NRCS Holds Open House to Celebrate Digital Soil Survey Completion in Every Arkansas County

Little Rock, Ark., Feb. 6, 2007 – The Natural Resources Conservation Service holds an open house to celebrate the completion of having a digital soil survey for every county in Arkansas. The public is invited to attend the celebration from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 28 in the State Capitol Rotunda.

Soil surveys are used daily by state and federal government agencies, appraisers, assessors, builders, farmers, foresters, and many others for land use planning, crop determinations and construction site suitability.

In 1995, the Arkansas legislature allocated funds to the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (previously known as the Arkansas Soil and Water Commission) to digitize the soil surveys of the Mississippi River Delta for 26 counties in Eastern Arkansas. The project was a cooperative venture between the Department of Agronomy at the University of Arkansas (now Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Department); the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission; and the United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service.

By the end of fiscal year 2003, soil surveys of 68 counties in Arkansas were digitized with the support of the Arkansas legislators and state and federal agencies. In 2006, the digitization of every county of Arkansas was completed. Now soil survey users have access to electronic soil information for the conservation of Arkansas natural resources.

The digital soil surveys are on line at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/.

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