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_~__, • •• EXHIBIT I • Soil Information on the Mek~burg Pit s The soil in the PAekelburg pit area is Paoli Sandy Loam. This is a deep, well drained, moderately sandy soil in the northern part of the County. It has developed in sandy alluvium on stream terraces. It occurs in elongated areas up to 200 acres in size. Slopes are less than 3 percent. The average annual precip~.tation is about 17 inches. Included in the mapped areas are smalled areas of Albinas soils and Bankard soils. Inclusions do not exceed 15 percent. The surface layer is grayish brown sandy loan about 5 inches thick. The subsurface layer is grayish brown sandy loan about 27 inches thick. The substratum to a depth of 60 inches or more is light brownish gray, limy sandy loam. Permeability is rapid. The available water capacity is moderate. Runoff is slow and the erosion hazard is high. The soil is used for grazing native range and for growing wheat, sorghum, or corn with non-irrigated farming meth ods. Controlling wind erosion on non-irrigated crop land is the main conservation problem. A cropping system of small grain- fallow, or row crop, small grain-fallow is used. The important conservation practices for non-irrigated soil are stubble mulch tillage or crop residue use. Optional practices include mulch planting, wind strip cropping, and minimum tillage. The potential native vegetation included sand bluestem, little bluestem, needle and thredd, prarie sandreed, sideoats grama, switchgrass, blue grama and western wheat grass. With continuous heavy grazing by cattle, sand bluestem, little bluestem, switch grass, and sandreed grass decreases in the plant population. Blue grama, sand sage, and sand dropseed increase. Extreme use will result in annual weeds and grasses. Depleted range land can be improved by seeding sand bluestem, little bluestem, sideoats grama, blue grama, prairie sandreed, indian rice, switch grass, and indian grass. Non-irrigated cropland can be converted to grass by seeding any of the wheatgrassesm sand bluestem, Russian wildrye, sand lovegrass, and indian grass, into stubble, annual weeds, or a cover crop ofmillet. The millet and weeds should be mowed before it produces seeds.