Soils of the - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

GOLDEN EARS SOILS . (GE)
t .
Location and Extent : Golden Ears soils are relatively common at the higher elevations in the mountainous ,
northern part of the map area . Soil complexes dominated by Golden Ears soils total about 12 210 ha . The
complexes are mostly with Whonnock and Sayres soils .
Topography and Elevation : Steeply to very steeply sloping or strongly rolling to hilly with slope gradient s
between 15 and 40 percent is the usual topography of Golden Ears soils . In small areas the slopes may rise t o
60 percent . Elevations are generally in excess of 700 m above sea level .
Parent Material and Texture : Golden Ears soils have developed from moderately coarse textured, ston y
and sometimes bouldery, glacial till derived mainly from granitic bedrock . Organic forest litter, between 15 an d
25 cm thick and mainly well-decomposed (humic) occurs on the soil surface . The surface, subsurface an d
subsoil mineral soil textures are gravelly sandy loam or sandy loam, varying sometimes to gravelly loamy sand .
The subsoil layers are strongly cemented .
Soil Moisture Characteristics : Golden Ears soils are moderately well drained . The upper 80 to 100 cm i s
moderately to rapidly pervious ; this decreases to slowly pervious in the cemented subsoil . Surface runoff i s
moderate to slow and water holding capacity is very high in organic surface but decreases to low in the minera l
soil. Lateral, telluric seepage develops along surface of the cemented layer during and after heavy rains, an d
during snowmelt .
General Soil Description : Golden Ears soils have about 20 cm of organic forest litter on the mineral soi l
surface . The organic material consists of about 2 to 5 cm of undecomposed needles, twigs and moss and abou t
15 cm of well-decomposed, black to very dusky red, matted to amorphous humic material . This is abruptly
underlain by 5 to 10 cm of gray to dark gray, friable, strongly leached, sandy material which, in turn, is underlai n
by about 10 cm of very dark reddish brown to black, weakly structured, sandy material containing between 1 0
and 20 percent organic matter. This layer grades to about 50 cm of strong brown to reddish-brown, friable to
firm, moderately structured, sandy and gravelly material in which the colours are intermixed due to uneve n
organic matter distribution . At about 80 to 100 cm depth, a strongly cemented layer which is very to extremel y
firm, and yellowish-brown to grayish-brown in colour occurs . This layer is about 50 cm thick and grade s
gradually into unweathered, massive, grayish glacial till . Usually a zone of root concentration up to 10 cm thic k
is present immediately above the cemented layer . Soil reactions are extremely acid in .the upper 50 cm an d
grade to very strongly or strongly acid in the lower subsoil . Soil classification is Duric Ferro-Humic Podzol.
Commonly Associated Soils : Sayres, Whonnock, Dennett, and Palisade soils are usually closely associ -
ated with Golden Ears soils . Whonnock soils are similar to Golden Ears soils except they are imperfectl y
drained . Sayres soils differ from Golden Ears by being underlain by bedrock within 100 cm of the surface, whil e
Dennett soils differ by consisting of 10 cm or more of organic forest litter overlying bedrock . Palisade soils diffe r
by being derived from colluvium and do not contain cemented subsoil layers .
Vegetation : The vegetation on Golden Ears soils is mostly Pacific silver fir, western hemlock and some yello w
cedar, with western red cedar also present in the lower parts of the soils' elevation range . Rooting depth is mainl y
limited to about 100 cm by the cemented subsoils . Strong concentrations of roots (root mats) are often presen t
on the surface of the cemented layers .
General Land Use Comments : (1) Steep slopes, stoniness and adverse climate (high elevations) mak e
Golden Ears soils unsuitable for agriculture ; most urban and related construction is also limited for the sam e
reasons . (2) Forest growth is good . Limited plot data indicates wood production by Pacific silver fir and wester n
hemlock at elevations below 900 m to be between 9 and 12 m3/ha/yr. With increasing elevations above 900 m
growth correspondingly decreases due to increasingly harsh climatic conditions .
85