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Porthill soil series

A representative soil profile of the Porthill series in Idaho.

 

The Porthill series consists of very deep, moderately well drained soils on terraces. They formed in calcareous silty and clayey glaciolacustrine sediments with very minor amounts of volcanic ash in the surface layer. Permeability is slow. Slope ranges from 0 to 20 percent. The average annual air temperature is about 43 degrees F. and average annual precipitation is about 30 inches.

 

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, active, frigid Typic Hapludalfs

 

Average annual soil temperature - 43 to 45 degrees F.

Average summer soil temperature - 52 to 55 degrees F. with an O horizon

Moisture control section - dry 15 to 30 days (August to mid September), moist mid September through July); udic moisture regime

Thin light gray volcanic ash layer - present in some pedons in undisturbed areas between the organic and mineral soil surface

Depth to secondary calcium carbonates - 16 to 42 inches

Depth to seasonal perched water table - 12 to 18 inches (December to April)

 

USE AND VEGETATION: More than half of the area is used for small grains, alfalfa hay, and alfalfa and clover seed production. The remainder is used for woodland, pasture, and a small acreage of Christmas trees. The natural vegetation is mainly western redcedar, grand fir, Douglas-fir, western larch, and western white pine, with an understory of myrtle pachystima, American trailplant, sweetscented bedstraw, starry false Solomons seal, queencup beadlily, baldhip rose, and longtube twinflower.

 

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Idaho, and possibly northwestern Montana, and northeastern Washington. The series is moderately extensive.

 

For a detailed soil description, visit:

soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/P/PORTHILL.html

 

For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:

casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#porthill

 

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Uploaded on May 5, 2011
Taken in January 2000