8 Joe, Nic, and Nora Check In 02FEB2024

Date: Friday, February 2, 2024

Patty will be starting Feb 12th as a contractor for NRCS to support the project
She will be the main point of contact and lead for deliverables, given her extensive experience with NRCS urban soil mapping projects
Her time (16-20 hrs per pay period) is available to the UMN team - she can help with logistics, planning, project workflow, NRCS processes etc.
Joseph will connect with Patty every few weeks, but the UMN team can reach out to her directly as needed
Nora and Nic plan to have weekly check-ins with Patty to get her up to speed and seek guidance

Original target was Q1 2023 but realistically looking at April/May now
U of MN team would like to have a more representative group beyond just NRCS, including:
- Municipal partners (City of Minneapolis, DNR, FWS, etc)
- Minnesota Geological Survey
- Grower groups
Joseph offered to check NRCS leadership availability the week of May 6th
Nic will send some date options that work for the UMN side
Goal is to find a common date in early May with NRCS leadership and external partners for a kickoff meeting over Zoom

Joseph noted that since this is an update rather than an initial survey, the documentation requirements are less intensive than some past urban projects
For raster projects, NRCS standards recommend 10 samples per map unit class as a minimum
Past urban projects like Detroit sampled around 300 sites for 200,000 acres
Joseph encouraged focusing on key properties needed by users - texture, organic matter, Ksat etc. - which can likely be estimated from existing data
The current agreement is for 3 field seasons, so recommendations are focused on the minimum requirements rather than extensive sampling
Nic agreed the DSP requirements seem achievable for the current scope

Joseph estimates NRCS can commit around 50 staff weeks this first field season
This includes new soil scientist Adam Devlin starting in July who can commit 2-3 days per week
Other NRCS staff like Kellen, Clayton, Matt may also be able to assist periodically in the field
Nic suggested a broader spatial and temporal sampling plan over the next couple years, given the extra resources
The U of MN team can start developing a draft plan to share with NRCS in the coming weeks
Nora confirmed the U of MN side has capacity this season with her time plus opportunistic sampling