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The MLRA Geographic Database was prepared for Agriculture Handbook 296 re-publication and is used to support decisions about regional and national agricultural issues. The database and AH 296 help to identify the need for research and resource inventories. The handbook serves as the vehicle for extrapolating the results of research across political boundaries and is the basis for organizing and operating natural resource conservation programs. Today, USDA soil survey offices are organized to serve groups of the major land resource areas defined in this handbook. The handbook was first published in 1965 as an expansion of the 1950 map entitled “Problem Areas in Soil Conservation”, and was designed primarily for use by the Soil Conservation Service. The handbook was updated in 1978, and the second edition was printed in 1981. The third edition was published in 2006. The 2022 publication is the fourth edition. |
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The MLRA Geographic Database was prepared for Agriculture Handbook 296 re-publication and is used to support decisions about regional and national agricultural issues. The database and AH 296 help to identify the need for research and resource inventories. The handbook serves as the vehicle for extrapolating the results of research across political boundaries and is the basis for organizing and operating natural resource conservation programs. Today, USDA soil survey offices are organized to serve groups of the major land resource areas defined in this handbook. The handbook was first published in 1965 as an expansion of the 1950 map entitled “Problem Areas in Soil Conservation”, and was designed primarily for use by the Soil Conservation Service. The handbook was updated in 1978, and the second edition was printed in 1981. The third edition was published in 2006. The 2022 publication is the fourth edition. |
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United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. 2022. Land Resource Regions and Major Land Resource Areas of the United States, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Basin; United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook 296. |
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<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P STYLE="margin:0 0 11 0;"><SPAN>Land resource areas used in t</SPAN><SPAN>he United States, Caribbean, and Pacific Basin Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA) Geographic Database serve as the geospatial expression of the map products presented and described in Agriculture Handbook 296 (2022). Land resource categories historically used at state and national levels are land resource units, major land resource areas, and land resource regions (</SPAN><A href="https://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=44282.wba"><SPAN><SPAN>National Soil Survey Handbook, Part 649</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN><SPAN>; </SPAN></SPAN><A href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/geo/?cid=nrcs142p2_053613"><SPAN><SPAN>Land Resource Hierarchy</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN><SPAN>)</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>. Although </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN>Agriculture Handbook 296 (AH 296) does not describe </SPAN><SPAN>land resource units (LRUs) directly, they are the basic units from which major land resource areas are determined. They are also the basic units for state land resource maps. LRUs are commonly but not necessarily coextensive with state general soil map units. LRUs generally are several thousand acres in size. A unit can be one continuous area or several separate areas that are near each other. In 2005, these areas were designated as common resource areas (CRAs) within the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). </SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>Like LRUs, c</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>ommon resource areas are not described in AH 296 and are not shown on the national map</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>but are mentioned for historical purposes</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>. Major land resource areas are geographically associated land resource units </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>at a broader scale and higher hierarchical level than LRUs</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>. Land resource regions (LRR) are a group of geographically associated major land resource areas</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>at the highest hierarchical level shown at the continental scale</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN>. Identification of these large areas is important in statewide agricultural planning and has value in interstate, regional, and national planning.</SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 11 0;"><SPAN>In AH 296, major land resource areas are generally designated by numbers and identified by a descriptive geographic name. Examples are MLRA 1 (Northern Pacific Coast Range, Foothills, and Valleys), MLRA 154 (South-Central Florida Ridge), and MLRA 230 (Yukon-Kuskokwim Highlands). Some MLRAs are designated by a letter in addition to a number because a previously established MLRA had been divided into smaller, more homogeneous areas, for example, MLRAs 102A, 102B, and 102C. </SPAN><SPAN><SPAN>Other MLRAs, especially smaller ones approaching the LRU scale, have been recombined. </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN>The use of numbers and letters to identify the newly created MLRAs requires fewer changes in existing information in records and in databases. A few MLRAs consist of two or more parts separated for short distances by other land resource areas. In some places one of the parts is widely separated from the main body of the MLRA and is in an adjoining LRR. The description of the respective MLRA also applies to these outlying parts. The spatial illustration of the MLRAs has been smoothed for the contiguous United States and Alaska to better reflect the scale at which the MLRA resource attributes (climate, soils, land use, vegetation, geology, and physiography) were aggregated for delineation.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P></DIV></DIV></DIV> |
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<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P><SPAN>These data have a scale dependency use constraint and should not be applied at map scales generally larger than 3,500,000. Original compilation scales included 1:250,000 USGS base maps for the Conterminous United States and 1:1,000,000 USGS base maps for Alaska.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></DIV> |
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The United States, Caribbean, and Pacific Basin Major Land Resource Area Geographic Database |
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["Major Land Resource Area","MLRA","Land Resource Region","LRR","Common Resource Area","CRA","Land Resource Unit","LRU","Soil","Ecoregion","National Hierarchy of Ecological UnitsThe United States of America","Puerto Rico","United","States Virgin Islands","Republic of Palau","Republic of the Marshall Islands","Territory of American Samoa","Territory of Guam","Federated States of Micronesia","Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (USA)"] |
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en-US |
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150000000 |
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