Chillicothe & Ross County — The ground is an important resource, and a state organization of experts on it had an annual gathering here. The Association of Ohio Pedologists spent two days expanding their knowledge and practicing soil science.
Their workshop conference in the Ross County Service Center on September 27th and 28th included indoor presentations as well as a couple of field trips that were complicated by rain. But, the deep pits dug in farm fields in the Londonderry area to observe soil profiles and textures were still popular.
I spoke with past president Kathy Sasowsky to get an overview of the event, before the group went back out Friday and braved the gusty rain from the fringes of Hurricane Helene.
She said they have two meetings a year that rotate around the state. This one included the outdoor activities, and the other is indoors during the winter.
Sasowsky said the group came here because they could see the effect of two glaciers, including the lakes and windblown sand and dust that came with them. Hear her in her own words in the below video interview (and see my photos of the meeting and Thursday’s field trip soon).
I had been asked to give a presentation on the history of Ross County to give the group some more recent context, aside from geology of the previous one or two million years and beyond. Other speakers addressed the research and geologic updates from the Ohio Geological Survey, and how to deal with streambank erosion (the subject of my next story).
After starting my career on local history, prehistory, and geology with high school science fair projects on local glacial geology, it was fun to geek around with experts on soil formation digging in sometimes muddy trenches.
Some information about the meeting in Ross County, and publications on local and state geology, is still on their events page.
(See also some of my recent posts on my business Facebook page on the glacial geology of Ross County, starting on September 16th and 29th.)
And…don’t say “dirt” to a soil scientist. Dirt is bad; soil is good!
