LOCATION WHITEFISH MTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive Eutric Glossocryalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Whitefish - gravelly silt loam.
Oe--0 to 1 inch; forest litter, matter well decomposed and dark brown in the lower one-half inch; many roots along the lower boundary; moderately acid (ph 6.0) abrupt boundary. (1 to 3 inches thick)
E1--1 to 2 inches; light gray (10YR 7/1) gravelly silt loam, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) moist; weak fine platy breaking easily to moderate fine crumb structure; soft, dry; very friable, moist; many very fine dark brown (mg?) concretions; moderately acid (pH 5.8); abrupt boundary. (1/2 to 1 inch thick)
E2--2 to 3 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) gravelly silt loam, brown (10YR 5/3) moist; otherwise like horizon above except very strongly acid pH 5.0.
E3--3 to 9 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) gravelly silt loam, grayish brown (10YR 5/2) moist; strong fine platy and moderate fine crumb structure; vesicular; slightly hard, dry; very friable, moist; many roots and many dark, very fine concretions; strongly acid (pH 5.1) clear boundary. (5 to 8 inches thick)
E/B--9 to 14 inches; light gray (10YR 7/1) gravelly silt loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) moist; spots of B2 surrounded by A2 giving the mixed soil a brown color; appears massive but separates to weak subangular blocky structure when disturbed; slightly hard, dry; friable, moist; many fine pores and root channels; a few fine roots; many very fine dark brown concretions; strongly acid (pH 5.1) clear wavy boundary. (3 to 6 inches thick)
Bt--14 to 20 inches; very pale brown (10YR 7/3) gravelly silt loam, brown (10YR 5/3) moist; dark brown to brown, 10YR 4/3 to 5/3 when wet and crushed); moderate medium subangular blocky structure, the broken blocks having a marbled gray, yellowish-brown and dark brown coloration; hard, dry; firm, moist; few fine pores and root channels; fine roots, common; neutral (pH 6.8) abrupt boundary. (5 to 8 inches thick)
Bk--20 to 33 inches; light gray (10YR 7/1) moist, marbled with gray and yellow; light brownish gray when wet and crushed) silt loam; massive in place but breaks out to weak medium subangular blocks or lumps; hard, dry; firm, moist; a few dead and living roots; calcareous, including some segregated soft floury lime carbonate; gradual boundary. (8 to 14 inches thick)
C--33 to 41 inches; gray, little altered gravelly and stony calcareous, silt loam till; firm in place but friable; a few roots occur in local masses, and the adjacent soil material commonly is stained yellow or brown.
TYPE LOCATION: Flathead County, Montana; SE1/4 of SW1/4 of SE1/4 Sec. 12, T.30N, R.22W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Aside from a rather wide range in the amount and size of stone fragments on and in the soils, these soils vary within relatively narrow limits. Where they grade into or merge with the Waits soils, the upper part of the E has a pale yellow or brownish color. Soils on 15 to 25 percent slopes have sola about as thick as those on slopes of low gradient. On slopes steeper than 25 percent gradient, the thickness of the several horizons and of the sola are less uniform.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Swiftcurrant, Uinta, and Warwood series. Swiftcurrant soils have a very friable Bk horizon. Uinta, and Warwood soils do not have a Bk horizon with identifiable secondary carbonates.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Whitefish series includes soils on undulating to strongly rolling and hilly intermountain valleys and mountain footslopes in the Northern Rocky Mountains. They developed in medium-textured, calcareous till that includes a high proportion of coarse fragments of gray, green and reddish argillites and quartzites and dolomitic limestones of the Belt geological formation.
USE AND VEGETATION: Principally coniferous forest, including Douglas fir, larch and lodgepole pine; a few other conifer and deciduous species, shrubs and low-growing leafy plants; coarse grasses are common in the more open forest.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Western Montana and possible adjacent states to the west.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Bozeman, Montana
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Upper Flathead Valley Area, Montana, 1957. The name is taken from the town of Whitefish, Montana, near the type locality for these soils.
REMARKS: The type profile above is adapted from the description of sample Profile No. 21, Field and Laboratory Data on some ----------- soils in Northern U.S. and Southern Canada; Soil Survey Laboratory Memorandum No. 1, Beltsville, Maryland, 1952.
Prepared for the final field review and correlation of Upper Flathead Valley Area, Montana.
OSED scanned by SSQA. Last revised by state on 4/57.
Soil Survey Laboratory data on S97MT-029-004 support classification.