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    • Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA)

    Metadata Updated: April 1, 2026

    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.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: us-pd

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date June 5, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date April 1, 2026
    Data Update Frequency irregular

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from USDA JSON

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date June 5, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date April 1, 2026
    Publisher Natural Resources Conservation Service
    Maintainer
    Identifier 430-17
    Data First Published 2022-05-11
    Language en-US
    Data Last Modified 2026-03-19
    Rights true
    Category geospatial
    Public Access Level public
    Data Update Frequency irregular
    Bureau Code 000:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Data Quality True
    Harvest Object Id 25ed2ee7-4a2d-472c-8b4d-ca13b1f56abf
    Harvest Source Id d3fafa34-0cb9-48f1-ab1d-5b5fdc783806
    Harvest Source Title USDA JSON
    Homepage URL https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/data-and-reports/major-land-resource-area-mlra
    License https://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial United States, Territories, Commonwealths and Island Nations
    Program Code 000:000
    Publisher Hierarchy Natural Resources Conservation Service > Natural Resources Conservation Service
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 97106a96f95de1d09b00f3fd49b478e517f46815e311bfeec26cd63b2b4384a4
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial

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