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.
Purpose:
This is an agency-wide disaster recovery geospatial dataset that will support communications and stakeholder engagement, delineate where disaster recovery projects align with other priorities such as active management and recreation. The data in this dataset supports standardized reporting and resource optimization.
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.
Purpose:
This is an agency-wide disaster recovery geospatial dataset that will support communications and stakeholder engagement, delineate where disaster recovery projects align with other priorities such as active management and recreation. The data in this dataset supports standardized reporting and resource optimization.
This dataset shows information about the USDA Forest Service recreation sites used to populate the public facing web pages. This information is the descriptive and qualitative information used to set appropriate expectations for visitor use.
Purpose:
This dataset was developed to provide public facing information about recreation sites.
The Fireshed Registry is a geospatial dashboard and decision tool built to organize information about wildfire transmission to communities and monitor progress towards risk reduction for communities from management investments. The concept behind the Fireshed Registry is to identify and map the source of risk rather than what is at risk across all lands in the conterminous United States. While the Fireshed Registry was organized around mapping the source of fire risk to communities, the framework does not preclude the assessment of other resource management priorities and trends such as water, fish and aquatic or wildlife habitat, or recreation. The Fireshed Registry is also a multi-scale decision tool for quantifying, prioritizing, and geospatially displaying wildfire transmission to buildings in adjacent or nearby communities. Fireshed areas in the Fireshed Registry are approximately 250,000 acre accounting units that are delineated based on a smoothed building exposure map of the conterminous United States. These boundaries were created by dividing up the landscape into regular-sized units that represent similar source levels of community exposure to wildfire risk. Project areas are approximately 25,000 acre accounting units nested within firesheds. This data publication includes a geodatabase that contains for both fireshed and project areas: boundaries, size, total annual number of buildings inside and outside of the area exposed by wildfires ignited within the area (based on 2010 housing unit data and 2014 fuels conditions), and percent of the area that has been disturbed since 2014 (2015-2018).
The Fireshed Registry is a geospatial dashboard and decision tool built to organize information about wildfire transmission to communities and monitor progress towards risk reduction for communities from management investments. The concept behind the Fireshed Registry is to identify and map the source of risk rather than what is at risk across all lands in the conterminous United States. While the Fireshed Registry was organized around mapping the source of fire risk to communities, the framework does not preclude the assessment of other resource management priorities and trends such as water, fish and aquatic or wildlife habitat, or recreation. The Fireshed Registry is also a multi-scale decision tool for quantifying, prioritizing, and geospatially displaying wildfire transmission to buildings in adjacent or nearby communities. Fireshed areas in the Fireshed Registry are approximately 250,000 acre accounting units that are delineated based on a smoothed building exposure map of the conterminous United States. These boundaries were created by dividing up the landscape into regular-sized units that represent similar source levels of community exposure to wildfire risk. Project areas are approximately 25,000 acre accounting units nested within firesheds. This data publication includes a geodatabase that contains for both fireshed and project areas: boundaries, size, total annual number of buildings inside and outside of the area exposed by wildfires ignited within the area (based on 2010 housing unit data and 2014 fuels conditions), and percent of the area that has been disturbed since 2014 (2015-2018).
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
National Forest Lands with Nationally Designated Management or Use Limitations
This dataset is intended for read-only use. These show the current boundaries of areas which impose management or use restrictions on National Forest System (NFS) lands. The boundaries in this dataset have been merged by area name and provide a simplified view of the boundaries which are suitable for general mapping and analysis. The OtherNationalDesignatedAreaStatus dataset provides more detailed information about the boundaries for use in more advanced mapping and analysis. The purpose of the 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 current boundaries of areas (excluding National Wilderness and National Wild & Scenic Rivers) which impose management or use restrictions on National Forest System (NFS) lands. These areas were designated by legal authority above the Agency level (Congress and/or the President). Examples of other national designated areas include National Recreation Area, National Monument, and National Game Refuge.
National Forest Lands with Nationally Designated Management or Use Limitations: Legal Status
This dataset is intended for read-only use. This dataset represents the transactional boundaries of areas (excluding National Wilderness and National Wild & Scenic Rivers) which impose management or use restrictions on National Forest System (NFS) lands. In this dataset, discrete polygons represent the original area designated and subsequent additions/deletions/modifications to that area. These are areas designated by a Public Law, Executive Order, Presidential Proclamation, or other authority. Related details include the date of designation, status of the final boundary description, authority, and land status case and document information associated with the areas.The boundaries in this dataset provide detailed information suitable for advanced land status mapping and analysis. The OtherNationalDesignatedArea dataset provides the current area boundaries (not split by transaction) which is suitable for most mapping and analysis. 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 transactional boundaries of areas (excluding National Wilderness and National Wild & Scenic Rivers) which impose management or use restrictions on National Forest System (NFS) lands. It also provides detailed information about the designation of the area, such as the designation date, legal authority, establishing document, and more. These areas were designated by legal authority above the Agency level (i.e. Congress and/or the President). Examples of other national designated areas include National Recreation Area, National Monument, and National Game Refuge.
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).
This polyline feature class depicts the river corridors of each Wild and Scenic River designated by Congress or the Secretary of the Interior for the United States and Puerto Rico. This GIS data layer was created from a multi-agency effort by the US Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The spatial data were referenced to the latest High Resolution National Hydrological Data Layer (NHD 1:24,000 Scale or better), published by United States Geological Survey (USGS).
This polyline feature class depicts the classification of each wild and scenic river segment designated by Congress and the Secretary of the Interior for the United States and Puerto Rico. This layer was created by a multi-agency effort including the US Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The spatial data were referenced to the latest High Resolution National Hydrological Data Layer (NHD 1:24,000 Scale or better), published by United States Geological Survey (USGS). "Wild" rivers are free of dams, generally inaccessible except by trail, and represent vestiges of primitive America. "Scenic" rivers are free of dams, with shorelines or watersheds still largely primitive and shorelines largely undeveloped, but accessible in places by roads. ?Recreational? rivers are readily accessible by road or railroad, may have some development along their shorelines, and may have been dammed in the past.
This dataset is intended for read-only use. River segments in this dataset are grouped together by Area Name and Area Type (wild, scenic, recreational), and are suitable for general mapping and analysis. In comparison to the WildScenicRiver dataset, the WildScenicRiverStatus dataset is more detailed and is better suited for advanced land status analysis and mapping. 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 a general view of areas designated as a National Wild, Scenic, or Recreational River in the National Wild and Scenic River System.
This dataset contains the recreation opportunity information that the Forest Service collects through the Recreation Portal and shares with the public on http://www.recreation.gov, the Forest Service World Wide Web pages (http://www.fs.fed.us/) and the Interactive Visitor Map. This recreation data contains detailed descriptions of recreational sites, areas, activities & facilities. This published dataset consists of one point feature class for recreational areas, one spatial view and three related tables such as activities, facilities & rec area advisories. The purpose of each related table is described belowRECAREAACTIVITIES: This related table contains information about the activities that are associated with the rec area.RECAREAFACILITIES: This related table contains information about the amenities that are associated with the rec area.RECAREAADVISORIES: This table contains events, news, alerts and warnings that are associated with the rec area.RECAREAACTIVITIES_V: This spatial view/feature class is generated by joining the RECAREAACTIVITIES table to the RECREATION OPPORTUNITIES Feature Class. Please note that the RECAREAID is the unique identifier present in point feature class and in the related tables as well. The RECAREAID is used as foreign key to access relate records.This published data is updated nightly from an XML feed maintained by the CIO Rec Portal team. This data is intended for public use and distribution.
Purpose:
This dataset contains the recreation opportunity information that the Forest Service collects through the Recreation Portal and shares with the public on http://www.recreation.gov, the Forest Service World Wide Web pages (http://www.fs.fed.us/) and the Interactive Visitor Map. This recreation data contains detailed descriptions of recreational sites, activities, facilities & advisories. This published dataset consists of one point feature class, one spatial view and three related tables.
This dataset contains the recreation site opportunity information that the Forest Service collects through the Recreation Portal and shares with the public on the Forest Service World Wide Web pages www.fs.usda.gov, the Recreation Information Database (RIDB), the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), and the Interactive Visitor Map. This recreation database contains descriptions of recreational sites, areas, activities and facilities.
Purpose: Recreation opportunities are point locations of recreational site activities available to visitors and populates the Forest Service websites at www.fs.usda.gov, and the interactive visitor map at https://www.fs.usda.gov/ivm/.
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.
