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Custom Soil Resource Report Map Unit Legend La Plata County Area, Colorado (C0669) Map Unit Symbol Map Unit Name Acres in AOI Percent of AOI 5 Arboles clay, 3 to 12 percent slopes 20.0 4.9% 27 Falfa clay loam, 3 to 8 percent slopes 73.4 17.9% 42 Lazear-Rock outcrop complex, 12 to 65 percent slopes 31.7 7.7% 58 Rock outcrop 34.7 8.4% 59 Sedillo gravelly loam, 0 to 3 percent slopes 8.4 2.0% 70 Ustic Torriorthents-Ustollic Haplargids complex, 12 to 60 1.6 0.4% 81 Zyme clay loam, 3 to 25 percent slopes 25.6 6.2% 82 Zyme-Rock outcrop complex, 12 to 65 percent slopes 215.6 52.5% Totals for Area of Interest 411.1 100.0% Map Unit Descriptions The map units delineated on the detailed soil maps in a soil survey represent the soils or miscellaneous areas in the survey area. The map unit descriptions, along with the maps, can be used to determine the composition and properties of a unit. A map unit delineation on a soil map represents an area dominated by one or more major kinds of soil or miscellaneous areas. A map unit is identified and named according to the taxonomic classification of the dominant soils. Within a taxonomic class there are precisely defined limits for the properties of the soils. On the landscape, however, the soils are natural phenomena, and they have the characteristic variability of all natural phenomena. Thus, the range of some observed properties may extend beyond the limits defined for a taxonomic class. Areas of soils of a single taxonomic class rarely, if ever, can be mapped without including areas of other taxonomic classes. Consequently, every map unit is made up of the soils or miscellaneous areas for which it is named and some minor components that belong to taxonomic classes other than those of the major soils. Most minor soils have properties similar to those of the dominant soil or soils in the map unit, and thus they do not affect use and management. These are called noncontrasting, or similar, components. They may or may not be mentioned in a particular map unit description. Other minor components, however, have properties and behavioral characteristics divergent enough to affect use or to require different management. These are called contrasting, or dissimilar, components. They generally are in small areas and could not be mapped separately because of the scale used. Some small areas of strongly contrasting soils or miscellaneous areas are identified by a special symbol on the maps. If included in the database for a given area, the contrasting minor components are identified in the map unit descriptions along with some characteristics of each. A few areas of minor components may not have been observed, and consequently they are not mentioned in the descriptions, especially where the pattern was so complex that it was impractical to make enough observations to identify all the soils and miscellaneous areas on the landscape. 10