Economic Research totals for U.S. land use released The USDA
Economic Research Service's Major Land Uses (MLU) reporting
series is the only accounting of all major uses of public and
private land in all 50 States. The results are published at
“roughly five-year intervals.” Just like the census, the ERS
takes years to issue final reports; therefore, information
released during this December are for what the numbers showed in
2007. “Land use and land-use changes involve important economic
and environmental implications for commodity production and
trade, open space, soil and water conservation, and other policy
issues. To study land-use change, statistics on land use over
time must be developed. This publication presents the results of
the latest inventory (2007) of U.S. major land uses and
discusses national and regional trends in land use compared with
earlier estimates,” the ERS claims. “Estimates of cropland,
urban area, and special uses, which are based largely on census
data and administrative data, are d