Land Resource Areas

by Larry R. Sabata, Soil Scientist
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Topeka, Kansas

Interested in knowing more about major land resource areas and their descriptions?

The handbook entitled, “Land Resource Regions and Major Land Resource Areas of the United States, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Basin”, United States Department of Agriculture Handbook No. 296, has been revised. This updated handbook, issued in 2006, provides a source of information to assist in addressing resource issues from a perspective based on the common climate, soil, and land use activities that dominate regional areas.

The updated handbook, which is in the third edition, contains a number of topics that have been either revised or added. In comparison to the previous 1981 publication, the 2006 edition now contains refined major land resource area (MLRA) boundaries, 70 new MLRAs, a description of the extent of hydrologic unit areas within each MLRA, updated climate information, descriptions of sources and quantities of freshwater used in 1990, updated soil taxonomic information, and land use statistics based on the National Resources Inventory of 1997.

The handbook is available online and can be obtained at the following Web site address: http://soils.usda.gov/survey/geography/mlra/index.html.

For more information about natural resources conservation, go to your local U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Service Center and talk to the Natural Resources Conservation Service or conservation district staff or visit the Kansas NRCS Web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

This article is also available in Microsoft Word format.

Land Resource Areas (DOC; 46 KB)

< Back to Conservation Editions - Fiscal Year 2007 Index

Last Modified: 08/13/2008