The S5 indicator can be deceptively difficult to confirm in the field and demand both careful excavation and a trained eye to distinguish. Accurate soil texturing is critical here; getting the right moisture content and working the material between your fingers helps to reveal the right call in the field.

This indicator can be completely destroyed by an auger or aggressive shovel work that mixes soil colors. This is exactly why slow, deliberate hand excavation is non-negotiable.

Notice the circular pattern of low chroma color with a dead root in the middle. What you’re seeing chemically is the result of anaerobic conditions driven by water moving through root channels. As water follows the path of least resistance along old root pores, oxygen is consumed by microbial activity and the immediate zone around the root becomes anaerobic, reducing iron, which is stripped and mobilized away leaving the characteristic bleached pipe stem surrounded by a halo of oxidized iron precipitate at the aerobic-anaerobic interface.

If there’s any uncertainty on a job site, experience matters. Contact Hammer Environmental for on-site support. 

The 𝗦𝟲 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝘅 indicator is one of the most challenging hydric soil indicators to identify in the field. It is easily overlooked or misinterpreted as a non-hydric soil.

A shovel is 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭. An auger can destroy the weak structure and planes of weakness that define this indicator, making proper identification nearly impossible.

With S6, the details matter. Careful excavation and deliberate examination of the soil profile are critical. The 𝘍𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘺𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘚𝘰𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜.𝘚. user notes acknowledge that confirmation of indicators such as S6 may require an 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 soil scientist.

If you're dealing with a challenging site and need boots on the ground, reach out to Hammer Environmental. Greg has spent three decades as a Soil Scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with experience ranging from soil survey to wetland delineation. When indicators like S6 are present, that depth of field experience can make all the difference.

The photo to the left was taken during a recent site visit near Ashland, Virginia, where Greg encountered an S6 Stripped Matrix in the field. 

What you’re looking at is a soil ped pulled from the upper 6 inches of a profile on a logged site. The matrix is a low chroma 2.5Y 6/2, but what catches your eye is the vivid orange iron veneer coating the horizontal faces of platy peds formed directly by logging compaction. The layer directly beneath tells the rest of the story. The soil abruptly brightens to 10YR 5/6 with well-developed subangular blocky structure.

The logging operation has created a seasonally saturated perched water table resulting in a major loss of land value.

I’ve observed this pattern across many logged sites, and I’m convinced it can develop in as little as one growing season. Compaction creates the platy structure and impedes drainage, a perched water table forms, the tree canopy is gone, and hydrophytic herbaceous vegetation flushes in to fill the void. The result is a site that meets wetland criteria; hydric soils, wetland hydrology, hydrophytic vegetation, and all of it created by the harvest operation itself.

The functions and values of these man-made wetlands are negligible. These aren’t productive, diverse wetland systems; they’re compacted, degraded soils with impaired hydrology and little ecological return. And yet they carry the same regulatory weight as a natural wetland, which means the land has effectively lost significant value through the harvest process itself.

This is why I strongly recommend having a qualified wetland scientist evaluate a site 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 logging begins. A pre-harvest wetland delineation is a small investment compared to the regulatory and financial consequences of creating jurisdictional wetlands through ground disturbance. It’s hard to believe this outcome was what Congress envisioned when the Clean Water Act was written, but here we are, and I see it far too often.

If you want to avoid this loss of useable land, contact Hammer Environmental before the equipment rolls in.