NRCS Natural Resources Inventory plot data

[Megan Sebasky]

One area we've been focusing on recently is the mis-mapping of managed grasslands as agriculture. This brought up a question for me...does LANDFIRE have much non-forest plot data to train their vegetation models? I am aware that they use Forest Inventory Analysis, and most of the plot data I've collected from states has been from forests, which are more thoroughly monitored than grasslands.

In my quest for non-forest plot data, I learned that LANDFIRE has another partnership, similar to that with FIA, with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) (more here https://landfire.gov/partnerships.php). NRCS conducts a Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) across the country on non-forest lands. This data is shared with LANDFIRE. The data is confidential so we cannot see a map of where these plots are, but I was able to get a count by state, and that is below. States not listed have zero plots. You'll notice that only 14 of our 20 states are represented, and have relatively low plot numbers compared to many western and southern states.

Table is sorted by plot number (descending) and Northeast states are highlighted in green.

State	NRCS NRI plots
Texas	2537
Montana	1675
New Mexico	1399
South Dakota	1372
Kansas	1273
Colorado	1248
Nebraska	1204
Wyoming	1166
North Dakota	1032
Arizona	923
Oklahoma	830
Utah	771
Oregon	697
Idaho	634
Nevada	478
Washington	456
California	184
Florida	159
Louisiana	100
Kentucky	73
Ohio	61
Missouri	60
Pennsylvania	51
Illinois	46
Georgia	39
Minnesota	38
Virginia	26
New Hampshire	24
Alabama	23
Wisconsin	20
Arkansas	18
Iowa	17
Mississippi	15
New York	13
Tennessee	11
Massachusetts	8
South Carolina	8
North Carolina	7
New Jersey	5
Indiana	4
Delaware	2
Maine	1

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[cmaier.tpos...@gmail.com]

Is location data retained for the NRCS plots? The counties in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas that fall into the TPOS region may be informative.

[Megan Sebasky]

The locations are confidential just like Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA). The best I could get was a count by state!

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