Each year three sets of sample files are distributed to States for the NRI Grazing Land On-site Survey. They include: (1) the number of sample segments by county; (2) the list of sample segments; and (3) point-level information for the sample.

The point-level file includes the most recent year the point was observed in the photo-interpreted (PI) NRI appended to the land cover/use (LCU)  code recorded during that observation. Any point observed in PI after 2004 will have a current annual NRI land cover use (LCU) code, which may be slightly different from the NRI grazing lands LCU as NRI grazing lands still uses the pre-2005 LCU codes. A document called “Land Cover/Use Crosswalk of Pre-2005 Annual NRI Codes and Current Annual NRI Codes” provides both the pre-2005 codes and the corresponding post-2005 land cover/use as a table.  This table is now posted under Data Collection on the Reference Materials page or by clicking this link.

The source of this document is section 3.4.1 of the 2016 NRI Collection Instructions.