Tuolumne County Resource Conservation District

“ A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.”
—Franklin Roosevelt

Soil, the living skin of the earth, impacts everything we do in our world. It is among the most basic and valuable of all the natural resources found in the world. Soil produces the food that we eat, provides a foundation for our structures, supports life to all earthly ecosystems and filters our wastes. Since the devastating days of the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s, the Soil Conservation Act of 1935 made the care of soil a priority of Conservation Districts.

The first step in taking proper care of the soil is to promote an understanding and awareness of its importance, uniqueness and fragility. To accomplish this there needs to be a basic inventory of the different soils and how they exist in relation to climate and plants. Consequently a Soil Survey is performed to inventory the more than 23,000 soil series that occur in various combinations with different slopes and surface textures in the U.S.

The Central Sierra Foothills Soil Survey Crew came to Sonora, California in 2006. They will be sampling, mapping and inventorying all the soils in the western portions of Tuolumne and Calaveras counties in order to produce a Soil Survey report. The project will take through 2011 to complete, at which time it will be available on Web Soil Survey.

We welcome input from users regarding specific needs. Please send all comments and questions to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , MLRA Soil Survey Project Leader.

Lake Don Pedro in Tuolumne County (link)

To contact us:

USDA-NRCS
Sonora Soil Survey Office
19777 Greenley R
Sonora, CA 95370

Phone: 209-532-3671 x246
Fax: 209-533-0527
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it