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.
The Knutson-Vandenberg Act (K-V) of June 9, 1930 (16 U.S.C. 576-576b; 46 Stat. 527), as amended by the National Forest Management Act of October 22, 1976 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.) authorized collection of deposits from federal timber purchasers for prompt and efficient use of funds to reestablish, protect, and improve the production of renewable resources on timber sale areas. This includes performing soil improvement and watershed restoration, wildlife habitat improvement, control of insects, disease, and noxious weeds, tree planting, seeding and other cultural treatments necessary to maintain and improve land productivity. Since its creation millions of acres of National Forest System lands (NFS) have been treated and restored to resilient conditions and terrestrial and aquatic habitat improved. Public Law 109-54 of August 2, 2005, Title IV - General Provisions, Sec 412 further amended the K-V Act to allow the collection and use of CWKV funds for watershed restoration, wildlife habitat improvement, to prepare timber sales, control of insects, disease, and noxious weeds, fire community protection activities, and the maintenance of forest roads within the Forest Service region in which the timber sale occurred. Provided that such activities may be performed through the use of contracts, forest product sales, and cooperative agreements. Note that these activities are to be performed by contract and not Forest Service personnel. The Forest Service used this amendment to administratively create two K-V programs within the K-V fund; CWKV (Cooperative Work, Knutson-Vandenberg, Sale Area Projects) and CWK2 (Cooperative Work, Knutson-Vandenberg, Regional Projects). This layer shows the spatial representation where activities accomplished and funded with CWKV and CWK2 funds and reported through the Forest Service Activity Tracking System (FACTS) database. It is important to note that this layer may not contain all CWKV or CWK2 accomplished activities; the spatial portion of the activity description is not currently enforced by FACTS and at this time some are optionally reported by Forest Service units. As spatial data reporting is enforced by the application and acceptant of reporting both tabular and spatial we hope to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of the data used for this layer in coming years.
This feature class describes the boundaries of Roadless Areas designated by the Colorado Roadless Rule of 2012 and managed by the U.S. Forest Service. These roadless areas were designated by administrative rulemaking to provide management direction for conservation of roadless area characteristics while addressing Colorado specific concerns. These roadless area designations supersede the roadless areas designated by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2001 for Colorado. Upper tier areas are a subset of Colorado Roadless Areas which have limited exceptions to provide a high level of protection. The North Fork Coal Mining area is a subset of Colorado Roadless Areas which has an exception for coal mining related activities.
Purpose:
This feature class describes the boundaries of Roadless Areas designated by the Colorado Roadless Rule of 2012 and managed by the U.S. Forest Service. These roadless areas were designated by administrative rulemaking to provide management direction for conservation of roadless area characteristics while addressing Colorado specific concerns. These roadless area designations supersede the roadless areas designated by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2001 for Colorado.
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
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.
The feature class indicates the specific types of motorized vehicles allowed on the designated routes and their seasons of use. The feature class is designed to be consistent with the Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM). Only roads with a SYMBOL attribute value of 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, and 12 are Forest Service System roads and contain data concerning their availability for OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) use. This data is published and refreshed on a unit by unit basis as needed. Information for each individual unit must be verified as to be consistent with the published MVUMs prior to inclusion in this data. Not every National Forest has data included in this feature class.
Purpose:
This feature class contains National Forest System roads which have been designated as open to motorized vehicles under the Travel Management Rule (36 CFR 212, Subpart B, Designation of Roads, Trails, and Areas for Motor Vehicle Use). Routes not designated for motor vehicle use (such as non-motorized trails, single-purpose roads and trails, unauthorized roads and trails, and temporary roads and trails) are not included.
This feature class depicts Forest Service trails where motorized use is allowed. It contains information on the specific type of motor vehicle and their seasons of use. The feature class is consistent with the appropriate National Forest's Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM). Non-motorized trails are not included in this data. Trails in this feature class are legal for some motorized use for at least a portion of the year. Any reference to Open or Dates Open refers strictly to when it is legal to use that motor vehicle on the trail. It is not meant to describe when the conditions would be appropriate for that use. As an example, a trail may be designated open to motorcycles all year long but there may be periods of time when snow depth prevents the use of motorcycles on that trail. It is compiled from the GIS Data Dictionary data and tabular data that the administrative units have prepared for the creation of their MVUMs. This data is published and refreshed on a unit by unit basis as needed. Individual unit's data must be verified and proved consistent with the published MVUMs prior to publication in the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW).
Existing Forest Service roads with attributes representing their characteristics. Each feature represents a segment of road where the attributes are the same. Attributes apply either to the entire road or to some measured distance along the road.
Purpose:
This feature class represents existing National Forest System (NFSR) roads necessary for the protection, administration and utilization of the National Forest. Only roads under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service are included.
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. This dataset provides a preliminary determination of where and what type of rights of way exist. Not all rights of way held by the Forest Service across others land are open to public 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 legal rights to pass over the land of another along a specified route. Rights of way are usually for roads, trails, railroads, or utilities. This dataset contains rights held by the USFS/USA across others land, and rights held by others across National Forest System lands. Not all rights of way are open to public use.
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.
Roadless Areas: 2001, Idaho, and Colorado Rules Combined
The RoadlessArea_2001_ID_CO feature class describes the boundaries of all Roadless Areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service. These roadless areas were designated by administrative rule making to provide management direction for their conservation and management. The RoadlessArea Conservation Rule of 2001 designated roadless areas nationwide. Subsequent rules, the Idaho Roadless Rule of 2008, and the Colorado Roadless Rule of 2012 replaced that direction and designation in the states of Idaho and Colorado. The Roadless Area_2001_ID_CO includes the current roadless area boundaries from all three rules and excludes roadless areas which have been superseded by a subsequent rule.
Purpose:
The RoadlessArea_2001_ID_CO feature class describes the boundaries of all Roadless Areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service so that agency personnel and the United States public can understand where management direction for the conservation and management of all areas with-in Forest Service lands that are designated for roadless area management applies.
The BdyPlan_RoadlessArea_2008_ID feature class describes the boundaries of Roadless Areas designated by the Idaho Roadless Rule of 2008 and managed by the US 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: April 2026. See Lineage for details.
Purpose:
The BdyPlan_RoadlessArea_2008_ID feature class describes the boundaries of Roadless Areas designated by the Idaho Roadless Rule of 2008 and managed by the US Forest Service. The Idaho Roadless Rule provides management direction for conserving and managing approximately 9.3 million acres of Idaho Roadless Areas (IRAs) on National Forest System lands and replaces the roadless areas identified in the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Chief of the Forest Service may modify or make administrative corrections to the boundaries of any IRA after public notice and comment and coordination with the state. This data reflects the selected alternative of the Idaho Roadless FEIS.
Surface Drinking Water Importance - Forests on the Edge
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.
