a shovel sitting in soil

Virginia is home to over 38,000 farms and compared to neighboring Chesapeake Bay Watershed states like Pennsylvania and Maryland, Virginia’s farms tend to be larger in size. The state’s top agricultural product is broiler chickens (chickens raised for meat) followed by cattle and calves. Agriculture is a hugely impactful industry in Virginia’s economy, supporting over 380,000 jobs and generating over 82 billion dollars annually.

In 1999, Pamunkey was proclaimed the official state soil of Virginia. Pamunkey was chosen to represent Virginia because of its deep connection to the James River. Beginning in the western mountains of Virginia, the James River collects mineral-rich sediments as it flows eastward, eventually depositing them along the riverbanks and lowlands heading towards the Chesapeake Bay. Pamunkey can be found across 23,000 acres in 12 eastern Virginia counties, as well as select areas of Maryland. These soils are prime agricultural land both today and historically. Named after the Indigenous Pamunkey tribe, this fertile ground supported Native communities, early Jamestown settlers, and generations of modern farmers for centuries.

Soil description

A soil monolith from the Smithsonian Institution’s ‘Dig It! The Secrets of Soil’ exhibit of Virginia’s State Soil, Pamunkey. Credit: United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. 2006. Photo by Chip Clark, Smithsonian.

In the world of soil taxonomy, a ‘series’ is the most specific tier of classification. The USDA’s National Cooperative Soil Survey provides an Official Series Description (OSD) for each one. The Pamunkey OSD describes it as a ‘Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, thermic Ultic Hapludalfs’. This short description tells an in-depth story:

  • Fine-loamy (Particle-size class): This refers to the soil’s texture and rockiness. It is 18 to 35% clay, at least 15% sand, and less than 35% rock fragments.
  • Mixed (Mineralogy class): The soil chemistry is not dominated by any single mineral; it consists of a diverse blend washed down from across the state’s different geological regions.
  • Semiactive (Cation-exchange activity class): The clay and organic matter within this soil maintain a moderately low capacity to hold and exchange important plant nutrients.
  • Thermic (Temperature regime): This defines the climate zone. At a depth of 50 centimeters, the mean annual soil temperature stays between 59°F and 72°F, with a seasonal swing of at least 41°F between summer and winter.
  • Ultic (Subgroup): While this soil belongs to the Alfisol order, it exhibits some weathered properties similar to an Ultisol.
  • Hapludalfs (Great group and suborder): This tells us the soil likely has high native fertility and a clay rich subsoil (‘alfs’), with minimum horizon development (‘Hapl’), and typically remains moist throughout the year (‘ud’).

In summary, this description tells us that Pamunkey is a highly fertile, well-drained, warm-climate river soil that combines the rich mineral inheritance of multiple regional landscapes.

Relevance

Pamunkey is most prominent along the shores of Virginia.

Pamunkey is a unique state soil. Even though it does not cover a massive percentage of Virginia’s overall acreage, it carries a deep physical connection spanning from the western mountains to the eastern coast. Because it is formed from river-deposited alluvium, Pamunkey contains sediments washed down from every physiographic province in Virginia. This rich soil is not only culturally important, it also is the basis for much of Virginias’s thriving cropland. Most Pamunkey soils are actively cultivated today, primarily growing corn, small grains, cotton, soybeans, alfalfa, peanuts, and tobacco, alongside managed pasture and forests.

When farmers are working with a soil as valuable as Pamunkey, managing the land with soil conservation in mind is vital. Best management practices include maximizing soil cover (such as retaining crop residue), minimizing disturbance (such as reduced tillage), maintaining living roots (such as cover cropping), and maximizing biodiversity (such as crop rotations). At the Alliance, we not only value improving soil health, but also protecting the naturally fertile ground that many farmers inherited. Our mission is to support these farmers, providing them with the management tools they need to maximize productivity without sacrificing our shared natural resources.

Native perennials being planted by Alliance staff in a pollinator garden in Annapolis, Maryland. Soils are a finite resource which needs to be protected across farms, forests, developments, and our own backyards.

Understanding soil is the first step to understanding our environment. It dictates what we can farm, where we can build, and how we manage our natural resources. See how these principles manifest in the Chesapeake Bay watershed through soil health, nature-based, and climate-smart practices.

Want to learn more about the soils in your backyard? Check out Web Soil Survey, a free online tool operated by USDA NRCS. Simply enter your address and draw a box around your area of interest. You can learn what the dominant soil series is in your backyard along with the suitabilities and limitations for use, and soil properties and qualities. This information can help you improve your backyard garden productivity!

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