Detailed Soil Survey of the Mount Revelstoke Summit Area.

25These soils have severe limitations for recreational use due toseasonally high moisture conditions, late snow release, and high susceptibilityto erosion .The high organic matter content reduces soilstrength and bearing capacity and produces a high water holding capacityresulting in slow drying . These soils are susceptible to compaction . Suchproperties make the soils unsuitable as a construction material, for atrail base, or for other intensive uses .Soil Map Unit 4(Rego Gleysol)These poorly and very poorly drained soils occur in depressionalareas of groundwater discharge and in areas of ponded runoff, often marginalto streams (Plate 4) . The water table is near the surface of these soilsfor aconsiderable part of the year, thus they have severe limitations forrecreational use .table conditions .The vegetation and the soils reflect the high waterPlant communities are often dominated by Carex nigricanswhich forms a densely rooted turf on the soil surface . Organic layers (Oh),which contain approximately 60 to 70 percent organic matter, occur beneaththe turf . These dark colored layers have a low bulk density (0 .2 g/cm3),are approximately 20 cm thick, and often have athin layer of volcanic ashseparating Oh layers .Silt loam textured volcanic ash deposits of about30 cm thickness may underlie the upper Oh layers and often display prominentmottling .A buried Oh layer often separates the ash from underlyingsilt loam textured alluvial deposits which have strongly reduced graycolors .Boulders from the underlying till occasionally protrude throughthe soil surface .The following isa brief description of a Rego Gleysol typical ofmap unit 4 soils .