National Bulletin: 290-21-5
Date: November 12, 2020
Subject: INV – 2021 National Resources Inventory Grazing Lands Onsite Data Collection Timelines
Action Required By: October 31, 2021
Purpose: To provide information about the 2021 National Resources Inventory (NRI) Grazing Land Onsite data collection process on non-Federal and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Federal land.
Expiration Date: December 31, 2021

Background

Per General Manual Title 290 Part 400, States have the responsibility for coordinating, collecting, and reviewing NRI data collection, which includes Grazing Lands Onsite survey data for non-Federal pastureland, non-Federal rangeland, and BLM-managed Federal rangeland. Lists of the sample sites selected for NRI Grazing Land Onsite surveys will be forwarded to State resource inventory coordinators (SRICs) to assist with planning. Aerial photo maps of the sample sites will also be provided.

Explanation

The 2021 NRI Grazing Land Onsite data will be collected on non-Federal pasturelands in the 48 coterminous States, on non-Federal rangelands in 20 States (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming), and on BLM-managed Federal rangeland in 12 States (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). Lists of sample segments for the 2021 NRI Grazing Land Onsite data collection on non-Federal pastureland and, where applicable, non-Federal rangeland and BLM-managed Federal rangeland will be provided to SRICs.

NRCS is committed to honoring its agreement with BLM to carry out data collection on BLM land in accordance with established protocols in a timely manner. This is the second year of NRCS’s third 5-year interagency agreement with BLM.

Data collection will begin March 1, 2021, and continue through September 30, 2021, dependent on location. As shown in the legend of the attachment, there are three MLRA collection dates, or time windows, when data collection will take place. Where conditions support it, data collection may occur up to 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after the time window. Information about FY21 training will be provided at a later date as needed in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The importance of quality assurance in the data collection and review processes cannot be overstated. Quality assurance in the data collection and data review processes is only superseded in importance by the safety of the employees during the data collection and by the maintaining of confidentiality of all data and locations. States must complete all data reviews for quality assurance by October 31, 2021. These data reviews are extremely important as they provide a State-level, local review of the data that was collected before the data is analyzed and used to develop State, regional, and national reports in support of the agency’s science-based, technical mission. Technical assistance is available throughout the NRI Grazing Land data collection process from technical experts located at the Iowa State University Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology (nri-graze-help@iastate.edu) and from NRCS regional grazing land specialists located at each of the agency’s national technical support centers.

Contact

Questions should be directed to Erik Suffridge, NRI Grazing Land On-Site National Leader, Resource Inventory and Assessment Division at erik.suffridge@usda.gov.
 

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LUIS TUPAS
Deputy Chief for Soil Science and Resource Assessment