2005 NCSS National Conference

"Planning the New Soil Survey—Personnel Development, Technology, Standards and Electronic Delivery"

Tours

King Ranch Tour

Ranch History, Land Management, and Benchmark Soil Landscapes

May 21, 2005
12:00 noon – 8:00 p.m.
$45.00, evening meal included
Limited seating, priority to conference participants, must pre-register

Objectives:

• Introduction to South Texas ranching history
• Land management in the “Wild Horse Desert”, including MLRA 83E- Sandsheet Prairie and MLRA 150A-Coast Prairie
• Benchmark Soil Landscapes

The King Ranch is the largest privately owned ranch in the world, covering 825,000 acres in Kleberg County, Texas, and more than 1.2 million acres worldwide. The ranch has more than 2,000 miles of fences, 500 miles of roads, 60,000 head of cattle, nearly 60,000 acres of cultivated land, and 300 registered quarter horses. Captain Richard King founded the King Ranch in 1854 and the ranch has been in continuous operation since that time. For more information, visit the web site at http://www.king-ranch.com.

Padre Island National Seashore Tour

Barrier Island Landscape, Subaqueous Soils, Ecological Site Descriptions, Water Table Monitoring

May 22, 2005
7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$45.00, lunch included
Need: rubber boots, mosquito repellant, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses
Limited seating, priority to conference participants, must pre-register

Objectives:

• Subaqueous soils and associated landforms (including wind-tidal flats, washover fans, and black mangrove swamps) on the Texas Gulf Coast
• Water table monitoring results and methodology related to microfeatures on barrier flats
• Ecological Site Descriptions on barrier flat landscapes
• Benchmark Soil Landscape discussion on barrier island environments
• Overview of use of soil survey by the National Park Service

Padre Island is the world’s largest coastal barrier island, extending 113 miles from Corpus Christi Pass (which once separated it from Mustang Island to the north) to Mansfield Channel (which separates it from South Padre Island to the south). Eighty miles of its length are under the protection of the National Park Service and designated as Padre Island National Seashore. Separating Padre Island from the mainland, the shallow, hypersaline Laguna Madre covers an area of 619 square miles. No major rivers flow into Laguna Madre and tides are largely wind-controlled. Longshore drift convergence within the National Seashore results in a beach area largely composed of shell fragments. For more information, visit the web site at http://www.nps.gov/pais/.