FREE ESSAY ON SOIL AND LAND MANAGMENT

SOIL AND LAND MANAGMENT

Soil and Land Management 
The soil triangle is graph that helps the person determine the
type of soil they are testing. This type of graph being a triangle has
three sides. The first side, or right side is the percent of silt found
in the soil sample. The second side, or the bottom is the percent of
sand found in the soil sample. The third side, or the right side is the
percent of clay found in the soil sample. You read the graph from
right to left being silt, sand, to clay. There are twelve different
classes of soil. The classes are sand, loamy sand, sandy loam, loam,
silt loam, silt, sandy clay loam, clay loam, silty clay loam, sandy clay,
silty clay, and clay.
The particle size analysis we did I thought was very confusing,
and unnecessary. The view of the soil underneath the microscope
wasn't very much different from the view without it, or at least I
couldn't tell much difference. The two millimeter mark on the paper
was also very confusing. I had no idea of what I was doing during
the particle size analysis. 
The mechanical soil analysis was much more to my liking. I
understood the whole process and loved the project we did with it. 
From the begging when we went outside to collect the soil samples
to when we were finished waiting the 24 hours for the water and soil
particles to settle. After we mixed the right amount of dirt and
water into the sample tube we had made two recordings of the
percent of sand, silt, and clay. After that we took the readings over
to the soil triangle to determine the type of soil that we had
collected.
The way soil is formed is not all that complicated. First soil
begins as a rock and then is broken dependent upon the weathering
factors. Soil types are based upon the type of rock from which they
are made. Rock particles are further broken into various smaller
sizes of rocks and minerals, then small plants such as lichens and
mosses begin to grow on the rock surfaces. Dead plant materials or
organic matter are mixed with rock fragments, and as more organic
matter is formed, larger plant forms such as ferns, grasses, and
shrubs take root. After that process bacteria and fungi break down
the organic matter into simpler nutrients that are released into the
soil, further aiding plant growth. The downside to this is that it is a
very slow process.
Surprisingly there are only three types of rocks. The first type
is igneous which is a rock that is formed by hardening of molted
volcanic materials. The second type of rock is metamorphic which is
a rock that is formed as a result of changes in other rocks under
heat and pressure. The third type of rock is sedimentary which is a
rock that is formed by a consolidation particles laid down over the
years.
There are three ways soils are deposited. Glacial soils are
deposited by glaciers for example rich farmland soils of the Corn
Belt. Loess soils are deposited by wind for example rich Paloose
soils of the Pacific Northwest. Alluvial soils are deposited by moving
fresh water for example Delta regions at the mouth of rivers.
The functions of organic matter are much better than the man
made fertilizers, and organic matter. The compost are class made
"other wise known as Sheedy" has proven to grow plants much faster
than scientific organic mulch. Sheedy has many more of the major
nutrients in it than that other stuff. That other stuff has more minor
nutrients in it. There are three major nutrients that some plants
need they are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. There are also
ten minor nutrients that some plants need. These nutrients are zinc,
manganese, boron, copper, iron, molybdenum, calcium, sulfur,
chlorine, and magnesium.
There are two types of erosion and they are wind and water. 
There are many causes of erosion for example moving water,
topography including slopes of the land, lack of vegetation, dry
climate conditions, wind, and human activities such as construction,
mining, agriculture, recreation that distributes or removes the
vegetation. The effects of erosion on our land is that it reduces
fertility of the land, it increases sediment in water bodies, it
increases water filtration expenses, it destroys spawning beds of
game fish, it reduces fish food supply, it fills pools where fish live,
and it increases the damage caused by floods.
Controlling erosion on the farm and in the urban countries
wouldn't be very hard. Ways to control erosion on the farm would
be to plant buffer strips of perennial grasses to hold soil particles,
plant windbreaks to slow wind speeds, ridge soil into small furrows
to trap soil particles, provide diversions to channel excess runoff,
farm on the contour rather than straight-row up and down hills,
terrace to control and manage water runoff, use contour
stripcropping, use rotation stripcropping, practice conservation
tillage, which leaves a minimum of 30 percent of the previous crop's
residue on the soil surface after planting, use tile drainage to
remove excess underground water, use grassed waterways to
channel excess runoff, mulch to hold soil in place, prevent
overgrazing of pastures and rangelands through proper grazing
management, use field borders of perennial vegetation to protect
field edges. Methods of controlling urban erosion, these methods
are planting trees, planting grass and ground covers, place rock
materials along riverbank to secure it, leave vegetation on soil as
long as it is possible, disturb only the minimum of a construction
area, cover bare spots with annual grasses, ground covers, sod, and
mulch, use erosion blankets or netting during construction or while
waiting for grass seed to sprout, protect slope from failure using
jute matting, wooden strips placed across the slope,
chemical-binding materials, grass, ground cover, or retaining walls,
use stormwater diversions, berms, waterways, and sediment basins
to channel or slow down runoff, and base all building plans on
scientific soil surveys.
Parts of a conservation plan consist of a soil map, land use,
soil type and symbols, acres, capability class, slope, planned
conservation treatment. The reclamation of mined lands consist of
four parts, (part one) many mineral resources are obtained by
surface mining (examples sand, gravel, stone, iron, ore, coal,
copper, uranium, phosphate, aluminum, ore [bauxite], and gold,
(part two) surface mining can be harmful to land, earth is left barren
which encourages erosion, rivers and streams become choked with
sediment, water that drains through the mines becomes polluted
with chemicals, (part three) because of erosion problems, surface
strip-mines are required to have a reclamation plan, (part four)
reclamation activities, earth-moving equipment fills the mined area
with rock debris, the land is shaped until it resembles its original
contour, topsoil is spread over the area, trees, shrubs, and mixture
of grass suitable for the region are planted.
Career opportunities in the land management field are vast. 
There are nine different fields listed in this which are soil
conservationist, soil conservation technician, soil scientist soil
engineer, range specialist, range scientist, wildlife conservationist,
ranch manager, and farmer.