Data collected and managed by Forest Service programs is available in a map service and two downloadable file formats – in a shape file and an ESRI file geodatabase.
Metadata is available that describes the content, source, and currency of the data.
You can filter the list by the topic categories in the menu at the left to help you find information you are interested in.
You can view the feature classes in a single dataset by clicking on the name of the parent dataset at the bottom of the abstract.
More Forest Service map services are available in ArcGIS Online
Shapefiles do not exist for all National Datasets.
This format has technical limitations which make them unsuitable for multiple datasets within this clearinghouse. These constraints include file size, attribute name length, field length, number of fields, limited data types, lack of topological representations and floating-point rounding errors leading to inevitable data loss.
The EDW Team is unable to support Shapefile exports for datasets that approach those limits. Esri File Geodatabases (FGDB) will remain available. Alternative formats including GeoPackage, GeoJSON, Character Separated Values (CSV), Map Services and Geospatial Discovery Tool offerings will be used to provide open format access to these National Datasets. Once these formats are available for all National Datasets, EDW will retire the shapefile format as a supported file exchange format.
Requests for KML/KMZ output
The Enterprise Data Warehouse Team tested exporting out to KML/KMZ files as a deliverable and due to the complexity and size of the datasets this has been unsuccessful.
To obtain a KML file for any EDW dataset, go to the Geospatial Data Discovery Tool and search for the dataset. An option to download to KML is available from that website.
If you have questions, contact: SM.FS.data@usda.gov.
Contextual Definition:
It is required for every National Forest to have a Land Management Plan (LMP), often referred to as a forest plan.
A Designated Area is an area or feature identified and managed to maintain its unique special character or purpose. Some categories of designated areas may be designated only by statute and some categories may be established administratively in the land management planning process or by other administrative processes of the Federal executive branch. Examples of statutorily designated areas are national heritage areas, national recreational areas, national scenic trails, wilderness areas, and wilderness study areas. Examples of administratively designated areas are experimental forests, research natural areas, scenic byways, botanical areas, and significant caves.
Land management plan decisions may include recommendations to establish additional designated areas. Some designated areas may be formally designated or established concurrently with a plan decision, while others may not. The term "designated area" refers to categories of area or feature established by, or pursuant to, statute, regulation, or policy. Once established the designation continues until a subsequent decision by the appropriate authority removes the designation.
Generally, areas that are described in 1909.12, Chapter 20 shall be used in this recommended designated area feature class. The list in Chapter 24, exhibit 01 is not comprehensive. Some plan areas may have unique designations created by special legislation or other administrative action in addition to the types identified in this section. If a land area does not qualify as a designated area or has not been designated, but needs specific guidance, the Responsible Official may identify the area as a management area or as a geographic area to apply specific plan components in the land management plan.
Eligible and Suitable Wild and Scenic Rivers will not be used in this recommended designated area feature class.
This feature class shows the geospatial extent of each Recommended Designated Area within land management plans, with pertinent metadata and includes data from both the 1982 and 2012 planning rules. This schema can also be used as a template to build data regionally or for individual units.
If and when the Recommended Designated Area becomes an official Designated Area then the authoritative data for the Designated Area will be stored in the LSRS designated area layer.
Recommended Designated Area definition:
Areas with a single unique special character or purpose designated by statue or administratively through regulation, policy or under the land management planning process.
Characteristics:
- Is labeled as "recommended" or "proposed" AND a Designation type, regardless of a proper noun (i.e. Recommended Wilderness or Ruby Mountains Recommended Wilderness).
- Has a single unique special character or purpose and may overlap with different Designated Areas.
- May overlap with Geographic and Management Areas.
- Not all LMPs include Recommended Designated Areas. However, if an LMP includes a Recommended Designated Area, it must be described in the LMP.
- May exist as a single-part or multi-part polygon.
- May have plan components or may only be described in the LMP without plan components.
Spatial data is collected by the National Disaster Recovery Team from each unit point of contact. The spatial locations are pulled from fire occurrence and perimeter datasets, FEMA, States, and local unit disaster response assessments. The polygons are then processed through intersections with geopolitical boundaries such as states, counties, and congressional districts as well as administrative boundaries such as regions and forests.
National Disaster Recovery Events with Geopolitical and Administrative Boundary data.
Spatial data is collected by the National Disaster Recovery Team from each unit point of contact. The spatial locations are pulled from fire occurrence and perimeter datasets, FEMA, States, and local unit disaster response assessments. The polygons are then processed through intersections with geopolitical boundaries such as states, counties, and congressional districts as well as administrative boundaries such as regions and forests.
WBBS_LN depicts the area of activities to implement the Western Bark Beetle Strategy. Activities were self-reported by field units, and center around three main objectives: increasing safety to ensure that people and community infrastructure are protected from the hazards of falling bark beetle-killed trees and elevated wildfire potential, facilitating recovery to re-establish forests damaged by bark beetles, and cultivating resiliency to prevent or mitigate future bark beetle impacts. WBBS ended in FY16 and was not renewed, so it is no longer a requirement to track WBBS accomplishments. It became an optional entry to the National Resource Management (NRM) database beginning in FY2017.
Purpose:
This data represents activities entered through FACTS (Forest Service Activity Tracking System) to implement the Western Bark Beetle Strategy. It is important to note that this data layer does not contain all of the activities under taken by fiscal year because the data is self-reported and may not be complete. As spatial data is a new requirement for the program, we hope to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of this data in coming years. Activities were self-reported by field units, and center around three main objectives: increasing safety to ensure that people and community infrastructure are protected from the hazards of falling bark beetle-killed trees and elevated wildfire potential, facilitating recovery to re-establish forests damaged by bark beetles, and cultivating resiliency to prevent or mitigate future bark beetle impacts.
WBBS_PT depicts the location of activities to implement the Western Bark Beetle Strategy. Activities were self-reported by field units, and center around three main objectives: increasing safety to ensure that people and community infrastructure are protected from the hazards of falling bark beetle-killed trees and elevated wildfire potential, facilitating recovery to re-establish forests damaged by bark beetles, and cultivating resiliency to prevent or mitigate future bark beetle impacts. WBBS ended in FY16 and was not renewed, so it is no longer a requirement to track WBBS accomplishments. It became an optional entry to the National Resource Management (NRM) database beginning in FY2017.
Purpose:
This data represents activities entered through FACTS (Forest Service Activity Tracking System) to implement the Western Bark Beetle Strategy. It is important to note that this data layer does not contain all of the activities under taken by fiscal year because the data is self-reported and may not be complete. As spatial data is a new requirement for the program, we hope to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of this data in coming years. Activities were self-reported by field units, and center around three main objectives: increasing safety to ensure that people and community infrastructure are protected from the hazards of falling bark beetle-killed trees and elevated wildfire potential, facilitating recovery to re-establish forests damaged by bark beetles, and cultivating resiliency to prevent or mitigate future bark beetle impacts.
WBBS_PL depicts the area of activities to implement the Western Bark Beetle Strategy. Activities were self-reported by field units, and center around three main objectives: increasing safety to ensure that people and community infrastructure are protected from the hazards of falling bark beetle-killed trees and elevated wildfire potential, facilitating recovery to re-establish forests damaged by bark beetles, and cultivating resiliency to prevent or mitigate future bark beetle impacts. WBBS became an optional entry beginning in FY2017. WBBS ended in FY16 and was not renewed, so it is no longer a requirement to track WBBS accomplishments. It became an optional entry to the National Resource Management (NRM) database beginning in FY2017.
Purpose:
This data represents activities entered through FACTS (Forest Service Activity Tracking System) to implement the Western Bark Beetle Strategy. It is important to note that this data layer does not contain all of the activities under taken by fiscal year because the data is self-reported and may not be complete. As spatial data is a new requirement for the program, we hope to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of this data in coming years. Activities were self-reported by field units, and center around three main objectives: increasing safety to ensure that people and community infrastructure are protected from the hazards of falling bark beetle-killed trees and elevated wildfire potential, facilitating recovery to re-establish forests damaged by bark beetles, and cultivating resiliency to prevent or mitigate future bark beetle impacts.
The Healthy Forest Restoration Act feature class depicts National Forest System (NFS) Lands within 37 States designated under section 602 and 603 of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. Designated areas were selected based on a set of eligibility criteria regarding forest health and do not include any areas coinciding with Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas. The data is comprised of selected HUC-6 units or other areas of similar size and scope clipped to Proclaimed National Forest System lands. Non-Forest Service land ownership areas (inholdings) are also removed. In some cases, entire National Forests were designated. Some state designations' methodologies may differ from the national standard. Please note that this data is current as of the last refresh date, and changes to designated areas will be republished and archived on a weekly basis. Therefore, the most current layer along with previous years' data are available, and the user should ensure that they understand which layer is being accessed. Previous years' data will have a date stamp in the file name, while the most current layer will not. Further, the attribute, "Latest_Revision_Date" contains the date of the most recent designation layer for each state.
Emergency Situation Determination (ESD) lands, per the Secretary's Memo 1078-006: Increasing Timber Production and Designating an Emergency Situation on National Forest System Lands, have been designated by either being at risk from insect and diseases under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, or have a high or very high wildfire hazard potential. Only Forest Service owned lands are included in this feature. https://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/edw/edw_resources/meta/BdyDesg_HFRA_EmergencySituationDetermination.xml
Purpose:
This data represents areas designated as Emergency Situation Determination lands owned by the National Forests by the USDA Secretary's Memo 1078-006 Emergency Situation Determination (ESD) that, under section 40807 of the Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA), identified all National Forest System lands that are eligible for insect and disease treatments under section 602 and 603 of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act and all National Forest System lands designated as having a high or very high wildfire hazard potential.
This polygon feature class contains the boundaries of 86 of 87 experimental forests, ranges and watersheds, including cooperating experimental areas.
Purpose:
These data were prepared to show boundaries for all experimental forests, ranges, and watersheds managed by the US Forest Service (USFS) or in a cooperating agreement with the USFS. These data also provide spatial and descriptive attributes for each experimental area. The purpose of the data is to provide the location and descriptions of these experimental areas for Forest Service employees and the public.
This point feature class contains the locations of all 87 experimental forests, ranges and watersheds, including cooperating experimental areas.
Purpose:
These data were prepared to show locations for all experimental forests, ranges, and watersheds managed by the US Forest Service (USFS) or in a cooperating agreement with the USFS. These data also provide spatial and descriptive attributes for each experimental area. The purpose of the data is to provide the location and descriptions of these experimental areas for Forest Service employees and the public.
Basic Description: The FSCommonNames dataset contains the common names of the national forests and grasslands and their respective FS WWW URL information that is used for both display of the national forest and national grassland boundaries on any map product and for dynamic interactivity of the map. This published dataset consists of one polygon feature class. There is also a generalized version of this dataset called FSCommonNames_Gen. Detailed Description: This dataset exhibits the following characteristics: 1. Granularity of the polygon features: The spatial extent of the national forests and the grasslands match the way the agency would like to communicate with the public. 2. Preferred /Common Name of the National Forest Units: The common names of the national forest and grassland match the preferred name column that is present in the common names decision table maintained by the Office of Communication. 3. Hyperlinks to FS WWW Home page: This column contains the national forest and their respective FS WWW URL information. This URL could be used on any interactive map applications to link users directly to a forests home page.
Purpose:
The FS Common Names dataset satisfies a business need to be fed into ArcGIS Online and the Interactive Visitor Map (IVM) application. Specifically for display in the IVM, the forests and grasslands are displayed with their specific (common) names instead of being lumped together. For example, the National Forests in Texas display as Sam Houston National Forest, Davy Crockett National Forest, Angelina National Forest, Sabine National Forest, Caddo National Grassland and Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland instead of all being represented as just 'National Forests in Texas'. In addition, any web map or web application created in the USFS ArcGIS Online organizational account will have the ability to pull in the FS Common Names Layer by referencing map services containing this data. Labels and queries will show the common name for each forest and grassland. The data will also be made available to USFS partners to assist with consistent outward communication. The data will used in various other Agency map products. New custom digital applications or hard copy maps may use the common names layer to display the common names recognized by the public or in the way the agency wants to depict them to the public.
Features in this dataset reprsent individual USFS Ranger Districts or USFS Administrative Forests Boundaries which compose a stumpage market. The schema of this dataset is a copy of S_USA.RangerDistrict (https://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/edw/edw_resources/meta/S_USA.RangerDistrict.xml) with two additional fields:APPRAISALZONES_FK supports a one-to-many relationship between S_USA.Com_TimberAppraisalZone and S_USA.Com_TimberAppraisalZone_RDsCOMMENTS contains information about individual stumpage market.
Purpose:
The purpose of this dataset is to spatially display individual USFS Ranger Districts or Administrative Forests Boundaries which compose a stumpage market.
This feature class contains water runoff metrics from Forest Service lands. Note: 'Forest Service Lands' are here defined as those lands within the Forest Service administrative boundaries; these include some inholdings and other non-USFS lands enclosed within these boundaries. This feature class was generated from the original study "Modeled historical streamflow metrics for the contiguous United States and National Forest Lands" (Luce, et. al., 2017) and the 2012 snapshot of the stream layer from the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). More information pertaining to the original streamflow dataset is available on the Research Data Archive: https://www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/Product/RDS-2017-0046.
Purpose:
Available water supply varies greatly across the United States depending on topography, climate, elevation and geology. Forested and mountainous locations, such as national forests, tend to receive more precipitation than adjacent non-forested or low-lying areas. However, contributions of national forest lands to regional streamflow volumes is largely unknown. This streamflow metrics feature class provides a high resolution, spatially explicit estimate of annual and summer flow volumes that can be used in more extensive studies of water quantity and water quality. In addition, the dataset highlights the relative importance of national forest lands to overall water quantity.
This dataset contains the detailed information about the individual asset linear features such as roads and trails that make up Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) projects. This data can be used together with the project summary data to display general project locations. The data is refreshed on a nightly basis from the US Forest Service database of infrastructure projects which is stewarded by the individual National Forests and Grasslands.For more information about Forest Service GAOA projects visit our website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/gaoa
This dataset contains the detailed information about the individual asset point features such as recreation sites, that make up Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) projects. This data can be used together with the project summary data to display general project and asset locations. The data is refreshed on a nightly basis from the US Forest Service database of infrastructure projects which is stewarded by the individual National Forests and Grasslands. For more information about Forest Service GAOA projects visit our website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/gaoa
Great American Outdoors Act Project Summary: Point
This dataset displays the approximate location of US Forest Service, Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) projects. The data is refreshed on a nightly basis from the US Forest Service database of infrastructure projects which is stewarded by the individual National Forests and Grasslands.This dataset is a spatial data layer of points representing the approximate or general location where the project takes place. The point location is intended for use in small scale maps to indicate the general location of the projects across the country. The location data is maintained by staff on the individual National Forest or Grassland using the database of record. Because a project can be made up of many assets distributed across a land area, a single project location point will not always reflect the specific location and extent of the work in the project. The project detail data can be used to display the individual assets that make up the project. For more information about Forest Service GAOA projects visit our website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/gaoa
The Healthy Forest Restoration Act feature class depicts National Forest System (NFS) Lands within 37 States designated under section 602 and 603 of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. Designated areas were selected based on a set of eligibility criteria regarding forest health and do not include any areas coinciding with Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas. The data is comprised of selected HUC-6 units or other areas of similar size and scope clipped to Proclaimed National Forest System lands. Non-Forest Service land ownership areas (inholdings) are also removed. In some cases, entire National Forests were designated. Some state designations' methodologies may differ from the national standard. Please note that HealthyForestRestoration_2023 is an archived version. The most current version of this data is contained in the feature class named simply HealthyForestRestoration. Therefore, the most current layer along with previous years' data are available, and the user should ensure that they understand which layer is being accessed. Previous years' data will have a date stamp in the file name, while the most current layer will not. Further, the attribute, "Latest_Revision_Date" contains the date of the most recent designation layer for each state.
The Healthy Forest Restoration Act feature class depicts National Forest System (NFS) Lands within 37 States designated under section 602 and 603 of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. Designated areas were selected based on a set of eligibility criteria regarding forest health and do not include any areas coinciding with Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas. The data is comprised of selected HUC-6 units or other areas of similar size and scope clipped to Proclaimed National Forest System lands. Non-Forest Service land ownership areas (inholdings) are also removed. In some cases, entire National Forests were designated. Some state designations' methodologies may differ from the national standard. Please note that HealthyForestRestoration_2024 is an archived version. The most current version of this data is contained in the feature class named simply HealthyForestRestoration. Therefore, the most current layer along with previous years' data are available, and the user should ensure that they understand which layer is being accessed. Previous years' data will have a date stamp in the file name, while the most current layer will not. Further, the attribute, "Latest_Revision_Date" contains the date of the most recent designation layer for each state.
In 2021, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) initiated a tracking mechanism that requires all federal agencies that own or manage land to categorize the acres of those lands into three broad categories of predominant land use and produce an annual report. In this context the USDA Forest Service has considered the definitions of each category and classified all acres of National Forest System (NFS) lands into 1. Conservation/Preservation, 2. Commercial, 3. Operational designations. Those designations are additionally separated by whether the lands have been identified as Stewardship lands, or if the lands were acquired by the federal government for General Plant, Property & Equipment purposes. In response, the Washington Office Lands and Realty Management staff determined the appropriate data sources for this annual report and developed classification rules and a geoprocessing methodology to overlay and extract a seamless and complete NFS acreage total by the required categorizations. The acres of land in each category are dynamic, as the status of surface ownership may change from year to year based on administrative and congressional designations, purchases, dispositions, or exchanges. The data used to generate the report are updated weekly, and this translates into continuously refreshed reporting and mapping products. Presented here is the spatial representation of the rule-based land category designations of NFS lands.
The FASAB land categories are defined as follows:
Conservation/ Preservation: land or land rights that are predominantly used for conservation or preservation purposes.
Conservation: protection and proper use of natural resources.
Preservation: the protection of buildings, objects, and landscapes.
Commercial: land and permanent land rights that are predominately used to generate inflows of resources derived from the land itself or activities that nonfederal third parties perform on the land, usually through special use permits, right-of-way grants, and leases.
Operational: land that is used for general or administrative purposes.
The Land_FASAB dataset covers National Forest System Lands including federally owned units of forest, range, and related land consisting of national forests, purchase units, national grasslands, land utilization project areas, experimental forest areas, experimental range areas, designated experimental areas, other land areas, water areas, and interests in lands that are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service or designated for administration through the Forest Service.
Additional information on this FASAB and the geoprocessing used to produce this dataset can be found here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/Land-FASAB-dataset-FAQ.pdf
The Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) Program assesses the frequency, extent, and magnitude (size and severity) of all large wildland fires (including wildfires and prescribed fires) in the conterminous United States (CONUS), Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico from the beginning of the Landsat Thematic Mapper archive to the present. All fires reported as greater than 1,000 acres in the western U.S. and greater than 500 acres in the eastern U.S. are mapped across all ownerships. MTBS produces a series of geospatial and tabular data for analysis at a range of spatial, temporal, and thematic scales and are intended to meet a variety of information needs that require consistent data about fire effects through space and time. This map layer is a vector polygon shapefile of the location of all currently inventoried fires occurring between calendar year 1984 and the current MTBS release for CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Please visit https://mtbs.gov/announcements to determine the current release. Fires omitted from this mapped inventory are those where suitable satellite imagery was not available or fires were not discernable from available imagery.
Purpose:
The data generated by MTBS will be used to identify national trends in burn severity, providing information necessary to monitor the effectiveness of the National Fire Plan and Healthy Forests Restoration Act. MTBS is sponsored by the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC), a multi-agency oversight group responsible for implementing and coordinating the National Fire Plan and Federal Wildland Fire Management Policies. The MTBS project objective is to provide consistent, 30 meter spatial resolution burn severity data and burned area delineations that will serve four primary user groups including: 1. National policies and policy makers such as the National Fire Plan and WFLC which require information about long-term trends in burn severity and recent burn severity impacts within vegetation types, fuel models, condition classes, and land management activities. 2. Field management units that benefit from mid to broad scale GIS-ready maps and data for pre- and post-fire assessment and monitoring. Field units that require finer scale burn severity data will also benefit from increased efficiency, reduced costs, and data consistency by starting with MTBS data. 3. Existing databases from other comparably scaled programs, such as Fire Regime and Condition Class (FRCC) within LANDFIRE, that will benefit from MTBS data for validation and updating of geospatial data sets. 4. Academic and government agency research entities interested in fire severity data over significant geographic and temporal extents.
The Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) Program assesses the frequency, extent, and magnitude (size and severity) of all large wildland fires (including wildfires and prescribed fires) in the conterminous United States (CONUS), Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico from the beginning of the Landsat Thematic Mapper archive to the present. All fires reported as greater than 1,000 acres in the western U.S. and greater than 500 acres in the eastern U.S. are mapped across all ownerships. MTBS produces a series of geospatial and tabular data for analysis at a range of spatial, temporal, and thematic scales and are intended to meet a variety of information needs that require consistent data about fire effects through space and time. This map layer is a vector point shapefile of the location of all currently inventoried fires occurring between calendar year 1984 and the current MTBS release for CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Please visit https://mtbs.gov/announcements to determine the current release. Fires omitted from this mapped inventory are those where suitable satellite imagery was not available or fires were not discernable from available imagery.
Purpose:
The data generated by MTBS will be used to identify national trends in burn severity, providing information necessary to monitor the effectiveness of the National Fire Plan and Healthy Forests Restoration Act. MTBS is sponsored by the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC), a multi-agency oversight group responsible for implementing and coordinating the National Fire Plan and Federal Wildland Fire Management Policies. The MTBS project objective is to provide consistent, 30 meter spatial resolution burn severity data and burned area delineations that will serve four primary user groups including: 1. National policies and policy makers such as the National Fire Plan and WFLC which require information about long-term trends in burn severity and recent burn severity impacts within vegetation types, fuel models, condition classes, and land management activities. 2. Field management units that benefit from mid to broad scale GIS-ready maps and data for pre- and post-fire assessment and monitoring. Field units that require finer scale burn severity data will also benefit from increased efficiency, reduced costs, and data consistency by starting with MTBS data. 3. Existing databases from other comparably scaled programs, such as Fire Regime and Condition Class (FRCC) within LANDFIRE, that will benefit from MTBS data for validation and updating of geospatial data sets. 4. Academic and government agency research entities interested in fire severity data over significant geographic and temporal extents.
This dataset is intended for read-only use. The purpose of these data is to provide display, identification, and analysis tools for determining current boundary information for Forest Service managers, GIS specialists, and others.
The TrailNFS_Publish Layer is designed to provide information about National Forest System trail locations and characteristics to the public. When fully realized, it will describe trail locations, basic characteristics of the trail, and where and when various trail uses are prohibited, allowed and encouraged. Because the data readiness varies between Forests, each Forest will approve which level of attribute subset are published for that forest. Forests can provide no information or one of three attribute subsets describing trails. The attribute subsets include TrailNFS_Centerline which includes the location and trail name and number; TrailNFS_Basic which adds information about basic trail characteristics; and TrailNFS_Mgmt which adds information about where and when users are prohibited, allowed, and encouraged. When a Forest chooses to provide the highest attribute subset, TrailNFS_Mgmt, these attributes must be consistent with the Forest's published Motorized Vehicle Use Map (MVUM).
Purpose:
The TrailNFS_Publish Layer is designed to provide information about National Forest System trail locations and characteristics to the public. When fully realized, it will describe trail locations, basic characteristics of the trail, and where and when various trail uses are prohibited, allowed and encouraged. Because the data readiness varies between Forests, each Forest will approve which level of attribute subset are published for that forest. Forests can provide no information or one of three attribute subsets describing trails. The attribute subsets include TrailNFS_Centerline which includes the location and trail name and number; TrailNFS_Basic which adds information about basic trail characteristics; and TrailNFS_Mgmt which adds information about where and when users are prohibited, allowed, and encouraged. When a Forest chooses to provide the highest attribute subset, TrailNFS_Mgmt, these attributes must be consistent with the Forest's published Motorized Vehicle Use Map (MVUM).
The FireOccurrence point layer represents ignition points, or points of origin, from which individual USFS wildland fires started. Data are maintained at the Forest/District level, or their equivalent, to track the occurrence and the origin of individual USFS wildland fires. Forests are working to include historical data, which may be incomplete.
This dataset is intended for read-only use. The purpose of these data is to provide display, identification, and analysis tools for determining current boundary information for Forest Service managers, GIS specialists, and others.
Purpose:
This dataset represents the boundaries encompassing the National Forest System (NFS) lands within the original proclaimed National Forests, along with subsequent Executive Orders, Proclamations, Public Laws, Public Land Orders, Secretary of Agriculture Orders, and Secretary of Interior Orders creating modifications thereto, along with lands added to the NFS which have taken on the status of 'reserved from the public domain' under the General Exchange Act or other authorities. This dataset is the source of the “FS National Forests” dataset in the National Geospatial Data Assets collection.
Original Proclaimed National Forests and National Grasslands
This dataset is intended for read-only use. This layer includes both Proclaimed Forest and National Grassland boundary areas, which allows the two boundaries to be more easily used in tandem. The purpose of these data is to provide display, identification, and analysis tools for determining current boundary information for Forest Service managers, GIS specialists, and others.
Purpose:
This dataset represents both Proclaimed Forest and National Grassland boundary areas. The Proclaimed Forest boundaries encompass lands within the original proclaimed Forest Reserves and National Forests, along with subsequent Executive Orders, Proclamations, Public Laws, Public Land Orders, Secretary of Agriculture Orders, and Secretary of Interior Orders creating modifications thereto, along with lands added to the National Forest System which have taken on the status of 'reserved from the public domain' under the General Exchange Act or other authorities. A National Grassland is a unit designated by the Secretary of Agriculture and permanently held by the Department of Agriculture under Title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.
This dataset is the official data for the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (36 CFR 294, Subpart B). It contains the Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) designated by the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule and used in the associated Final Environmental Impact Statement. The EIS analysis team used this spatial data to assess the impacts of roadless area alternatives on Forest Service policies, use of the National Forests and the surrounding environment. It was used for analysis in combination with national characterization layers, such as ambient human population, forest mortality risk to insects and diseases, current land cover types, and others. All of these datasets include the entire lower 48 states and Alaska, and are coarse resolution. The public also had a need to know where IRAs were located in their area and across the nation. The data was used to create a set of detailed maps published both on the web and in hard copy form, (Volume2, Roadless Area Conservation EIS). NOTE 1: The attribute descriptions are based on forest plan direction prior to adoption of the Roadless Rule. This information is displayed for historical reference. However, the Roadless Rule prohibits road construction in all IRAs, regardless of the attribute descriptions. NOTE 2: Idaho and Colorado have adopted state-specific roadless rules. The Idaho and Colorado Roadless Areas boundaries, represented in separate datasets, supersede the 2001 Roadless Area Boundaries.
Purpose:
This dataset is the official data for the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (36 CFR 294, Subpart B). It contains the Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) designated by the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule and used in the associated Final Environmental Impact Statement. The EIS analysis team used this spatial data to assess the impacts of roadless area alternatives on Forest Service policies, use of the National Forests and the surrounding environment. It was used for analysis in combination with national characterization layers, such as ambient human population, forest mortality risk to insects and diseases, current land cover types, and others. All of these datasets include the entire lower 48 states and Alaska, and are coarse resolution. The public also had a need to know where IRAs were located in their area and across the nation. The data was used to create a set of detailed maps published both on the web and in hard copy form, (Volume2, Roadless Area Conservation EIS). NOTE 1: The attribute descriptions are based on forest plan direction prior to adoption of the Roadless Rule. This information is displayed for historical reference. However, the Roadless Rule prohibits road construction in all IRAs, regardless of the attribute descriptions. NOTE 2: Idaho and Colorado have adopted state-specific roadless rules. The Idaho and Colorado Roadless Areas boundaries, represented in separate datasets, supersede the 2001 Roadless Area Boundaries.
The RoadlessArea_ID_2008 feature class describes the boundaries of Roadless Areas designated by the Idaho Roadless Rule of 2008 and managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The final rule reflects the views and concerns of thousands of people who expressed interest during the rule-making process, which ran from October 2006 to October 2008. The public comment period generated 38,000 comments. The Idaho Roadless Rule takes a balanced approach, recognizing both local and national interests. Five management themes have been established (and are identified in the MgmtClassification attribute) that provide prohibitions, with exceptions or conditioned permissions, governing timber cutting, removing and selling, road construction and reconstruction, and certain mineral activities. These management themes are: Wild Land Recreation, Special Areas of Historic or Tribal Significance, Primitive, Backcountry Restoration, and General Forest, Rangeland, and Grassland. Each theme provides management direction that varies from most restrictive to least restrictive and provides roadless character that varies from higher quality to lower quality. Forest Plan Special Areas are also identified, where management of the area is according to Forest Plan direction, not the Idaho Roadless Rule. These special areas include items such as wild and scenic river corridors, research natural areas, etc. This dataset is a compilation of the most up to date Roadless areas from the National Forests in Idaho. This dataset was compiled by taking the roadless area boundaries from each of the National Forests in Idaho and adding the management area prescription boundaries from each forest. For some forests both the existing forest plan management prescription layer and a "proposed" prescriptions boundaries were used. See the list of these Forests in the metadata for the each forest. Date of last update Date of last update is captured in the Lineage section.
Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 (6th Edition)
This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2020. It is the fifth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.3 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 180 million acres burned during the 29-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included.
Purpose:
There is a wealth of information to be found in agency and local fire reports, but even the most rudimentary interagency analyses of wildfire numbers and area burned from the authoritative systems of record have been stymied to some degree by their disunity. While necessarily incomplete in some aspects, the database presented here is intended to facilitate fairly high-resolution geospatial analysis of U.S. fire activity over the period 1992-2020, based on available information from federal, state, and local systems of record. It was originally generated to support the national, interagency Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system (http://www.forestsandrangelands.gov/FPA/index.shtml).
These data have been depreciated and an updated dataset is available titled Forests to Faucets 2.0 (2022). More information about Forests to Faucets 2.0 can be found at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/ecosystemservices/FS_Efforts/forests2faucets.shtml
The Forests on the Edge feature class is based on the digital hydrologic unit boundary layer to the Subwatershed (12-digit) 6th level for the continental United States. This 2015 data set is an updated version of the 2011 Forests to Faucets data set. America’s private forests provide a vast array of public goods and services, including abundant, clean surface water. Forest loss and development can affect water quality and quantity when forests are removed and impervious surfaces, such as paved roads, spread across the landscape. In this study rank watersheds across the conterminous United States were ranked according to the contributions of private forest land to surface drinking water and by threats to surface water from increased housing density. Private forest land contributions to drinking water are greatest in the East but are also important in Western watersheds. Development pressures on these contributions are concentrated in the Eastern United States but are also found in the North-Central region, parts of the West and Southwest, and the Pacific Northwest; nationwide, more than 55 million acres of rural private forest land are projected to experience a substantial increase in housing density from 2000 to 2030. Planners, communities, and private landowners can use a range of strategies to maintain freshwater ecosystems, including designing housing and roads to minimize impacts on water quality, managing home sites to protect water resources, and using payment schemes and management partnerships to invest in forest stewardship on public and private lands.
Purpose:
These data have been depreciated and an updated dataset is available titled Forests to Faucets 2.0 (2022). More information about Forests to Faucets 2.0 can be found at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/ecosystemservices/FS_Efforts/forests2faucets.shtml
The purpose of these data is to support the publication RMRS-GTR-327, Private forests, housing growth, and America’s water supply: A report from the Forests on the Edge and Forests to Faucets Projects. This dataset updates forest and development statistics reported in the 2011 Forests to Faucet analysis.
