LOCATION BELZAR WAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, frigid Andic Haploxerepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Belzar silt loam - forested. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise stated.)
Oi--0 to 1 inch; very dark grayish brown; loose; partially decomposed organic litter, composed of needles, twigs, leaves, bark, and cones of mixed conifers and deciduous trees and shrubs; moderately acid (pH 6.0) abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 4 inches thick)
A--1 to 9 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) ashy silt loam; dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; weak medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; weakly smeary; many fine, common medium, and few coarse roots; many very fine and fine pores; 5 percent hard channers; neutral (pH 6.8); clear wavy boundary. (3 to 8 inches thick)
Bw--9 to 14 inches; light brown (7.5YR 6/4) ashy silt loam, dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; soft, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; weakly smeary; many fine, common medium, and few coarse roots; many very fine and fine pores; 10 percent hard channers; neutral (pH 6.8); clear wavy boundary. (3 to 8 inches thick)
2BC--14 to 24 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) channery loam, dark brown (10YR 4/3) moist; weak medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; soft, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common fine, and few medium and coarse roots; common fine and medium pores; 30 percent hard channers; slightly effervescent; slightly alkaline (pH 7.8); clear wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
2C1--24 to 31 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) very channery loam, brown 10YR 5/3) moist; massive; soft, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; few fine, medium, and coarse roots; few fine, medium, and coarse pores; 50 percent hard channers, including greenish brown shaly rock fragments with white and very pale brown precipitated lime coatings; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0)
2C2--31 to 39 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) extremely channery loam, brown (10YR 5/3) moist; massive; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; few coarse roots; 75 percent hard channers, including gray colored shaly rock fragments with white and pale brown precipitated lime coatings; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear irregular boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
2R--39 inches; fractured gray (N 5/ ) calcareous shale.
TYPE LOCATION: Stevens County, Washington; 300 feet east and 1,900 feet north of SW corner of sec. 6, T. 39 N., R. 42 E., WM.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The depth to a lithic contact is 20 to 40 inches. Thickness of the volcanic ash and loess layer is 7 to 14 inches. The soil is usually moist in all horizons during part of the year but is dry in all parts between depths of 4 to 12 inches for 45 to 60 consecutive days during summer and autumn. The mean annual soil temperature at a depth of 20 inches is 45 to 47 degrees F. The particle-size control section has 35 to 80 percent shale fragments.
The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR, 7.5YR, or 5YR, value of 5 through 7 dry, 4 or 5 moist, and chroma of 3 or 4 moist and dry. It is ashy silt loam or ashy loam and has 5 to 25 percent shale fragments, increasing in volume with increasing depth. This horizon has weak, fine, and medium granular, or weak, fine, and medium subangular blocky structure. It is slightly acid or neutral.
The 2BC horizon has hue of 5Y, 2.5Y, or 10YR, value of 5 or 6 dry, 3 or 4 moist, and chroma of 3 or 4 moist or dry. It is silt loam or loam and is channery or very channery. Shale fragments range from 25 to 50 percent. It is neutral to mildly alkaline.
The 2C horizon has hue of 5Y, 2.5Y, or 10YR, value of 5 through 7 dry, 3 through 5 moist, and chroma of 3 or 4 moist and dry. It is silt loam, loam, or silty clay loam and is very channery or extremely channery. Shale fragments range from 25 to 80 percent. It is mildly alkaline or moderately alkaline.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Hartill, Kloochman, McCree, Newbell, Newhorn, Ohscow, Oxerine, Redriver, Talls, Threemile, Veridge, Wilma, and Wilmont series. Hartill, Redriver, and Wilma soils are noncalcareous throughout. McCree, Newbell, Newhorn, Ohscow, Talls, Threemile, and Wilmont soils are more than 40 inches deep to bedrock. Kloochman soils are non calcareous throughout and are dry for 60 to 75 consecutive days. Oxerine and Veridge soils are dry for 60 to 75 consecutive days.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Belzar soils are generally on northerly aspects of glaciated mountainsides and ridgetops at elevations of 3,000 to 5,500 feet. These soils are often adjacent to rock outcrops. Slopes are generally complex and range from 0 to 65 percent but predominant slopes are 20 to 65 percent. Belzar soils formed in material weathered from limestone and calcareous shale with a mantle of volcanic ash and loess. Although most soil areas have been glaciated, the soils contain little till. These soils are in a continental climate having hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters. The average annual precipitation is 20 to 35 inches. The mean annual temperature is 43 to 45 degrees F. The frost-free season is 80 to 100 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Ahren, Aits, Huckleberry, Leadpoint, Smackout, and Waits soils. Aits and Smackout soils are more than 60 inches deep and formed in noncalcareous glacial till. Ahren and Waits soils are over 60 inches in depth and formed in calcareous glacial till. Huckleberry soils formed in noncalcareous shaly parent rock and are cryic. Leadpoint soils formed in intermittently calcareous black shaly parent rock and have a mollic epipedon.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; slow to very rapid runoff; moderate permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly used for timber production, grazed woodland and wildlife habitat. A few areas are cleared and used for dryland crops and overstory vegetation is mixed Douglas-fir, grand fir, and western larch with some western redcedar, Englemann spruce, western hemlock and western white pine. Understory is Rocky Mountain maple, alder, creambush oceanspray, Saskatoon serviceberry, bunchberry dogwood, mallow ninebark, sitka white spirea, common snowberry, buffaloberry, thimbleberry, wild rose, Oregon-grape, and mullein. Ground vegetation is pachystima, pipsissiwa, kinnikinnick, longtube twinflower, strawberry, and pine grass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mountainous areas of northeastern Washington. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Bozeman, Montana
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Stevens County, Washington, 1978.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are an ochric epipedon from the mineral surface to 9 inches, a cambic horizon from 9 to 24 inches and a volcanic ash mantle from the mineral surface to 14 inches that is assumed to have a bulk density of less than 0.95 g/cc and acid-oxalate extractable aluminum plus one-half of the acid-oxalate extractable iron of more than 1.0 percent.