Montana Statewide Land Evaluation and Site Assessment System

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Montana adopted a Statewide Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) System as of June 20, 2003. The Statewide LESA System is used to rank and prioritize proposals for the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) in Montana. The Montana Statewide LESA System uses soil and site-related criteria to provide comprehensive evaluations of the relative merits offered by individual FRPP proposals. Statewide LESA was developed and tested over the past one and one-half years through the efforts of an ad-hoc committee composed of USDA employees and land-trust organizations throughout Montana. Additionally, the draft criteria were reviewed by the State Technical Advisory Committee and producer interest groups in Montana prior to the finalization and formal recognition of this system. The Statewide LESA criteria will be reviewed annually and adjusted as needed based on current FRPP objectives.

• What is a Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) System?
• Uses of LESA
• Statewide LESA Components
• Land Evaluation for Cropland
• Site Assessment for Cropland
• Combining LE and SA Ratings
• Example LESA Worksheet
• Appendix A - County Average Farm Sizes
• Land Evaluation Productivity Index for LESA by county.

The above information is also available for download. This document requires Acrobat Reader.

Montana Statewide Land Evaluation and Site Assessment System (PDF; 500 KB)

Contact

Tom Pick
Phone: 406-587-6947
Email: Thomas.Pick