5-24 IAN Farmers Good Stewards

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) just issued the latest National Resource Inventory (NRI) that provides comprehensive data on non-federal rural land use and condition used for developing policy and agriculture legislation. The NRI data show changes and trends in land use, irrigation, land capability, prime farmland, soil erosion, and wetlands.

Jeff Burwell, Idaho NRCS State Conservationist “One of the values of collecting this data is that it shows national and statewide trends on non-federal land. “For example, in Idaho the number of irrigated cropland acres decreased 16% between 1982 and 2007.” 

The NRI survey program provides statistically valid, comprehensive, and relevant data on how U.S. non-federal rural lands are being used and the natural resource and environmental conditions for these lands.  Non-federal lands include privately owned lands, Tribal and trust lands, and lands controlled by state and local governments.

The inventory also shows water-caused erosion on cultivated land in Idaho decreased 48% over the 25 years. Wind erosion on cultivated land decreased 21%. “We see this as an indication of how effective NRCS and conservation partnership programs are in reducing soil erosion,” Burwell said.

The Idaho data also show a 16% decrease in irrigated cropland and a 42% decline in non-irrigated.  Developed land increased by about 60%. 

The 2007 NRI was conducted by NRCS in cooperation with Iowa State University’s Center for Survey, Statistics and Methodology. The NRI survey system is scientifically based and uses points as the sampling units rather than farms or fields. There are roughly 21,000 sample points in Idaho.