Digging Deeper: Applying USDA Web Soil Data to the Study Area


To better understand the ecological conditions that support biodiversity in Harriman State Park, I explored the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Web Soil Survey (WSS). Because Harriman State Park spans both Orange and Rockland counties, I had to generate separate soil maps for each county to cover my study area, since the survey data are organized by county. The Web Soil Survey allows users to explore detailed information about soil types, drainage, hydric soils, vegetation productivity, and other characteristics that influence habitat conditions. While the interface takes a little time to learn, it provides a valuable way to examine how soil properties vary across the landscape.

 Orange County NY portion of the park:

Rockland County NY portion of the park:

One feature I found especially useful was the ability to click on individual soil polygons and immediately access detailed information about each map unit, making it easy to interpret soil characteristics while working within the application. However, I found that this level of detail doesn't translate well when exporting maps. The exported maps display all soil polygons with the same outline and transparent fill, making it difficult to distinguish individual soil types without the ability to interact with the digital map. Despite this limitation, the Web Soil Survey is a valuable resource for understanding how underlying soil conditions influence vegetation, wildlife habitat, and broader ecosystem processes throughout Harriman State Park.

References

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). 2025. Web Soil Survey. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Available from https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/ (accessed July 2026).

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