Determine the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone for a planting site via the official ArcGIS REST map service (not the third-party GeoJSON/CSV downloads)
domain: planthardiness.ars.usda.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Use the ArcGIS REST MapServer at https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/arcgis/rest/services/USPZ/MapServer as the base service
List available layers via the /layers endpoint to identify the current (2023 edition) half-zone or full-zone layer ID
Run an identify or query operation against that layer with a point geometry (lat/lon) and spatialReference=4326 to return the zone code at that location
Alternatively, download static state/regional/national maps (PNG/PDF/GeoTIFF/SVG) from the Map Downloads page for offline reference
Use the returned zone (e.g., '7b') to filter species recommendations for planting decisions
Known gotchas
The 2023 map (updated from 2012, jointly built by USDA ARS and Oregon State PRISM Climate Group) is the current edition — confirm you're querying the current layer, not a legacy 2012 layer, if both are exposed
The publicly documented download page emphasizes static image formats; the query-by-point workflow depends on the ArcGIS REST 'identify' operation against the MapServer layer, so test the exact layer ID before relying on it in production
For general questions or discrepancies, USDA points users to phzminfo@usda.gov rather than a public issue tracker
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