The study was conducted in Muwat watershed South Achefer Disitrict Northwest Ethiopia to detect land use land cover change and to evaluate the effects of land use on soil properties. The land use/cover changes were assessed by analyzing Landsate satellite images between 1990 and 2018 using ERDAS 2013 and ArcGIS 10.4.1 software. For soil samples, four major land use types; natural forest, plantation forest, cultivated and grazing lands were selected within similar physiographic condition such as slope and aspects. From four land use types, 24 (4 land uses x 2 soil depth x 3 replication) disturbed composite soils and 24 undisturbed core soil samples were collected at a depth of 0-20 and 20-40cm. The soil analysis was carried out following standard laboratory procedures. The analysis of 28 years satellite image result revealed that wetland and grazing lands declined by 0.39, and 12.78%, respectively whereas natural forest, settlement and cultivated lands increased by 9.11, 3.73 and 0.34%, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed that soil properties were significantly affected (p ≤ 0.05) by land uses. The silt and clay soil separates, bulk density, soil organic matter and total nitrogen were significantly affected (p ≤ 0.05) by soil depth. But, sand soil separates, pH, available phosphorus, and exchangeable bases were not significantly affected (p > 0.05) by soil depths. The average values all land uses of pH, OM, total N, available P, and CEC ranges from 5.01 to 5.32, 2.45 to 5.02%, 0.11 to 0.24%, 9.65 to 12.20mgkg-1soil and 31.22 to 39.5cmol(+)kg-1soil, respectively. With soil depth, the higher mean values of total nitrogen, organic matter, available P and CEC were recorded in 0-20cm than 20-40cm depth while clay, bulk density, soil pH and exchangeable bases were higher in 20-40cm soil depth. Therefore, it could be concluded that the soil fertility were maintained relatively under the forest land, whereas the influence on most parameters were negative on the soils of the cultivated land, suggesting need for intervention so as to optimize and sustain the soil fertility in the case of cultivated land for crop and livestock production. Keywords: Cultivation, deforestation, grazing, land management, and soil fertility