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.

A parcel of Forest Service land congressionally designated as wilderness such as National Wilderness Area. Click this link for full metadata description: Metadata

This dataset includes the polygon features representing the spatial extent and boundaries of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Wilderness Areas (WLD), Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), and Other Related Lands with wilderness characteristics (LWC) or managed for wilderness characteristics (MWC).The data standard for these boundaries will assist in the management of all eleven designations within the NLCS. Particularly, NLCS data pertains to the following BLM groups and their purposes: Land Use Planners, GIS Specialists, NLCS team leads, BLM managers, and public stakeholder groups.As early as 1926, the earliest advocates of wilderness preservation had acknowledged the beauty and important ecological values of the desert lands under the BLM’s administration as candidates for wilderness protection. In 1964, Congress established the National Wilderness Preservation System and designated the first Wilderness Areas in passing the Wilderness Act. The uniquely American idea of wilderness has become an increasingly significant tool to ensure long-term protection of natural landscapes. Wilderness protects the habitat of numerous wildlife species and serves as a biodiversity bank for many species of plants and animals. Wilderness is also a source of clean water.The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directed the BLM to inventory and study its roadless areas for wilderness characteristics. Here identified areas became WSAs. The establishment of a WSA served to identify areas for Congress to consider for addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System. To be designated as a WSA, an area must have the following characteristics: Size - roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres of public lands or of a manageable size; Naturalness - generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature; Opportunities - provides outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined types of recreation. In addition, WSAs often have special qualities such as ecological, geological, educational, historical, scientific and scenic values.In June 2000, the BLM responded to growing concern over the loss of open space by creating the NLCS. The NLCS brings into a single system some of the BLM's premier designations. The Wilderness Areas, WSAs, and Other Related Lands represent three of these eleven premier designations. By putting these lands into an organized system, the BLM hopes to increase public awareness of these areas' scientific, cultural, educational, ecological and other values.The BLM's management of all public lands included data within the NLCS is guided by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). FLPMA ensures that many of BLM's traditional activities such as grazing and hunting, continue on the lands within the NLCS, provided these activities are consistent with the overall purpose of the area.A Wilderness is a special place where the earth and its community of life are essentially undisturbed; they retain a primeval character, without permanent improvements and generally appear to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature. BLM NLCS Other Related Lands are lands not in Wilderness or WSAs that have been determined to have wilderness character through inventory or land use planning. These lands fall into one of two categories. The first category are lands with "wilderness value and characteristics". These are inventoried areas not in Wilderness or WSAs that have been determined to meet the size, naturalness, and the outstanding solitude and/or the outstanding primitive and unconfined recreation criteria. The second category are "wilderness characteristic protection areas". These are former lands with "wilderness value and characteristics" where a plan decision has been made to protect them.To be designated as a WSA, an area must have the following characteristics: Size - roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres of public lands or of a manageable size; Naturalness - generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature; Opportunities - provides outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined types of recreation. In addition, WSAs often have special qualities such as ecological, geological, educational, historical, scientific and scenic values.There were forty-seven Wilderness Areas established under the Arizona Wilderness Act of 1984 and Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990. These Acts require the BLM to file boundary legal descriptions and maps to Congress for each Wilderness Area. The standards, format, and language for the legal descriptions and boundary maps were developed during regular meetings of the NLCS Coordinator, GIS specialists and the Cadastral Surveyors. Guidance was provided from congressionally-required map and legal boundary descriptions detailed in the NLCS Designation Manual 6120 (March, 2010). All Arizona BLM Wilderness Area boundary legal descriptions and maps have been transmitted to Congress and certified by the Chief of Cadastral Survey and Arizona State Director. There should be no changes to Wilderness Boundary GIS data. Boundary changes can only be made through an amendment to the legal description and this would need to be sent back to Congress.

Athough MassGIS has served trails information from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) for many years, this new Trails layer is MassGIS’ first attempt at a statewide, multi-sourced dataset. This layer was created from two primary sources, DCR Trails and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s (MAPC) Trailmap. Additionally, a few other trail networks were added from OpenStreetMap (OSM), municipalities, and conservation organizations, but the amount of information from these sources is relatively small.This trails dataset was created for use in the State 9-1-1 Department’s mapping application Response Assist and is intended to assist telecommunicators with lost hikers as well as potentially responding to emergencies within remote areas. Because the layer is primarily being used by 9-1-1, it was decided to focus on those trails found in wilderness areas and used as hiking trails. This resulted in the omission of many arcs from the source data. Examples of these include cart paths on golf courses, the network of paved paths on school campuses, sidewalks, and many other arcs that could functionally serve as trails but were in relatively open and developed areas.Updated with linework from OpenStreetMap in summer 2023 and published on November 14, 2023.See full metadata.Map service also available.

This dataset depicts those areas of Rocky Mountain National Park that were designated as wilderness pursuant to Public Law 111-11, Title I, Subtitle N., dated March 30, 2009. This dataset also depicts the portion of Indian Peaks Wilderness that was transferred to Rocky Mountain National Park pursuant to Public Law 96-560, Title I, Sec. 111, dated December 22, 1980. This dataset was used to create the maps entitled: * 'Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness', numbered 121-101,335A and dated Jan. 2010; * 'Rocky Mountain National Park East Shore Trail Alignment', numbered 121-101,337A and dated Jan. 2010. This dataset was used to create the maps within the document entitled: * 'Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness Boundary Descriptions', numbered 121-101,336A, and dated Jan. 2010. Pursuant to Public Law No: 111-11, two maps and a detailed boundary description document were prepared for the Secretary of the Interior, for his inspection and approval, and for submission to the Committee of Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives. The finalized map and wilderness boundary descriptions were prepared 'as soon as practicable' after P.L. 111-11 was published. The detailed descriptions of the wilderness boundary underwent a thorough in-Park review to check for language consistency and clarity before being submitted to the Secretary. This finalized GIS dataset and the detailed descriptions of the wilderness boundary were made available as public domain data after being submitted to the Secretary and the aforementioned Congressional Committees in April 2010. This dataset depicts that approximately 95% of Rocky Mountain National Park has been designated as wilderness. The legislation stated that "approximately 249,339 acres of land in the Park, as generally depicted on the map" were designated as wilderness. After the final configuration of the East Shore Trail Alignment was established, this finalized dataset depicts 249,125 acres designated as wilderness in 2009. Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness: 249,125 acres Existing Indian Peaks Wilderness within RMNP: 2,960 acres --------------------------- TOTAL Wilderness within RMNP: 252,085 acres Percent of RMNP that is Wilderness: 94.8% The official and legal TOTAL acreage figure for Rocky Mountain National Park is 265,828.41 acres. This has been determined by summing up all the legal descriptions of all the parcels that make up Rocky Mountain National Park. This figure varies slightly (less than one half of one percent) from the figure calculated for this data by the GIS software. Use the official acreage of 265,828.41 acres in any documents referencing the size of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Feature Class for the BLM Wilderness Areas and BLM Other Related Lands data covered by the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Data Standard. In particular, this feature class includes the polygon features representing the spatial extent and boundaries of the BLM National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Wilderness Areas. A Wilderness is a special place where the earth and its community of life are essentially undisturbed; they retain a primeval character, without permanent improvements and generally appear to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature. In 1964, Congress established the National Wilderness Preservation System and designated the first Wilderness Areas in passing the Wilderness Act. The uniquely American idea of wilderness has become an increasingly significant tool to ensure long-term protection of natural landscapes. Wilderness protects the habitat of numerous wildlife species and serves as a biodiversity bank for many species of plants and animals. Wilderness is also a source of clean water. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directed the Bureau to inventory and study its roadless areas for wilderness characteristics. To be designated as a Wilderness Study Area, an area has to have the following characteristics: Size - roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres of public lands or of a manageable size; Naturalness - generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature; Opportunities - provides outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined types of recreation. In addition, Wilderness Study Areas often have special qualities such as ecological, geological, educational, historical, scientific and scenic values. BLM National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Other Related Lands are lands not in Wilderness or Wilderness Study Areas that have been determined to have wilderness character through inventory or land use planning. These lands fall into one of two categories. The first category are lands with "wilderness value and characteristics". These are inventoried areas not in Wilderness or Wilderness Study Areas that have been determined to meet the size, naturalness, and the outstanding solitude and/or the outstanding primitive and unconfined recreation criteria. The second category are "wilderness characteristic protection areas". These are former lands with "wilderness value and characteristics" where a plan decision has been made to protect them. This dataset is a subset of the official national dataset, containing features and attributes intended for public release and has been optimized for online map service performance.

This dataset is meant to depict wilderness areas within the state of New Mexico managed by the Bureau of Land Management These wilderness areas are officially designated by the U.S. Congress. Data was collected by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), New Mexico State Office.

This shapefile contains boundaries for Designated Wilderness in Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona as of 2021. This dataset is based on the map identified in the law enacting wilderness for the park and the 850 acre wilderness land addition in 1984. The date of the original enactment map is 10/20/1976. The Congressionally Designated Wilderness is based on careful study of roadless areas, public hearings, and written responses. This dataset has been revised from the map to adjust buffers along roads and utilities, account for changes to the boundary and land status, and reflect more accurate measurement available through new GIS technology. Land added to the boundary after the 1976 enactment, except as noted, has not been studied for wilderness. In May of 1984, Congress added adjacent U.S. Forest Service land that was made wilderness at the same time. This dataset identifies 10,629 acres within Chiricahua National Monument as Designated Wilderness. This dataset identifies 0 acres within Chiricahua National Monument as Potential Wilderness (2 acres in 1977). The dataset did not contain the 2 acres because the map identified in the law enacting wilderness for the park did not show its location, however, the 2 acres still exist. This map was updated February 2021 using NAD 83 zone 12N and 40 feet contours created from a 10m DEM in conjunction with the 1976 map.

These feature classes represent the spatial extent and boundaries of BLM National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Other Related Lands within the BLM Administrative State of Utah. These lands include those that are not in Wilderness or Wilderness Study Areas, but have been determined to have wilderness character through inventory or land use planning. These lands fall into one of two categories. The first category are lands with "wilderness value and characteristics". These are inventoried areas not in Wilderness or Wilderness Study Areas that have been determined to meet the size, naturalness, and the outstanding solitude and/or the outstanding primitive and unconfined recreation criteria. The second category are "wilderness characteristic protection areas". These are former lands with "wilderness value and characteristics" where a plan decision has been made to protect them. Quality control is conducted annually.Complete metadata for these data sets can be found at:BLM UT Other Related Lands (Arc)BLM UT Other Related Lands (Polygon)

The layers within this feature service show the spatial extent and boundaries of the BLM National Conservation Lands (NCL) Wilderness Study Areas in Utah. WSAs edited pursuant to: S. 47: John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act Public Law 116-9, March 12, 2019. Data within these services are a live copy of BLM Utah's enterprise production environment. Quality control is conducted annually.Complete metadata for these data sets can be found at:BLM UT Wilderness Study Areas (Arc)BLM UT Wilderness Study Areas (Polygon)

Map depicts the proposed West Sister Island Wilderness at West Sister Island National Wildlife Refuge. This map is preliminary and subject to change.

This project focused on defining geothermal play fairways and development of a detailed geothermal potential map of a large transect across the Great Basin region (96,000 km2), with the primary objective of facilitating discovery of commercial-grade, blind geothermal fields (i.e. systems with no surface hot springs or fumaroles) and thereby accelerating geothermal development in this promising region. Data included in this submission consists of: structural settings (target areas, recency of faulting, slip and dilation potential, slip rates, quality), regional-scale strain rates, earthquake density and magnitude, gravity data, temperature at 3 km depth, permeability models, favorability models, degree of exploration and exploration opportunities, data from springs and wells, transmission lines and wilderness areas, and published maps and theses for the Nevada Play Fairway area. Play Fairway Analysis Model Layer - 2nd Invariant Strain Rate

The Wilderness Inventory was first prepared in the early 1990s as a series of maps identifying wilderness quality through two key attributes: remoteness and naturalness.\r \r While the dataset had not been updated for many years, it remained a valuable baseline tool in South Australia for implementing the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 (WP Act), which requires that all land in the state is assessed for its wilderness quality.\r \r In late 2022, the Department for Environment and Water (DEW), in partnership with the Parks and Wilderness Council and The Wilderness Society, commissioned the University of Queensland to develop an updated Wilderness Inventory. This study used two refined attributes for identifying wilderness quality: modern industrial levels and habitat area, quality and fragmentation.\r \r The outputs of this study include a technical report, spatial datasets (including a metadata file), and a map of the state.

The layers within this feature service show the spatial extent and boundaries of BLM National Conservation Lands (NCL) Wilderness Areas in Utah. Per legislative authority, this data is under review for “clerical and typographical” errors. Boundary lines may not accurately align with features that currently exist on the ground, such as designated roads. Some features may be adjusted pursuant to: S. 47: John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, Public Law 116-9, March 12, 2019. Data within these services are a live copy of BLM Utah's enterprise production environment. Quality control is conducted annually.Complete metadata for these data sets can be found at:BLM UT Designated Wilderness (Arc)BLM UT Designated Wilderness (Polygon)

Boundary line features depicting the Arizona BLM NLCS Wilderness Area Boundaries: Below is the updated list of Congressionally submitted and approved Arizona wilderness area boundaries as required by the legislation. All have been surveyed and/or have legal descriptions documented. The other wilderness area boundaries not included in this list, have not been submitted to Congress, and represent line work of the original mapping on 1:24,000 scale maps when the bills were originally submitted to Congress. We are continuing to work on the these other wilderness boundaries in the State. When their wilderness boundaries are finalized and approved by Congress, the new boundaries will be included in this data layer. Wilderness Area Serialized Case File Number Aravaipa Canyon AZA 25467 Muggins Mountain AZA 25501 Eagletail Mountains AZA 25497 Mount Trumbull AZA 25618 South Maricopa Mountains AZA 25489 Dos Cabezas Mountains AZA 25470 Mount Nutt AZA 25482 Mount Tipton AZA 25483 North Maricopa Mountains AZA 25486 Peloncillo Mountains AZA 25473 Redfield Canyon AZA 25474 Cottonwood Point AZA 25614 Mt Logan AZA 25617 Baboquivari Peak AZA 25468 Coyote Mountains AZA 25469 Mount Wilson AZA 25484Aubery Peak AZA 25476 Fishooks AZA 25471 Harcuvar Mountains AZA 25500 White Canyon AZA 25495 North Santa Teresa AZA 25472 Tres Alamos AZA 25491 Hells Canyon AZA 25480

This dataset identifies locations of wilderness tourism trails. This is not a complete or up to date dataset. Distributed from GeoYukon by the Government of Yukon . Discover more digital map data and interactive maps from Yukon's digital map data collection. For more information: geomatics.help@yukon.ca

This dataset provides information about the number of properties, residents, and average property values for Wilderness Trail cross streets in Olive Branch, MS.

This layer includes all public and private protected natural areas (fee-owned and easement), as well as municipal parks for the Chicago Wilderness region. Developed by independent contractor David Holman. Originally released in 2021, but this layer is periodically updated at least annually. This layer is also used in data tracking for recently acquired conservation lands (after filtering out municipal parks).

This dataset provides information about the number of properties, residents, and average property values for Wilderness Trail cross streets in Louisville, KY.

The Visionary Trail System is a collection of existing and proposed trail corridors that provide a backbone for connected trails throughout Indiana. All trail corridors within the system must cross county lines and/or connect two Visionary Trails.There are two types of trails in the Visionary Trail System: Visionary and Potential Visionary. Both are made up of existing trails, trails under development, and proposed trails that are planned and actively supported. The difference is that Visionary Trails tend to have a higher degree of certainty of actually being completed than Potential Visionary. Potential Visionary Trails tend to have less of a degree of public planning and/or support, but show some promise of completion. The Indiana Visionary Trails System is not a construction plan or a system that the State is unilaterally building. Instead it is a tool to help encourage Indiana’s trail providers and developers, which most often are units of local governments and non-profits, to work together to complete and connect these corridors. The Visionary Trail System is the State’s attempt to provide guidance, encourage interjurisdictional coordination, and in some cases, funding, to see those local efforts to fruition.