Implementing LESA in Whitman County, Washington

Excerpt

In response to criticisms that its land capability classification and land inventory and monitoring systems were of little value to local planners in determining what land should remain in agriculture, the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in 1981 created LESA, the agricultural Land Evaluation and Site Assessment. The system has been implemented in two counties within each of six states: Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. Pilot counties in all other states are now being added to the list.

One of the first pilot tests of LESA was in Whitman County, Washington, where local officials have worked closely with state and federal officials to adapt the system to local circumstances. The approach reported here is still being refined and tested.

Land evaluation

LESA is actually a combination of two separate subsystems: a land evaluation subsystem and a site assessment subsystem. The land evaluation subsystem incorporates four rating systems: land capability classification, land inventory and monitoring, soil productivity, and soil potential. SCS recommends that one of the latter two ratings be used in conjunction with the first two ratings. Soil potential ratings, which are preferred, indicate the relative quality of a soil for a particular agricultural use. These ratings integrate soil …