Monthly Archives: March 2012

The Worst Hard Time

I recently finished a book entitled The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Eagan. It is a book about the dust bowl, an epic environmental event that occurred during the great depression. A long term drought had settled on the great plains, the southern great plains especially, which in combination with plowing over of the prairieContinue reading “The Worst Hard Time”

The Soil Orders – Gelisols

This is the first of a series of blog posts where I will describe some of the interesting features of each of the 12 soil orders in Soil Taxonomy – the soil classification system developed for the US by the United States Department of Agriculture. Each order will be “profiled” (forgive the bad soils pun)Continue reading “The Soil Orders – Gelisols”

Colby Featured on Soilduck’s Sunday Soil Scientist

Fellow soil scientist Jess Drake runs a blog called soilduck. Jess has a weekly feature called the Sunday Soil Scientist which focuses on the bio of a soil scientist from around the world. She was nice enough to do this week’s feature on me which you can read at this link. Soilduck is a greatContinue reading “Colby Featured on Soilduck’s Sunday Soil Scientist”

The Art of Soil Color

Soils from around the world differ greatly. One reason for that is color, as evidenced in the header of this website. Colors were first standardized by Professor Albert H. Munsell on a system with three components: hue, value, and chroma. It was standardized primarily for industry. As an example, the orange thread used in theContinue reading “The Art of Soil Color”

Envirothon Training – 2012

Since I arrived at NC State for my graduate studies, I’ve helped out every spring with teaching a “crash course” on soil science to local Envirothon competitors. Envirothon is an academic competition for middle and high school students. They take five exams, one each on soil science and land use, forestry, wildlife, aquatic ecology, andContinue reading “Envirothon Training – 2012”