The following map unit description is from the published "Soil Survey of Dukes County, Massachusetts"
Note: This map unit is now mapped Hooksan soils on new soil surveys (click here for more info).
Soil Survey of
Dukes County Massachusetts
The following map unit description is from the published "Soil
Survey of Dukes County, Massachusetts"
Note: This map unit is now mapped Hooksan soils on new soil surveys (click
here for more info).
UaC-Udipsamments, rolling. These soils are very deep and excessively drained. They are on sand dunes along the coast. Slopes are complex and generally range from 3 to 15 percent. The areas generally are long and narrow or are irregular in shape, and they range from 4 to 500 acres. They make up nearly 3 percent of the survey area.
Udipsamments are pale brown sand to a depth of 60 inches or more.
Included with these soils in mapping are small areas of Matunuck and Pawcatuck soils and small, narrow areas of Beaches. Also included are areas of recently deposited sand on which there is little or no vegetation. Some areas in depressions have a seasonal high water table near the surface. Included areas make up about 20 percent of this unit.
The permeability of these Udipsamments is rapid or very rapid. Available water capacity is very low. The
depth to the seasonal high water table is more than 6 feet.
Most areas of these soils have a cover of grasses and shrubs (fig. 13). Most of the vegetation is fragile and easily destroyed by foot or vehicular traffic.
Droughtiness and low fertility make this soil poorly suited to farming or woodland. Trees are difficult to establish and grow slowly. The common plants on these soils are beachgrass, poison ivy, beach plum, and bayberry.
Slope and the permeability and instability of these soils are major limitations for most types of nonfarm use.
This unit is not assigned to a capability subclass.
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