Program Summary

1971	ER 1130-2-400 - Management of Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation - (superceded by ER/EP 1130-2-540 in 1996) - established much of our nationwide policy governing the Natural Resource Management/ Recreation Program.
1995	The importance of soils management recognized in the newly approved Corps NRM Mission Statement, as noted in this excerpt below: The Corps integrates the management of diverse natural resource components such as fish, wildlife, forests, wetlands, grasslands, soil, air, and water with the provision of public recreation opportunities. The Corps conserves natural resources and provides public recreation opportunities that contribute to the quality of American life.
1996	Above mission statement incorporated into new ER/EP 1130-2-540. Those documents also contained other language discussing soil management. Level one inventory was described in ER/EP 1130-2-540, but no standards were adopted at that time.
2004	The Stewardship Advisory Team (SAT) worked to adopt standards and define performance measures to assist national decision makers with policy development, identification of research emphases, budget allocations and other tools to assist the field in their environmental stewardship mission. The SAT identified soil erodability and type as a national Level One Natural Resources inventory item. Land capability class, a rating related to the land’s capability for agricultural production as defined by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, was designated as the way to report this inventory item.
2005	Land capability class was incorporated as a performance measure in ES-Best, the budget development tool for Environmental Stewardship that was launched to prepare out-year budget requests beginning with FY07.