NRI maps reflect national patterns rather than site- specific information. A Federal program established under the Food Security Act of 1985 to assist private landowners to convert highly erodible cropland to vegetative cover for 10 years. Noncultivated cropland includes permanent hayland and horticultural cropland. When viewed vertically, canopy cover is 25 percent or greater. For classification as forest land, an area must be at least one acre and 100 feet wide.
Land cover is the vegetation or other kind of material that covers the land surface.
Pastureland may consist of a single species in a pure stand, a grass mixture or a grass-legume mixture. Management usually consists of cultural treatments-fertilization, weed control, reseeding, or renovation and control of grazing. Land that has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops and is also available for these uses. It has the soil quality, growing season, and moisture supply needed to produce economically sustained high yields of crops when treated and managed according to acceptable farming methods, including water management. In general, prime farmlands have an adequate and dependable water supply from precipitation or irrigation, a favorable temperature and growing season, acceptable acidity or alkalinity, acceptable salt and sodium content, and few or no rocks.