Detailed Soil Survey of the Mount Revelstoke Summit Area.

following removal of vegetation .Soil properties such as texture,organic matter content, bulk density, infiltration and percolationrates, drainage conditions, slope stability, and especially slopeangle have all been evaluated in the estimation of soil erosionpotential .A more comprehensive discussion of erodibility of thesoils of the Summit area may be found on pages 50 - 51 .The soils and miscellaneous land units have been grouped intofour classes of damage susceptibility described in Table B .DiscussionThe rating can be used to aid the planning of recreationaldevelopment because it indicates the relative durability of vegetationand soils .It is not directed to specific uses such as campgrounds andpicnic areas, but the ordering of the units for these uses would likelybe the same as for random trampling .The basic application of the rating system isto minimizedamage by avoiding use of areas atthe fragile end of the scale andchanneling intensive traffic through the most resilient areas .However,planning decisions cannot be made that easily .Some vegetation fragilityclasses at the more resistant end of the scale coincide with fragilesoil classes .In the derivation of the fragility classes, no accounthas been taken of the rarity of vegetation types .For example, vegetationclass 4 includes Cassiope mertensiana stands which, although hardier, areless extensive than the mixed herbaceous meadows in vegetation class 5or the stands of Vaccinium membranaceum beneath sub-alpine fir in vegetationclass 6 .Value judgments therefore have to be made and it may be moredesirable to sacrifice part of an extensive though fragile vegetation type