Dear Pat,
You raised the question as to where you might obtain soils and landuse
databases for the United States. I've heard of a new company which
specializes in databases. I know that they have STATSGO soils (1:250,000);
DEM-3 arc second (1:250,000) and land use / land cover (1:250,000) for the
entire US. You may want to contact them and find out what else they have
and at what price. Their address is:
NR Environmental
P.O. Box 3219
Temple, TX 76505-3219
Ph. and Fax (817) 899-1858
Hope this helps.
Chris