note how the thickness of loess deposits affected the plant community types across the forest.  This was the first time that SIU considered loess depth as a legitimate way to determine ecological boundaries. They were not convinced about the effect of loess depths until they compared it to

the presettlement data and recognized an obvious correlation between the loess thickness and presettlement forest communities.

 

This information will be used extensively in Forest Plan revision for the Shawnee National Forest to help determine management areas and in developing management prescriptions for each management area based on plant community types and forest stand composition. Other federal and state land management agencies and the NRCS can use this information as a technical reference for land management decisions.  I would like to thank Jon Bathgate Resource Analyst and Matt McCauley Resource Soil Scientist, the NRCS for their assistance in this project.

 

The Greater and Lesser Shawnee Hills subsections were the only subsections split into land type associations. The remaining 5 subsections were smaller with less ecological diversity.  Presettlement data indicates that Southern Illinois was primarily oak and hickory forest.  Thin loess LTAs (LTA3 and 6) had a larger component of post oak and black jack oak (xerophytic species). Forest in the thick loess areas of the Greater and Lesser Shawnee Hills had a larger component of poplar and maple (mesophytic species) especially on north facing slopes, footslopes and stream terraces according to the presettlement data.

 

*USDA Forest Service, 1995. Ecological units of the eastern United States, map unit tables, Washington D.C.

 

MONITORING OF HYDRIC SOIL TRANSITION ZONES ON SELECTED LANDSCAPES IN NORTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL ILLINOIS

 

Co-authored by Michael Whited and Mark Bramstedt

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Although hydric soil indicators have been developed or proposed for most conditions found in the Midwestern region, some areas continue to cause significant identification problems.  Such areas are in northeastern and central Illinois.  Wet Mollisols in shallow basins and nearly level concave areas in this region continue to be a problem for hydric soil identification.  Identifying or delineating hydric soils in this area is complicated by the intricacies of the hydrology, soil morphology, and geomorphology.  Another complication is long term disturbance (i.e. conversion to agriculture, drainage, urbanization) that may have lowered regional groundwater tables or depleted soil organic matter levels resulting in soils that are believed to be hydric but do not meet any of the presently accepted field indicators of hydric soils.

 

The study region consists primary of Wisconsin-age low relief ground moraine intermixed with outwash plains and subdued end moraines.  The soils of concern are Aquolls which are extensive on nearly level or depressional parts of outwash plains, till plains, and stream terraces. A layer of silty loess overlies the loamy glacial till and/or outwash in much of the area.  Numerous shallow wetlands formerly occurred throughout the region. The broad flat areas were originally covered with tall grass wet prairie and marsh vegetation.  Forested areas occurred along stream valleys and in angles where moraines converge, possibly creating the sharp relief and necessary microclimates for woodland.  Most of the landscape has been converted to agriculture for many years resulting in a loss of organic matter from A horizons and (possibly) accelerated sedimentation which has made the basins shallower. The representative hydric soil series is the poorly drained Drummer series.  Adjacent upland soils include the somewhat poorly drained Elburn or Brenton soils and the moderately drained Blackberry soils.

 

The delineation of hydric Mollisols continues to be a problem especially in broad concave flats and in the transition area from hydric to non-hydric soils.  Presently hydric indicator TF7 is the indicator used to identify many of these soils as hydric.  Because this indicator is listed as a "test" indicator it has little status in the wetland regulatory arena.

 

The objective of this investigation is to monitor soil water table depths, redox potential and soil temperature and correlate the monitoring data with soil morphological features and plant community data gathered from the study sites and other areas in the region.  This information should be useful in providing supporting documentation for the TF7 (and possibly other) hydric soil indicator(s).

 

Acknowledgements

 

Mitch Isoe of the COE, Chicago District, is the financial sponsor for this investigation. Mark Bramstedt (NRCS) is the NRCS technical leader.  Technical advisors are Dr. Robert Darmody (Univ. of Ill.) and Michael Whited (NTCHS / NRCS).  Bob McCleese (NRCS) State Soil Scientist will make some of his staff available for assistance.  Over the course of the project there will be many contributors:  ISCA Members who have already been involved in planning, site selection, and/or installation of equipment are:  Mark Bramstedt, Robert Darmody, Robert McLeese, John Doll, Don Fehrenbacher, Roger Windhorn, Dale Calsyn, Jaimee Hammit, and Steven Zwicker.

 

PROCEDURE:

 

The investigation will be 2 to 3 years in length. Three monitoring sites with similar properties have been selected in MLRA's 95B (McHenry County) and 110 (DuPage County and Ford County).  These sites are instrumented with ground water monitoring wells, observation wells, ferrihydrite rods, thermocouples and rain gauges.  Plans are to also use platinum electrodes to measure redox potential.  Weekly to monthly monitoring may be done, especially during times of seasonal saturation.  The ground water monitoring wells, rain gauges, and temperature probes contain data loggers capable of storing several months of data.  Observation data will be stored and summarized by Robert Darmody of the University of Illinois.

 

Site Selection

 

The sites were selected on low relief ground moraine and/or outwash plains. The National Technical Committee for Hydric Soils (NTCHS) has stated that the data should be collected in "undisturbed landscapes" across a physiographic region.  Undisturbed landscapes are practically non-existent in this part of the country.  In spite of this, these selected sites are in restored native vegetation.  The included watersheds are also in native vegetation.  Drainage tile has been removed or crushed and the hydrology has been restored, as much as possible, to natural conditions.  At all sites, the restoration was completed 3 or more years before the monitoring equipment was installed.  The sites were chosen to avoid localized hydrologic disturbance (i.e. away from roads, ditches, tile drainage, etc.).  Initially, several (6) sites were selected.  From these 6 sites, 3 were selected at which the monitoring equipment was installed.  At all 6 sites several (3) transects perpendicular to the hydrologic gradient will be established.  Vegetative communities will be sampled as well as soil morphological descriptions.  This data will be used to correlate the presence of hydrophytic vegetation with soil morphology.  The monitoring equipment was installed in the fall of 2002.

 

The site in McHenry County is at the Glacial Park Conservation Area, near the town of Ringwood.  This property is owned and managed by the McHenry County Conservation District.  It contains several hundred acres of restored grasslands, wetlands, and kames.  The Nippersink Creek flows through this property as well.  The creek had been straightened in the 1940’s was recently restored to its original meanders.  Soils at this site were originally mapped as Brenton, Drummer, and Harpster, but have been correlated to Grundelein, Dunham, and Harpster.

 

Pratt’s Wayne Woods in DuPage County is owned and managed by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County.  It is near the quaint town of Wayne in northwestern DuPage County.  The site here contains several hundred acres of wetlands and grasslands.  The wetland at the study site was restored with fines collected from wetland violations.  Originally, the soils were mapped as Mundelein and Drummer.  These have also been correlated to Grundelein and Dunham. because of the presence of gravel in the lower part of the profile.

 

The site in Ford County is part of a complex called Sibley Grove that is owned and managed by the

 

Nature Conservancy.  It is about 40 acres in size and is near the town of Sibley.  The wetland is less than 10 acres and is surrounded by low hills covered by a relatively undisturbed grove of trees.  The soils at this site are Blount, Ashkum, and Houghton.  Warm season grasses have been restored in the Ashkum areas and the Houghton area appears to be permanently inundated.

 

Methods

 

Initial Effort

 

For each transect, vegetative plots will be used to determine percent cover by species in vegetative communities.  This data collection methods will follow accepted sampling practice in order to determine the presence of a hydrophytic plant community using both the 50:20 method (87 Manual) and the prevalence index method.  A representative soil morphological description (Form 232) will be completed for each vegetative community sampled. 

 

Monitoring Effort

 

Three of the six transected sites were selected for emplacement of monitoring equipment and for detailed description and sampling of the soils.  All monitoring instrumentation is duplicated at each site (i.e. 2 transects will be instrumented in relatively close (50 - 100 meters) proximity.  The instrument clusters will be placed to characterize a consensus hydric soil, a consensus upland soil (although close to the transition, such as a SWP drained soil), and the transitional (TF7) hydric soil.  Generally on these types of studies, instrument clusters are placed in the deeper concave areas, on the convex upland, and at the transition from concave to convex landforms.  An integrated approach using soil morphology, landscape position and plant community relationships were employed to position the instrument clusters.

 

Near surface groundwater observations will be made at each site using both ground water monitoring wells and observation wells.  The wells were installed at 2m depths in the non-hydric sites and at 1m depths in the test sites and the hydric sites.  Observation wells (unlined bore holes) are located at each instrument cluster.

 

Redox potentials will be measured with platinum electrodes.  Electrodes will be installed at 25cm depth at each site in the hydric soil, the upland soil, and the transition soil.  5 replicates per depth per elevation are required (electrodes no closer to each other than 15 cm).  a,a'-dipyridyl dye will be used periodically when redox measurements are taken.  The platinum electrodes may not be installed the first spring dependent upon timing.  Redox potential data must be collected for at least 1 "hydrologic" year as part of this project.  A "hydrologic" year is approximately March - October for this area of the country.

 

In-situ pH will be measured at least seasonally at 25cm to enable the development of eH / pH relationships.

 

Thermocouples to measure soil temperature were installed at each cluster site at depths of 50 cm.  Commercial rain gauges were installed on poles about 7 feet above the ground at each site .

 

Sometime during the study, an elevational survey of the monitoring sites will be accomplished using standard surveying techniques.  The topography of the watershed will be determined from USGS quadrangles. Each observation site was located using the Rockwell PLGR GPS receiver.

 

Soil Descriptions

 

A truck-mounted Giddings soil probe was used to bore the hole to install the monitoring wells.  These cores were saved for soil descriptions.  The soils will be sampled for characterization.  Analyses will be conducted by the NRCS NSSLab for full characterization.  Soils will be described by NRCS soil scientists (and other) staff.  Additional near surface soil samples were collected and will be analyzed for organic matter content.

 

Data Analysis and Summary

 

The data will be centrally housed and analyzed by Dr. Robert Darmody at the University of Illinois.  He will ensure that a scientific study is conducted and appropriate statistical analyses are made.  Michael Whited, in conjunction with Dr. Darmody and Mark Bramstedt will prepare a summary report for consideration by the NTCHS.  Dr. Darmody will retain scientific journal publication rights using the data set.

 

Challenges

 

After the first few weeks of the equipment being in the ground, we returned to the sites to make sure it was functioning and recording data.  At the DuPage County site, a large bird (probably a hawk) was using the rain gauge as a perch.  The gauge was filled with poop and other debris (so, of course our initial readings will be a little off).  We installed a bamboo pole with several types of flagging adjacent to the gauge and the bird no longer uses it as a roost.

 

Within days after installing the monitoring wells at the Sibley site, an animal (my guess is that it is a deer) chewed the wires  from the sensor to the data logger (plastic insulation and metal cable sheath) off of four of the five wells.  We also discovered this same problem on one of the wells at the DuPage site.  We have sent the wells in for repairs and are covering the remaining wells with galvanized hardware cloth to protect them from curious teeth.

 

Other animal tricks include one of the bore holes being used as a hideout for a snake and mice nesting under some of our protective coverings.  It will be interesting to see how all this equipment fares the elements, the animals, vandalism, and prairie fires over a period of three years.

 

 

 Bob Darmody with monitoring well

 

 

Thomas Kohl, Roger Windhorn, Dale Calsyn at the DuPage site.

 

 

 Thomas Kohl and Jaimee Hammit testing with alpha-alpha dipyridl and describing colors

 

 

Coated with ferrihydrite.  In reducing environments the ferrihydrite will be reduced and will be removed from the surface of the PVC.

 

MINUTES

ISCA COUNCIL MEETING

August 23, 2002

HOLIDAY INN, QUINCY, IL

 

Present:

Lester Bushue, President

Karla Hanson, Past-President

Dale Calsyn, Vice-President

Bob Tegeler, Secretary

Gerald Berning, Chairperson Certification Board

Guests: Don Walker, and Earl Voss

 

The Council Meeting was called to order by President Lester Bushue at 6:00 PM.

Secretary's Report - Bob Tegeler.  The minutes of the July Council Meeting were approved as written.  Bob mentioned that all non-certified members have now paid their 2002 dues.

Treasurer's Report - Bob Tegeler handed out copies of the report.  The treasurer's report showed a balance of $8989.83, as of August 20, 2002.  The Treasurer's report was approved as written.

Certification Board - Gerald Berning.  No new applications for certification have been received. 

Standing Committee reports

Constitution, By-Laws and Legislative - No report.

Ethics, Certification and Membership - No report.

Finance - Dale Calsyn.  A discussion ensued concerning the Webpage.  Dale sent a note to Jake Teater containing some information for the webpage.  The information has not been entered onto the webpage to date.  It is possible that Jake may not be able to receive email at his hotmail account, from the government email system.  Bob Tegeler will check with Bill Teater on this matter.  Bob reported that Jake submitted an invoice, to ISCA, for webpage expenses.

Newsletter - No report.

Nominations -  Karla Hanson reported that she and Jeff Deniger are developing a contact list of possible candidates, for the upcoming election of officers.  Les Bushue mentioned that a list of past officers would be beneficial.

Public Relations and Education Committee/Special Appointee to State Advisory Commission on Private Sewage Disposal - Karla Hanson mentioned that she contacted the State of Illinois concerning their webpage, which contains information concerning the state symbols.  Karla received approval, from the State of Illinois, to put information explaining Drummer on their webpage.  Paige Buck from the IL NRCS State Office, will provide them with the information.

Program - No report.

Ad Hoc Committees

Historic - No report.

Technical Criteria (Key to Wastewater Loading Rates) - No report.

Old Business

Region 3 Soil Judging Contest - Les Bushue reported that the contest will be held October 19, 2002 in the Champaign area.  Bob McLeese, Bob Darmody, Roger Windhorn, Mark Bramstedt, and Ken Gotsch will be assisting with the contest.  It was noted that $300.00 was allocated for contest expenses, in the 2002 budget. 

Soils of Illinois posters - The posters have arrived.  ISCA had previously allocated $1000.00 toward the cost of the posters.  This money was not used.  A motion was approved by the Executive Council to use this money for future reprints of the poster, or to purchase additional bookmarks when needed.

New Business

Soil Survey Planning Conference - The conference will be held September 19, 2002 at the IL NRCS State Office.  Les Bushue will give the ISCA report.

 

 

 

The next ISCA Council Meeting will be held on January 24, 2003, at 10:00 AM, at the NRCS Field Office in Normal, IL.

 

The meeting adjourned at 6:40 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Robert Tegeler, Secretary

 

The evening meeting followed the Council Meeting.  Steve Adams discussed activities at the Quincy Museum, and Scott Wegman discussed Adams County GIS activities.  Eleven ISCA members and two guests were in attendance. 

Nine ISCA members and two guests attended the field trip on Saturday morning.  Don Walker led the group to three sites in Missouri.  Soil profiles formed in loess, Pre-Illinoian till, and bedrock were discussed.