Know Your State’s Geography and Land Resources
This exercise will familiarize you with some of the sources on geography, land ownership
and use.
AREA
There are usually three figures given for the area of a locality. The total area includes the
area, in square miles/square kilometers of all land and water. The land area is the size, in
square miles/square kilometers of all areas designated as land by the Census Bureau. The
water area is the square miles/square kilometers of water. To locate the information for
your state, go to the “Geography and Environment” section of the Statistical Abstract.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/02statab/geo.pdf Go to No. 335. Land and Water
Area of States and Other Entities: 2000
ELEVATION
Elevation data for the states has been compiled by the United States Geological Survey.
Go to their publication, “Elevations and Distances in the United States.” It is online at
http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/elvadist/elvadist.html Click on highest and lowest to
locate the information for your state.
CLIMATE
People often want to know the average temperature and precipitation for a whole state.
The National Weather Service provides this information for specific areas but not for the
entire state. This is primarily because there is often a great difference between high and
low temperatures and precipitation amounts across a state. Climate information is
available for many localities within each state. One of the sources through which it is
available is “Monthly Climate Normals.” It includes normals of average monthly and
annual maximum, minimum, and mean temperature (degrees F), monthly and annual total
precipitation (inches), and heating and cooling degree days (base 65 degrees F) for
individual locations for the 1971-2000 period. Go to http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgibin/climatenormals/climatenormals.pl?directive=prod_select2&prodtype=CLIM81&subr
num= Select your state. Go to the temperature table; locate and record the average
annual maximum, minimum and mean temperature of the capitol of your state. Go to the
precipitation table and determine the average annual precipitation.
LAND OWNERSHIP
Land is owned privately by individuals, groups and organizations and publicly by state,
federal and local governments. Statistics on federal ownership of land can be found in the
“National Resources Inventory” at
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/TECHNICAL/land/nri03/Landuse-mrb.pdf
One of the tables lists “Total Surface Area by Land Cover/Use by State, in Thousands of
Acres.” Determine the total and federally owned acreage for your state.
LAND USE
The “National Resources Inventory” also includes information about land uses by state,
including land in crops, forest, grazing, development, and CRP.
State __________________________________
Area
Total Area in square miles ________________________________________________
Total Land Area in square miles ___________________________________________
Total Water Area in square miles __________________________________________
Elevation
Highest point in elevation in feet _____________________________________________
Lowest point in elevation in feet _____________________________________________
Climate of the State Capital
Average High Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit_______________________________
Average Low Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit _______________________________
Mean Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit ______________________________________
Annual Precipitation in inches _______________________________________________
Land Ownership
Acreage of state _________________________________________________________
Federally owned acreage ___________________________________________________
Venice Beske
Wyoming State Library
April, 2007