67  Group Check In 23MAR2026

Date: March 23, 2026

67.1 Attendees

  • Adam Devlin
  • Brianna Hayward
  • Ava McCune
  • Joe Brennan
  • Steph Hankerson

67.2 Field Reference Guide (Brianna)

67.2.1 Development Progress

  • Working on field reference guide with solid rough draft completed
  • Met with Adam to review classification details to include
  • Covered what qualifies as surface mantle and buried soil
  • Goal to have final draft completed by end of this week
  • Adam’s feedback: first draft is a good abridged guide. It includes references to page numbers for commonly used information and will be useful for field day practice in May.

67.3 May Field Day and Summer Field Work Planning

67.3.1 Timing and Schedule

  • Originally planned for May 15th, moved to May 14th due to Nora’s defense on May 15th
  • May shift to May 13th depending on staffing levels
  • Scheduled after exams end and before fieldwork starts
  • Timing considerations: wanted to give students a few days after exams, but may need to start immediately

67.3.2 Format and Components

  • Morning session in classroom and afternoon field session
  • Plan to visit Long Lake area, located on north side of metro in a park
  • Morning activities: reviewing materials and texture calibration
  • Learning bulk density sampling methods:
    • Bulk density coring methods
    • Compliant cavity methods
  • Understanding bulk density distributions and relationship to soil properties and functions
  • Goal to map these properties on landscape

67.3.3 Participants

  • Open to undergrads (new and returning)
  • NRCS partners welcome, including: Stuart, Brandon, Kieran, and others! Joe will forward invite to NRCS participants
  • Steph Hankerson interested in attending (will help describe work to community sites)
  • Steph noted that week has a festival already, will check schedule

67.3.4 Undergraduate Hiring

  • Nic wants to hire two more undergrads to assist in Urban Soil Survey fieldwork
  • Hiring timeline will affect field day scheduling
  • Hoping to have soil judgers available

67.3.5 Hennepin County Grant Proposal

  • Grant proposal submitted to Hennepin County for additional staffing
  • Purpose: Collect bulk density and carbon samples
  • Goal: Carbon stock modeling improvement for county climate models
  • Refining data for Hennepin County to assist with meeting climate goals
  • Unclear how this will integrate with current project (whether joint work or separate initiatives)

67.4 Lab Updates (Ava)

  • Sample processing progressing well
  • Over 600 samples run on pH analysis; similar progress across all other analyses

67.5 Community Outreach

67.5.1 Steph Hankerson Introduction

  • Working with Jelinski Lab on outreach and community efforts
  • Focus on St. Paul community, probably Minneapolis as well
  • Work plan not yet delineated
  • Invited by Nic to attend meetings

67.5.2 Lab Support for Community Events

  • Adam encouraged Steph to share information about events needing lab support
  • Community outreach is big component of project goals
  • Goals include getting soils information out to public (urban soils and soils basics)

67.6 Ramsey County Fieldwork

67.6.1 Upcoming Work

  • Fieldwork scheduled for this Wednesday (March 26th)
  • Meeting at 8:30 AM and planning to be out all day
  • Will be partly a soil harvesting day (mixed activities)
  • Good start to field season and opportunity to connect with soil health lab staff
  • Brianna offered to help but not on original invitation list (Adam will investigate)

67.7 Site Selection and Sampling Strategy

67.7.1 Focus on Wet Soils

  • Adam selecting points with desire to find wet soils this year
  • Interest in finding good redox features
  • Looking for filled-in wetlands in neighborhoods
  • Talking to long-time neighborhood residents for local knowledge
  • Joe noted wet soils probably undersampled so far, especially in denser areas. Uncertainty whether due to chance, drainage, or other factors

67.8 Action Items

  • Brianna: Complete final draft of field reference guide by end of week
  • Adam: Send out when-to-meet survey to finalize field day date
  • Adam: Investigate why Brianna not on Ramsey County field day invitation
  • Joe: Wait for Adam to finalize field day date, then forward invite to NRCS participants
  • Steph: Check schedule for potential attendance at May field day
  • Steph: Share information about community events needing lab support