MAPLand Easement Areas: Federal Public Access Easements for Recreational Use

The MAPLand Act Easement Areas layer depicts federal interests in non-federal land, known as easements, that may provide public recreational access. It is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and includes easements granted to or reserved by agencies like BLM, NPS, FWS, USBR, USACE, and FS. The data represents some level of public access, but users should consult restriction information and agency details.

Use Cases

• Mapping public access corridors to federal lands based on described easement areas.
• Analyzing federal agency land management footprints based on the listed participating agencies.
• Planning recreational infrastructure based on areas representing federal interests in non-federal land.

Strengths

• Data is mandated by the MAPLand Act, suggesting a legal and policy foundation.
• Includes easements from multiple federal agencies: BLM, NPS, FWS, USBR, USACE, and FS.
• Available in multiple geospatial formats including CSV, Shapefile, GeoJSON, and KML.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Forest Service

Collection Method

Created to fulfill the requirements of the MAPLand Act.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-22 03:10:21; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely covers areas within the United States where federal agencies hold easements.