Soil Survey of Bear Lake County, Idaho

USDA – NRCS
Soil Survey Office
390 East Hooper Avenue
Soda Springs, ID 83276
208-547-4396 Ext. 112
208-547-4801 (fax)

State survey area ID: ID 712
Soil survey area: 440,844 total acres
Staff: Bob Kukachka, Project Leader

Mapping complete; database in progress. 

GENERAL: The survey area is located in the southeastern corner of Idaho and includes all the land outside of the Cache and Caribou National Forests. The area consists of high mountain valleys comprised of loess-mantled fan terraces and alluvial bottoms between north-south oriented sedimentary mountains of limestone, sandstone, siltstone quartzite, conglomerate, and minor amounts of volcanic ash.

The Bear Lake Valley is dominantly fine, lacustrine sediments. Elevation ranges from about 5,820 feet where the Bear River leaves Bear Lake County to about 7,880 feet at Pine Spring Ridge. Precipitation ranges from about 9 inches at Bear Lake to about 35 inches at higher elevations in the mountains. The average annual temperature ranges from about 43 degrees F. at the lower elevations to about 34 degrees F. at the higher elevations.

SOILS: The soils in the survey area are characterized by the active and recently active geologic processes of block-faulting and uplift, thrust-faulting and cyclic folding, volcanism, erosion, sedimentation and deposition. The basin valleys are filled with thick wedges of sediment derived from long term erosion of the uplifted mountain ranges. These sediments are alluvial, colluvial, lacustrine and/or volcanic materials of Tertiary and Quaternary Age which were deposited as interfingering sediments. The alluvial and colluvial deposits generally formed as an alluvial slope of coalescing fans of medium to coarse grained sediment. The valley floors formed as poorly developed alluvial plains. The lakebed deposits are dominantly silt and sand, with some clay and gravel, while floodplain deposits contain a more evenly distributed range of sediment sizes.

Major soils of the survey area include the following:

1.1)Level to nearly level, moderately well to very poorly drained, very deep soils formed in mixed alluvium. These soils occur mainly in the Bear Lake basin. Representative soils include the Bear Lake, Lago and Merkley series.

2.2) Rolling to very steep, well drained, shallow to very deep soils formed in alluvium/residuum from limestone, sandstone, conglomerate and quartzite.
These soils occur on mountainsides and hillsides throughout the eastern and western parts of the county. Representative soils include the Ant Flat, Cedarhill, Dutchcanyon, Ireland and Yeates Hollow series.

2.3) Undulating to steep, well drained, moderately deep to very deep soils formed in alluvium/residuum from limestone, sandstone, siltstone and conglomerate.
These soils occur mainly on mountainsides and hillsides of the uplifted/dissected Bear Lake Plateau in the southeastern corner of the county. Representative series are currently being developed.

4.4) Nearly level to gently rolling, well drained, very deep soils formed in loess and mixed alluvium. These soils occur mainly on fan terraces and hillslopes
throughout the center of the county and account for the majority of the cropland in Bear Lake County. Representative soils include the Bancroft, Buist,
Georgecanyon, Iphil, Lanark and Pegram series.

Other minor areas include lake and river terraces, loess covered basalt, and a variety of cryic soils throughout the upper mountainous elevations. Representative soils include the Brifox, Niter, Rexburg and Ririe series.

 

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