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Summary

The US Forest Service has much of the data required by the new MAPLand Act of 2022 and the Dingell Act (2019), and is seeking an enterprise role for documenting and depicting recreational shooting and hunting restricted areas to meet the law. Most recently, the Land Allocation Mapping (LAM) project focused on establishing a group of authoritative geospatial planning data derived from Forest Planning information representing management, geographic, and designated planning areas. These areas were compiled from Regional and Forest planning GIS datasets to generate a data dictionary. Datasets developed under the LAM project standardized agency data and served as reference information for the agency to support planning, entitlements, and modernization efforts for the Electronic Land Management System (ELMS). For the Recreational Shooting and Hunting Restrictions data dictionary MAPLands project, the Xentity team proposed a similar project approach.

Problem and Solution

Available data across regions is inconsistent, including both non-digital forms and paper maps, which serves as a barrier to inquiries on land use restrictions, the ability to share data, and prevents compliance with the 2018 Geospatial Data Act requirement for information to be publicly available.

Xentity worked to develop a Data Dictionary standard. Also, Xentity created a geospatial database. The database was created using the USFS National GIS Data Dictionary standard. Xentity completed this before loading in all of the geospatial data from all regions. This required Xentity to make specific data edits and conduct data preparation of the original data received by regions. Xentity also worked to locate and digitize Dingell Act approved restricted areas. Furthermore, Xentity  located and digitized NEPA approved restricted areas. Finally, we worked to create metadata.

Outcome and Benefit

The Data Dictionary standard supported reporting and dissemination of closure area notifications. Also, closures, and alerts for recreational hunting and shooting areas on NFS lands. The new database supports future GIS data requests from other regions for closure and restricted area information. All this received approval through the Dingell Act and NEPA project approvals. Also, any geospatial data created was attributed and then entered into the file geodatabase. Finally, the aforementioned data dictionary supports the requirements of the process as they are defined on the USFS National GIS Data Dictionary.