Soil Survey Program

The Soil Survey Program is a program of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to inventory soil resources as a basis for determining land capabilities and conservation treatments that are needed, provide soil information to the public (primarily through maps), and provide technical support to those who use soils information. More than 90% of the private lands have been mapped. In FY2001, maps were prepared or updated on 21,900,000 acres (89,000 km²), including 25 counties or areas for the first time.