Introduction
Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) Region 11 is 114.7 million acres in size and is very diverse in land uses. The major crops in this region are corn, soybeans, and small grains. Other areas are urban land, pastureland, forestland, strip mine land, and hayland. A few areas are orchards, vineyards, specialty crops, and wildlife habitat.
Region 11 has a total of 28 MLRA units. The Soil Data Quality Specialists (SDQS) provides quality assurance support to MLRA�s 94A, 94B, 95A, 95B, 96, 97, 98, 99, 108A, 108B, 108C, 110, 111A, 111B, 111C, 111D, 111E, 113, 114A, 114B, 115A, 115B, 115C, 120, 121, 122, 131, and 134. The work area covers portions of the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. There are 10 existing Super MLRA Project Offices servicing between 15 to 30 counties within their geographic areas. During FY 2001 and 2002, NRCS plans to establish another 5 MLRA Project Offices within the MLRA Region 11 Soil Survey area.
As of November 29, 2000, there are about 60 ongoing soil survey activities, which includes once-over projects, updates, and maintenance soils surveys within Region-11. There are about 40 Soil Scientists assigned to MLRA Soil Survey Offices across the region. In addition, there are 12 Resource Soil Scientists that provides on an average about 25 percent of their time to project soil survey activities.
Mission
The mission of MLRA Region 11 Soil Data Quality Specialists is to provide technical leadership and support in the production, quality assurance and delivery of scientifically based soil survey information in MLRA Soil Survey Region 11
Scope and vision of Region 11 Soil Data Quality Specialists
Region 11 Soil Data Quality Specialist provides soil survey quality assurance for Technical Field Reviews, Manuscript Preparations, SSURGO Certification, Database Management, and Training. In the past, this was the responsibility of the individual states, their soil survey cooperators, and the NSSC. These efforts are completion of once-over soil surveys as well as for updating, and maintenance activities for 350 soil surveys in this region.
