i01 SmallFarmingOperations PLSSSections

This dataset provides a count by U.S. Public Land Survey System (PLSS) sections (one square mile) of small farming operations less than or equal to 80 acres in California. Survey sections were obtained from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) Public Land Survey Net (PLSNET) which is based on the Bureau of Land Management PLSS data for California, but has been enhanced with additional linework to extend the township and section data across the numerous land grant and un-surveyed areas of the State (https://gis.data.ca.gov/maps/2230fc8527f5440e8221d69080d1d687/about). Small farms were defined as any operations farmed by the same entity that had a total cropped area (including fallow and non-irrigated) of less than or equal to 80 acres. Farming operation size was determined using a combination of available resources including: crop mapping boundaries for the 2023 crop year from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), pesticide use reporting (PUR) permittee from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) from the most recent crop year available (generally 2023), data from the most recent crop year available (generally 2023) reported to the California Regional Water Quality Control Boards as part of the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP), county parcel boundaries and parcel ownership from the most recent year available at the time of the analysis (generally 2024). Priority was given to the ILRP data where available. The farming entity, defined as the operator, was taken as the reporter or lessee where this was indicated in the ILRP data. For Water Board regions where ILRP data was not available or for fields that existed in the DWR crop mapping dataset which did not have a corresponding ILRP record, the PUR permittee was used. PUR data was prioritized over parcel ownership as fields with ILRP data generally had better agreement between the ILRP operator the PUR permittee compared to the parcel owner. For any fields in the DWR crop mapping dataset where there was no ILRP or PUR data, parcel ownership was utilized. Operations with a total size of less than or equal to 80 acres with California were then counted within each census tract or survey section.