One of my projects made the front page of the Yakima newspaper. Since the paper tends to paywall these things in short order, I thought the blog would make a handy archive.

Redox: soil pH's energetic dance partner. When pH changes, pE must also change in response. The reverse is true also. In soil, that response departs from simple mirroring. So much so that it can seem to be two separate dances. Soil pH and pE have different causes of change and different effective buffering agents. The term 'buffering' is replaced in a pE context - it is called poise. A stabilized soil pE system is referred to as a well poised system, differences in soil buffering versus soil poise account for the departure from 1:1 mirroring. Now for the exciting stuff. To many of us, what makes soil different than geologic material is that it is in an excited state, excited mostly by solar energy as facilitated by living processes. Unlike soil pH, soil pE is directly influenced by these energy fluxes.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has posted state-by-state results of their Natural Resources Inventory (NRI). The report depicts wetland gains and losses, soil erosion, farmland loss for the 48 contiguous United States through 2003. These numbers look pretty encouraging. It will be interesting to see if they continue this way in 2004.

In the Yakima Valley, with its 500,000 irrigated acres and its network of leaking canals, irrigation induced seasonal wetlands are common. In the floodplain, upwelling hyporheic / phreatic river water can be masked by irrigation induced hydrology, but only while the canals are full, or recently so. During this January visit, long after irrigation diversions have ceased, there was no mistaking the dominant river-induced groundwater hydrology at the site.

Orange ooze forms where anaerobic waters seep from the ground. This can be a good and natural thing, or it can be due to contamination.

track pads allow machines to travel on soft ground without sinking. they also reduce soil compaction and minimize ground damage. pads typically result in 2 psi. 1.5 psi achievable