For our soil project, my group was assigned two soils in Barron County, Wisconsin.  Soil A, the Haugen-Greenwood complex (HgC), was located within a forested area. Soil B, the Anigon silt loam (AnA), was located in an agricultural area. Given the differences in the soil environments, our group decided use the soils to compare the effects of agricultural practices on the soil. To accomplish this we chose to focus on comparing 3 factors of each soil; erosion, salinity, and pH.

As we had suspected, the agricultural soil showed increased erosion compared to the forest soil. Based on what we had learned in class, we suspected that over time fertilization may have caused Soil B to decrease in pH and increase in salinity, a common issue with agricultural soils.  However to our surprise, using data from the NRCS and Web Soil Survey, we determined that there were no significant differences in either pH or salinity between the soils. 

This led us to conclude that the owner of the land either used responsible agricultural practices that didn't impact soil health, or they did an exceptional job of offsetting the effects of their harmful techniques. Regardless of which, there appeared to be no significant effects from agriculture on the soil.