Soil Survey in Canada: Lessons from the Past, Ideas for the Future.

The history of soil survey in Canada will be reviewed highlighting key historical accomplishments and institutional structures that supported soil survey.  Also outlined will be the sequence of events that have led to the decline of public sector soil surveys in Canada with emphasis on the situation within Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the custodians of the Canadian Soil Information System (CanSIS).  Several recent developments point to a future where soil survey and management of soil survey information may exist as a shared function between university, private sector and governmental organizations.  Possible scenarios for future activities will be described including the use of global data repositories and standards, open data standards and crowd (public) sourcing of field data and new interpretions.