Detailed Soil Survey Atlas: Conococheague-Opequon Watershed—Nonirrigated Land Capability Class

Both maps are from the Detailed Soil Survey Atlas collection of interpretive maps and illustrate the application of detailed soil survey information obtained from the Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) for natural resource planning. These maps are important for making land-use management decisions regarding the soil resource. The Conococheague-Opequon is a subwatershed of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and covers portions of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Land capability classification is a system of grouping soils primarily on the basis of the soil’s enduring ability to produce common cultivated crops and pasture plants without deteriorating. Class codes 1 to 8 are used here to represent nonirrigated land capability. Definitions range from Class 1 soils, which have slight limitations that restrict their use, to Class 8, whose limitations preclude their use for commercial plant production, restricting them to recreation, wildlife, water supply, or aesthetic purposes.

Courtesy of Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.