LOCATION FORELAND AK

Established Series
Rev. SR
8/95

FORELAND SERIES

The Foreland series consists of deep, very poorly drained soils formed in a thin silt mantle overlying very gravelly alluvium on alluvial terraces. Slopes range from 0 to 7 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 35 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation is about 20 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, mixed Typic Cryaquents

TYPICAL PEDON: Foreland peat - forest (All colors are for moist soil)

Oi--6 inches to 0; brown (7.5YR 5/4), moist) to pink (7.5YR 8/4), squeezed dry) undecomposed moss peat; many roots of trees and shrubs; extremely acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 8 inches thick)

A--0 to 4 inches; mixed very dark brown (10YR 2/2), dark reddish brown (5YR 2/2), and black (N 2/ ) silt loam; massive; nonsticky; charcoal in upper part of horizon; few pebbles in lower part; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (3 to 6 inches thick)

2C--4 to 18 inches; very gravelly sand; color varies with individual pebbles, but olive is overall color when moist; all gravel is rounded; single-grain; loose; medium acid; many feet thick.

TYPE LOCATION: Kenai-Kasilof Area, Alaska. SW 1/4, SE 1/4, section 30, T. 3N., R. 11W., Seward Meridian.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the silty A horizon is usually 3 to 6 inches, but ranges up to 12 inches. The A horizon usually has mixed colors, but may have a single color in the range of N 2/ through 5YR to 5Y 2/2.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Jacobsen, Slikok and Torpedo Lake series in the same subgroup. Jacobsen and Slikok soils have less than 50 percent very fine sand or coarser in the fine earth fraction of the control section. Torpedo Lake soils have more than 18 percent clay in the control section. GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Foreland soils occur in seep areas or shallow depressions on gravelly terraces. The regolith consists of a thin layer of silty materials over very gravelly alluvium. The mean annual air temperature is 33 to 36 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation is 18 to 22 inches.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Poorly drained. Permeability is moderate over rapid. Runoff is slow to ponded.

USE AND VEGETATION: The native vegetation is a forest of stunted black spruce, with some willows and alder. There are no cleared areas.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southcentral Alaska. The series is inextensive.

MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Anchorage, Alaska

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Kenai-Kasilof Area, Alaska. 1960.

REMARKS: The present concept of the Foreland series is poorly defined. More data are needed to adequately define the concept or the series should be inactivated (jpm 1/87).

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.

Contact: Mike Gracz Kenai Watershed Forum  PO Box 15301 Fritz Creek, AK  99603 907-235-2218

04 May 2007 10:20