Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2007 from ERS (Click on image below).
By Cynthia Nickerson, Robert Ebel, Allison Borchers, and Fernando Carriazo
Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-89) 67 pp, December 2011
The National Renewable Energy Lab has put together an interactive website showing best locations for a number of renewable energy sources, including biomass
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has a new web-based soil survey. I quickly was able to define an “Area of Interest” and produce both a soils map and access information about the soil types (RUSLE information, building suitability, flooding potential, etc.). Once you have the soil map for your farm, you can go to NRCS’s new soil rental rate site (which I reviewed earlier) and enroll in Farm Bill conservation programs. NRCS is doing some nice work with their web-based technical tools lately.
USDA’s Conservation Assessment Effects Project has just released two extensive reviews of the effects of agricultural conservation practices – like those used in CRP and other conservation programs (public announcement here). Part A addresses terrestrial habitats and Part B addresses aquatic habitats. Even better is the dynamic bibliography.
NRCS and the American Farmland Trust have put together a Farmland Information Center with lots of resources (searchable) on the economics, legislation and practicality of preserving and protecting farmland.
USDA has a new tool where you can map online (and download the raw data) county level data for Farm Program acreage including: program acres (production flexibility contract acres under the 1996 Farm Act, by commodity; base acres designated under the 2002 Farm Act, by commodity; and base acres updated to 1998-2001 plantings under the 2002 Farm Act, by commodity) and planted acreage from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
Real-time water quality data across the US available at WaterQualityWatch from USGS. “Measurements include streamflow (through WaterWatch) water temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. These measurements are available at more than 1,300 sites in streams with watersheds as small as a few square miles to more than 1,000,000 square miles in the Mississippi River as it enters the Gulf of Mexico.” Thanks Common Sense Agriculture.
