LOCATION SALAL                   WA

Established Series
Rev. RFP/RJE
06/2011

SALAL SERIES

The Salal series consists of very deep, moderately well drained soils formed in recent alluvium on flood plains and low terraces. Slopes are 0 to 2 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 75 inches. The mean annual temperature is about 50 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Cumulic Humudepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Salal silt loam, cultivated. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)

Ap--0 to 11 inches; black (10YR 2/1) silt loam, dark gray (10YR 4/1) dry; weak fine granular structure; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; many very fine, fine, and medium roots; many very fine pores; strongly acid (pH 5.4); abrupt smooth boundary. (7 to 11 inches thick)

A1--11 to 18 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) silt loam, grayish brown (10YR 5/2) dry; weak fine granular structure; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; many very fine, fine, and medium roots; many very fine and few fine tubular pores; moderately acid (pH 5.6); abrupt wavy boundary. (5 to 11 inches thick)

A2--18 to 33 inches; very dark grayish brown (2.5Y 3/2) silt loam, grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) dry; massive; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots in upper part, few below 25 inches; common very fine tubular pores; moderately acid (pH 5.8); clear wavy boundary. (8 to 18 inches thick)

AC--33 to 50 inches; very dark grayish brown (2.5Y 3/2) silt loam, light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) dry; massive; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; few very fine and fine roots; many very fine and fine tubular pores; moderately acid (pH 5.8); clear wavy boundary. (0 to 20 inches thick)

C--50 to 60 inches; dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) silt loam, light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) dry; common fine distinct olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) redox condentrations, very pale brown (10YR 7/4) dry; weak fine granular structure; hard, friable, slightly sticky, moderately plastic; few roots; common very fine tubular pores; moderately acid (pH 5.8).

TYPE LOCATION: Snoqualmie Pass Area, King County, Washington; 1,550 feet east, 1,500 feet north of the southwest corner of section 4, T.23N., R.8E.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The mean annual soil temperature is 47 to 52 degrees F. The umbric epipedon is 20 to 40 inches thick. The particle-size control section averages 18 and 25 percent clay and less than 15 percent fine and coarser sand.

The A horizon has value of 2 or 3 moist, 4 or 5 dry, and chroma of 1 or 2 moist or dry. It is silt loam to very fine sandy loam. Reaction is strongly acid or moderately acid.

The AC horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 10YR, value of 3 to 5 moist, 4 to 6 dry, and chroma of 2 or 3 moist or dry. It is silt loam or very fine sandy loam.

The C horizon hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5 moist, 6 to 8 dry, and chroma of 2 to 4 moist or dry. It is silt loam or very fine sandy loam. Some pedons have thin lenses of silty clay loam or that contain 5 to 10 percent pebbles. Redox features are at depths as shallow as 40 inches in some pedons and some pedons lack redox features within 60 inches.

COMPETING SERIES: This is the similar Edgewick series. Edgewick soils have an umbric epipedon less than 20 inches thick and are coarse-loamy.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: This soil occurs on flood plains and low terraces at elevations ranging from 400 to 500 feet. They formed in recent alluvium. Slopes are 0 to 2 percent. The mean January temperature is 38 degrees F, the mean July temperature is 63 degrees F, and the mean annual temperature is about 50 degrees F. The mean annual precipitation is 70 to 80 inches, most of which falls as rain during winter. Snow is common in winter, but it does not remain on the ground for long at a time. The growing season (28 degrees F) is 150 to 190 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Edgewick soils and the Nooksack and Seattle soils. Nooksack soils have a mollic epipedon. Seattle soils are Histosols.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained; runoff is slow; permeability is moderate. A water table is as high as 3 to 4 feet at times from February to April.

USE AND VEGETATION: Salal soils are used for cropland. Grass legume hay, pasture and corn for silage are common crops. Native vegetation is Douglas-fir, western redcedar, western hemlock and red alder, with an understory of trailing blackberry, salmonberry, western swordfern, red elderberry, and Oregon-grape.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northwestern Washington. This series is of small extent with about 600 acres in the Snoqualmie Valley near North Bend, King County, Washington.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Portland, Oregon

SERIES ESTABLISHED: King County, Washington, 1943.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are;
umbric epipedon from the surface to 33 inches and an assumed irregular decrease in organic carbon with depth.

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.