In the United States, the federal government manages approximately 28% of the land in the United States. Most federal lands are west of the Mississippi River, where almost half of the land by area is managed by the federal government. Federal lands include 193 million acres managed by the US Forest Service in 154 National Forests and 20 National Grasslands, Bureau of Land Management lands that cover 247 million acres in Alaska and the Western United States, 150 million acres managed for wildlife conservation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, 84 million acres of National Parks and other lands managed by the National Park Service, and over 30 million acres managed by the Department of Defense. The Bureau of Reclamation manages a much smaller land base than the other agencies included in this layer but plays a critical role in managing the country's water resources. The agencies included in this layer are:Bureau of Land ManagementDepartment of DefenseNational Park ServiceUS Fish and Wildlife ServiceUS Forest ServiceDataset SummaryPhenomenon Mapped: United States federal lands managed by six federal agenciesGeographic Extent: 50 United States and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands. The layer also includes National Monuments and Wildlife Refuges in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea.Data Coordinate System: WGS 1984Visible Scale: The data is visible at all scales but draws best at scales greater than 1:2,000,000Source: BLM, DOD, USFS, USFWS, NPS, PADUS 3.0Publication Date: Various - Esri compiled and published this layer in May 2025. See individual agency views for data vintage.There are six layer views available that were created from this service. Each layer uses a filter to extract an individual agency from the service. For more information about the layer views or how to use them in your own project, follow these links:USA Bureau of Land Management LandsUSA Department of Defense LandsUSA National Park Service LandsUSA Fish and Wildlife Service LandsUSA Forest Service LandsWhat can you do with this Layer?This layer is suitable for both visualization and analysis across the ArcGIS system. This layer can be combined with your data and other layers from the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro to create powerful web maps that can be used alone or in a story map or other application.Because this layer is part of the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World it is easy to add to your map:In ArcGIS Online, you can add this layer to a map by selecting Add then Browse Living Atlas Layers. A window will open. Type "federal lands" in the search box and browse to the layer. Select the layer then click Add to Map.In ArcGIS Pro, open a map and select Add Data from the Map Tab. Select Data at the top of the drop down menu. The Add Data dialog box will open on the left side of the box, expand Portal if necessary, then select Living Atlas. Type "federal lands" in the search box, browse to the layer then click OK.In both ArcGIS Online and Pro you can change the layer's symbology and view its attribute table. You can filter the layer to show subsets of the data using the filter button in Online or a definition query in Pro.The data can be exported to a file geodatabase, a shapefile or other format and downloaded using the Export Data button on the top right of this webpage.This layer can be used as an analytic input in both Online and Pro through the Perform Analysis window Online or as an input to a geoprocessing tool, model, or Python script in Pro.The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World provides an easy way to explore many other beautiful and authoritative maps on hundreds of topics like this one.Questions?Please leave a comment below if you have a question about this layer, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
This map layer consists of federally owned or administered lands of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Only areas of 640 acres or more are included. There may be private inholdings within the boundaries of Federal lands in this map layer. This is a revised version of the January 2005 map layer.
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
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This ownership dataset utilizes a methodology that results in a federal ownership extent that matches the Federal Responsibility Areas (FRA) footprint from CAL FIRE's State Responsibility Areas for Fire Protection (SRA) data. FRA lands are snapped to county parcel data, thus federal ownership areas will also be snapped. Since SRA Fees were first implemented in 2011, CAL FIRE has devoted significant resources to improve the quality of SRA data. This includes comparing SRA data to data from other federal, state, and local agencies, an annual comparison to county assessor roll files, and a formal SRA review process that includes input from CAL FIRE Units. As a result, FRA lands provide a solid basis as the footprint for federal lands in California (except in the southeastern desert area). The methodology for federal lands involves:
Parcels that are owned by the Federal Government.
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
This map uses the USA Generalized Federal Lands layer which presents the federal and tribal land areas of the United States. The lands are symbolized by the managing agency. A vector tile layer showing federal land boundaries and place names is included in this map.
In the United States, the federal government manages lands in significant parts of the country. These lands include 193 million acres managed by the US Forest Service in the nation's 154 National Forests and 20 National Grasslands, Bureau of Land Management lands that cover 247 million acres in Alaska and the Western United States, 150 million acres managed for wildlife conservation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, 84 million acres of National Parks and other lands managed by the National Park Service and over 30 million acres managed by the Department of Defense. The Bureau of Reclamation manages a much smaller land base than the other agencies included in this layer but plays a critical role in managing the country's water resources.The agencies included in this layer are:Bureau of Land ManagementBureau of ReclamationDepartment of DefenseNational Park ServiceUS Fish and Wildlife ServiceUS Forest ServiceDataset SummaryPhenomenon Mapped: United States lands managed by six federal agencies Coordinate System: Web Mercator Auxiliary SphereExtent: 50 United States plus Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands. The layer also includes National Monuments and Wildlife Refuges in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea.Visible Scale: The data is visible at all scales but draws best at scales greater than 1:2,000,000Source: BLM, DoD, USFS, USFWS, NPS, PADUS 2.1Publication Date: Various - Esri compiled and published this layer in May 2022. See individual agency views for data vintage.There are six layer views available that were created from this service. Each layer uses a filter to extract an individual agency from the service. For more information about the layer views or how to use them in your own project, follow these links:USA Bureau of Land Management LandsUSA Bureau of Reclamation LandsUSA Department of Defense LandsUSA National Park Service LandsUSA Fish and Wildlife Service LandsUSA Forest Service LandsWhat can you do with this Layer?This layer is suitable for both visualization and analysis across the ArcGIS system. This layer can be combined with your data and other layers from the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro to create powerful web maps that can be used alone or in a story map or other application.Because this layer is part of the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World it is easy to add to your map:In ArcGIS Online, you can add this layer to a map by selecting Add then Browse Living Atlas Layers. A window will open. Type "federal lands" in the search box and browse to the layer. Select the layer then click Add to Map.In ArcGIS Pro, open a map and select Add Data from the Map Tab. Select Data at the top of the drop down menu. The Add Data dialog box will open on the left side of the box, expand Portal if necessary, then select Living Atlas. Type "federal lands" in the search box, browse to the layer then click OK.In both ArcGIS Online and Pro you can change the layer's symbology and view its attribute table. You can filter the layer to show subsets of the data using the filter button in Online or a definition query in Pro.The data can be exported to a file geodatabase, a shapefile or other format and downloaded using the Export Data button on the top right of this webpage.This layer can be used as an analytic input in both Online and Pro through the Perform Analysis window Online or as an input to a geoprocessing tool, model, or Python script in Pro.The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World provides an easy way to explore many other beautiful and authoritative maps on hundreds of topics like this one.
[Metadata] Description: Government Landownership in the State of Hawaii as of 2022: County, Federal, State, and State DHHL LandsSources: County of Kauai, April, 2022; City & County of Honolulu, April 27, 2022; County of Maui, April, 2022; County of Hawaii, April, 2022; State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, October, 2022. This dataset was created using ownership information provided by the counties via tax map key parcel layers and ownership tables. Parcels were queried using the "Owner" field for state, county, and federal agency names. State GIS staff verified land ownership using the online service QPublic, the 2022 Department of Hawaiian Home Lands layer and other GIS layers and resources. Where ownership was still unclear, State GIS personnel reached out to appropriate agencies for clarification. Summary fields “majorowner” and “type” were created using additional filters, queries and analysis tools to summarize the data based upon government ownership sector and type. Also see detailed government ownership layer (gov_own_detailed) which is comprised of government land ownership by TMK parcel. The parcel boundaries are intended to provide a visual reference only and do not represent legal or survey level accuracy. Attributes are for assessment purposes only and are subject to change at any time. For additional information, please refer to metadata at https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/op/gis/data/gov_own.pdf or contact the Hawaii Statewide GIS Program, Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, State of Hawaii; PO Box 2359, Honolulu, Hi. 96804; (808) 587-2846; email: gis@hawaii.gov; Website: https://planning.hawaii.gov/gis.
This data set depicts federal lands having restrictions on access or activities -- that is, lands mangaed by the National Park Service, Defense Department, or Energy Department -- in western North America. The data set was created by reformatting and merging state- and province-based ownership data layers originally acquired from diverse sources (including state GAP programs, USBLM state offices and other sources). For each original dataset 3 additional fields, "Pub_Pvt", "CA_OWN", and "SOURCE" were added and populated based on the specific ownership information contained in the source data. The original coverages were then merged based on the "CA_OWN" field. Finally, NPS, DOD, and DOE lands were selected out of the ownership layer. All work was completed in AcMap 8.3. This product and all source data are available online from SAGEMAP: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov.
The USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is the nation's inventory of protected areas, including public open space and voluntarily provided, private protected areas, identified as an A-16 National Geospatial Data Asset in the Cadastral Theme (http://www.fgdc.gov/ngda-reports/NGDA_Datasets.html). PAD-US is an ongoing project with several published versions of a spatial database of areas dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity, and other natural, recreational or cultural uses, managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means. The geodatabase maps and describes public open space and other protected areas. Most areas are public lands owned in fee; however, long-term easements, leases, and agreements or administrative designations documented in agency management plans may be included. The PAD-US database strives to be a complete “best available” inventory of protected areas (lands and waters) including data provided by managing agencies and organizations. The dataset is built in collaboration with several partners and data providers (http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/stewards/). See Supplemental Information Section of this metadata record for more information on partnerships and links to major partner organizations. As this dataset is a compilation of many data sets; data completeness, accuracy, and scale may vary. Federal and state data are generally complete, while local government and private protected area coverage is about 50% complete, and depends on data management capacity in the state. For completeness estimates by state: http://www.protectedlands.net/partners. As the federal and state data are reasonably complete; focus is shifting to completing the inventory of local gov and voluntarily provided, private protected areas. The PAD-US geodatabase contains over twenty-five attributes and four feature classes to support data management, queries, web mapping services and analyses: Marine Protected Areas (MPA), Fee, Easements and Combined. The data contained in the MPA Feature class are provided directly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Protected Areas Center (MPA, http://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov ) tracking the National Marine Protected Areas System. The Easements feature class contains data provided directly from the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED, http://conservationeasement.us ) The MPA and Easement feature classes contain some attributes unique to the sole source databases tracking them (e.g. Easement Holder Name from NCED, Protection Level from NOAA MPA Inventory). The "Combined" feature class integrates all fee, easement and MPA features as the best available national inventory of protected areas in the standard PAD-US framework. In addition to geographic boundaries, PAD-US describes the protection mechanism category (e.g. fee, easement, designation, other), owner and managing agency, designation type, unit name, area, public access and state name in a suite of standardized fields. An informative set of references (i.e. Aggregator Source, GIS Source, GIS Source Date) and "local" or source data fields provide a transparent link between standardized PAD-US fields and information from authoritative data sources. The areas in PAD-US are also assigned conservation measures that assess management intent to permanently protect biological diversity: the nationally relevant "GAP Status Code" and global "IUCN Category" standard. A wealth of attributes facilitates a wide variety of data analyses and creates a context for data to be used at local, regional, state, national and international scales. More information about specific updates and changes to this PAD-US version can be found in the Data Quality Information section of this metadata record as well as on the PAD-US website, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/history/.) Due to the completeness and complexity of these data, it is highly recommended to review the Supplemental Information Section of the metadata record as well as the Data Use Constraints, to better understand data partnerships as well as see tips and ideas of appropriate uses of the data and how to parse out the data that you are looking for. For more information regarding the PAD-US dataset please visit, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/. To find more data resources as well as view example analysis performed using PAD-US data visit, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/resources/. The PAD-US dataset and data standard are compiled and maintained by the USGS Gap Analysis Program, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/ . For more information about data standards and how the data are aggregated please review the “Standards and Methods Manual for PAD-US,” http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/standards/ .
Government land ownership in the State of Hawaii: Federal, State, State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), and County. Source: City and County (C&C) of Honolulu (July 2013), Kauai County (January 2012), Maui County (July 2013), Hawaii County (June 2013). This dataset was created using the Large Landowners layer that was derived from the Tax Map Key (TMK) Parcel shapefiles from the counties of Honolulu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii. Lands were selected for Type = "Public".
This map layer portrays the linear federally-owned land features (i.e., national parkways, wild and scenic rivers, etc.) of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The map layer was created by extracting linear federal land features from the 1:2,000,000-scale individual State DLG files produced by the U.S. Geological Survey. These files were then merged into a single map layer. This is a revised version of the July 2001 map layer.
Public Parcels - Metro CTUsThis web map was created by Metro Transit's Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Office to showcase the newly expanded public parcel data in relation to existing and planned transit facilities across the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. As of August, 2019, the parcels can also be viewed in relation to Federally approved Opportunity Zones. More information on the new US Department of Treasury Opportunity Zone Program can be found here. The purpose of the public parcel data is to increase awareness of the location and quantity of publicly owned lands at all levels of government. The Q-1 2020 dataset now includes more than 35,000 parcels from across 128 cities, townships, and unorganized territories (CTUs). These parcels are further classified and displayed by eight broad ownership or administrative categories. Users can view, analyze, share, and research publicly-owned lands that may be good candidates for TOD or some other higher/better use.The purpose of the original pilot project was to increase awareness of publicly owned parcel locations relative to Metro-area transit facilities and facilitate TOD analyses. While the current geographic extent of the data has been greatly expanded, the purpose remains the same; to raise awareness of publicly owned land for the highest & best use.For those with desktop GIS software, the Public Parcel shapefile and/or geodatabase can be downloaded here: https://gisdata.mn.gov/dataset/us-mn-state-metc-plan-public-parcels-metro-ctus
Open Government Licence - Canada 2.0https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada
License information was derived automatically
The dataset identifies the location and types of Federal Land. These polygon boundaries should be verified using Federal Crown Land Survey Records and/or title searched at the local Land Registry Office. This data set may not include all Federally owned lands. Official GEO title: Federal Land Other
Note: This map service contains generalized NFS Land Unit boundaries to help with map service performance. Data in this service is not as accurate as the Automated Lands Program published data and will not accurately represent the boundary.National Forest System Land Unit original accurate data can be downloaded from here.An NFS Land Unit is nationally significant classification of Federally owned forest, range, and related lands that are administered by the USDA Forest Service or designated for administration through the Forest Service. NFS Land Unit types include proclaimed national forest, purchase unit, national grassland, land utilization project, research and experimental area, national preserve, and other land area. Each NFS Land Unit is identified by a National Forest Fiscal Identifier (NFFID) code, a unique 4-digit number that is used for accounting purposes.
Government Land Office maps (GLOs) are a result of the effort to survey all United States public lands before settlement. Starting in 1812 land was divided into square six mile blocks called townships, then subdivided into sections and ranges. Each subdivided area was surveyed and given its own map or GLO. During this process surveyors were required to indicate cultural resources such as roads and Indian trails and standardized symbols were used to represent geographic features. These GLOs are now maintained by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the official Land Status and Cadastral Survey records. As land was divided into parcels of individual ownership additional cadastral survey maps were created over time. For this reason there are often multiple GLOs or "cadastral survey maps" for one township / range, generally numbered one through four. For this seamless GLO layer, DAHP focused solely on the more historical GLOs which were usually listed as image number one or two for that specific township / range in the BLM Cadastral Survey records. In some cases no GLOs were available for review. Such areas included National Forest Lands, National Parks, Indian Reservations, and remote wilderness areas.
The map depicts Federal Lands Highway (FLH) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) projects, which are administered through the Federal Lands Divisions (FLD). These include projects that are funded by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), the US Forest Service (USFS) and other State-level projects.
NOTE: A more current version of the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is available: PAD-US 3.0 https://doi.org/10.5066/P9Q9LQ4B. The USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is the nation's inventory of protected areas, including public land and voluntarily provided private protected areas, identified as an A-16 National Geospatial Data Asset in the Cadastre Theme (https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-cadastre/). The PAD-US is an ongoing project with several published versions of a spatial database including areas dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity, and other natural (including extraction), recreational, or cultural uses, managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means. The database was originally designed to support biodiversity assessments; however, its scope expanded in recent years to include all public and nonprofit lands and waters. Most are public lands owned in fee (the owner of the property has full and irrevocable ownership of the land); however, long-term easements, leases, agreements, Congressional (e.g. 'Wilderness Area'), Executive (e.g. 'National Monument'), and administrative designations (e.g. 'Area of Critical Environmental Concern') documented in agency management plans are also included. The PAD-US strives to be a complete inventory of public land and other protected areas, compiling “best available” data provided by managing agencies and organizations. The PAD-US geodatabase maps and describes areas using over twenty-five attributes and five feature classes representing the U.S. protected areas network in separate feature classes: Fee (ownership parcels), Designation, Easement, Marine, Proclamation and Other Planning Boundaries. Five additional feature classes include various combinations of the primary layers (for example, Combined_Fee_Easement) to support data management, queries, web mapping services, and analyses. This PAD-US Version 2.1 dataset includes a variety of updates and new data from the previous Version 2.0 dataset (USGS, 2018 https://doi.org/10.5066/P955KPLE ), achieving the primary goal to "Complete the PAD-US Inventory by 2020" (https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/science-analytics-and-synthesis/gap/science/pad-us-vision) by addressing known data gaps with newly available data. The following list summarizes the integration of "best available" spatial data to ensure public lands and other protected areas from all jurisdictions are represented in PAD-US, along with continued improvements and regular maintenance of the federal theme. Completing the PAD-US Inventory: 1) Integration of over 75,000 city parks in all 50 States (and the District of Columbia) from The Trust for Public Land's (TPL) ParkServe data development initiative (https://parkserve.tpl.org/) added nearly 2.7 million acres of protected area and significantly reduced the primary known data gap in previous PAD-US versions (local government lands). 2) First-time integration of the Census American Indian/Alaskan Native Areas (AIA) dataset (https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2019/AIANNH) representing the boundaries for federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands across the nation (as of January 1, 2020, as reported by the federally recognized tribal governments through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey) addressed another major PAD-US data gap. 3) Aggregation of nearly 5,000 protected areas owned by local land trusts in 13 states, aggregated by Ducks Unlimited through data calls for easements to update the National Conservation Easement Database (https://www.conservationeasement.us/), increased PAD-US protected areas by over 350,000 acres. Maintaining regular Federal updates: 1) Major update of the Federal estate (fee ownership parcels, easement interest, and management designations), including authoritative data from 8 agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Census Bureau (Census), Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal theme in PAD-US is developed in close collaboration with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Federal Lands Working Group (FLWG, https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-govunits/federal-lands-workgroup/); 2) Complete National Marine Protected Areas (MPA) update: from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) MPA Inventory, including conservation measure ('GAP Status Code', 'IUCN Category') review by NOAA; Other changes: 1) PAD-US field name change - The "Public Access" field name changed from 'Access' to 'Pub_Access' to avoid unintended scripting errors associated with the script command 'access'. 2) Additional field - The "Feature Class" (FeatClass) field was added to all layers within PAD-US 2.1 (only included in the "Combined" layers of PAD-US 2.0 to describe which feature class data originated from). 3) Categorical GAP Status Code default changes - National Monuments are categorically assigned GAP Status Code = 2 (previously GAP 3), in the absence of other information, to better represent biodiversity protection restrictions associated with the designation. The Bureau of Land Management Areas of Environmental Concern (ACECs) are categorically assigned GAP Status Code = 3 (previously GAP 2) as the areas are administratively protected, not permanent. More information is available upon request. 4) Agency Name (FWS) geodatabase domain description changed to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (previously U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). 5) Select areas in the provisional PAD-US 2.1 Proclamation feature class were removed following a consultation with the data-steward (Census Bureau). Tribal designated statistical areas are purely a geographic area for providing Census statistics with no land base. Most affected areas are relatively small; however, 4,341,120 acres and 37 records were removed in total. Contact Mason Croft (masoncroft@boisestate) for more information about how to identify these records. For more information regarding the PAD-US dataset please visit, https://usgs.gov/gapanalysis/PAD-US/. For more information about data aggregation please review the Online PAD-US Data Manual available at https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/science-analytics-and-synthesis/gap/pad-us-data-manual .
A layer showing District of Columbia government related properties (owned, operated, and or managed) to be used by many DC Government agencies, private companies and the public. It supports the daily business process of District agencies that originate and manage land records. Transfers of Jurisdiction (TOJ) are also in this layer. This map should not be considered comprehensive as District agencies continuously work to update properties as transactions occur.
This map layer consists of federally owned or administered lands of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Only areas of 640 acres or more are included. There may be private inholdings within the boundaries of Federal lands in this map layer. This is a revised version of the January 2005 map layer.
Wilderness areas are federally-owned public lands managed by the federal government through four agencies, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and National Park Service. When the National Wilderness Preservation System started in 1964, only 54 wilderness areas were included. Since then, the system has grown nearly every year to include more than 800. The time component of this service is based on the year in which the wilderness was originally designated (additions may have occurred in subsequent years). Overall, however, only about 5% of the entire United States—an area slightly larger than the state of California— is protected as wilderness. Because Alaska contains just over half of America's wilderness, only about 2.7% of the contiguous United States—an area about the size of Minnesota—is protected as wilderness. To learn more about wilderness areas, visit Wilderness Connect, the authoritative source for wilderness information online. Wilderness Connect also publishes two other map resources:An interactive wilderness map allows visitors to search for and explore all wilderness areas in the United States. Fact-filled storymaps on the benefits of wilderness illustrate how wilderness protects values including clean water, wildlife habitat, nearby recreation, cultural sites and more.
Although wilderness areas are federally-owned, some areas contain non-federal parcels within their boundaries. Non-federal lands within some wilderness areas are included as part of this feature dataset as a separate layer. Termed inholdings or edgeholdings, these lands are privately-owned or owned by local governments, state governments or Indigenous Nations. Hundreds of inholdings and edgeholdings exist across the wilderness system. Generally, however, they are small compared to the size of the wilderness itself. Since the rules and regulations that apply to wilderness areas do not apply to these non-federally-owned parcels, it is important for wilderness visitors to know their location to avoid trespassing where access is not allowed. The owners of inholdings and edgeholdings can develop these parcels (as long as developments do not affect the character of the surrounding wilderness lands) and they retain special and limited access to them, sometimes, but not always, by motorized means.
In the United States, the federal government manages approximately 28% of the land in the United States. Most federal lands are west of the Mississippi River, where almost half of the land by area is managed by the federal government. Federal lands include 193 million acres managed by the US Forest Service in 154 National Forests and 20 National Grasslands, Bureau of Land Management lands that cover 247 million acres in Alaska and the Western United States, 150 million acres managed for wildlife conservation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, 84 million acres of National Parks and other lands managed by the National Park Service, and over 30 million acres managed by the Department of Defense. The Bureau of Reclamation manages a much smaller land base than the other agencies included in this layer but plays a critical role in managing the country's water resources. The agencies included in this layer are:Bureau of Land ManagementDepartment of DefenseNational Park ServiceUS Fish and Wildlife ServiceUS Forest ServiceDataset SummaryPhenomenon Mapped: United States federal lands managed by six federal agenciesGeographic Extent: 50 United States and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands. The layer also includes National Monuments and Wildlife Refuges in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea.Data Coordinate System: WGS 1984Visible Scale: The data is visible at all scales but draws best at scales greater than 1:2,000,000Source: BLM, DOD, USFS, USFWS, NPS, PADUS 3.0Publication Date: Various - Esri compiled and published this layer in May 2025. See individual agency views for data vintage.There are six layer views available that were created from this service. Each layer uses a filter to extract an individual agency from the service. For more information about the layer views or how to use them in your own project, follow these links:USA Bureau of Land Management LandsUSA Department of Defense LandsUSA National Park Service LandsUSA Fish and Wildlife Service LandsUSA Forest Service LandsWhat can you do with this Layer?This layer is suitable for both visualization and analysis across the ArcGIS system. This layer can be combined with your data and other layers from the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro to create powerful web maps that can be used alone or in a story map or other application.Because this layer is part of the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World it is easy to add to your map:In ArcGIS Online, you can add this layer to a map by selecting Add then Browse Living Atlas Layers. A window will open. Type "federal lands" in the search box and browse to the layer. Select the layer then click Add to Map.In ArcGIS Pro, open a map and select Add Data from the Map Tab. Select Data at the top of the drop down menu. The Add Data dialog box will open on the left side of the box, expand Portal if necessary, then select Living Atlas. Type "federal lands" in the search box, browse to the layer then click OK.In both ArcGIS Online and Pro you can change the layer's symbology and view its attribute table. You can filter the layer to show subsets of the data using the filter button in Online or a definition query in Pro.The data can be exported to a file geodatabase, a shapefile or other format and downloaded using the Export Data button on the top right of this webpage.This layer can be used as an analytic input in both Online and Pro through the Perform Analysis window Online or as an input to a geoprocessing tool, model, or Python script in Pro.The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World provides an easy way to explore many other beautiful and authoritative maps on hundreds of topics like this one.Questions?Please leave a comment below if you have a question about this layer, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.