U.S. Forest Service
USDA
Bureau of Land Management &
U.S. DOI


Metadata

Metadata contains detailed information about the map layers and map services available from GeoCommunicator. For a description of codes that may be used in NILS and not fully referenced in the metadata such as casetype, case disposition, segregation, meridian, and survey type, please refer our LR2000 website.

Click the title links below for the metadata.

BLM Land & Mineral Use Records Metadata

Geothermal
Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas Density and Basin Study Areas
Mining Claims (unpatented mining claims)
Mining Claim (MC) density maps were created using the Mining Claim data from the BLM's LR2000 system (www.blm.gov/lr2000) showing the MC density at the township, section, and quarter level. If we don't have the section or the quarter-level land descriptions in GeoCommunicator than the MC density won't show at that level. The density will show based on what is entered into the BLM LR2000 system, therefore if a MC was not mapped in GeoCommunicator it will still show in the density layer. Therefore this is a good way to determine if a MC is missing from GeoCommunicator. The mining claim density layer is updated weekly. If a MC that has been filed with the BLM hasn't been entered into the LR2000 than it will not show up in the MC Density layer.
Rights-of-way (power facilities, pipelines, roads, telephone, railroads, solar and wind energy, water facilities, communication)
Solid Minerals (coal, phosphate, potassium, oil shale, and other minerals; coal logical mining units; and known mineral leasing areas)
Subsurface Mineral Estate: one time data collection for WY and NM. Mineral Group Codes: A = All Minerals, C = Coal Only, G = Oil, Gas, and Coal only, N = No U.S. minerals, O = Oil and Gas only, T = Other.

Rangelands Metadata

BLM Range Allotments | Range Pastures | Range Pastures Arcs
U.S. Forest Service Range Allotments
Wild Horse & Burro Herd Management Areas and Herd Areas

Base Maps and Reference Themes Metadata

Surface Management Agency (SMA) (federal surface management agency boundaries, state lands, and other lands)
Base Maps (Major Roads, Highways, States, Forest Service Boundaries, BLM Administrative Areas, Counties, Forest Service Regions, Urban Areas)

Map Services and data layers from other data providers Metadata

DoD Airspace Consultation Areas data was provided by the Department of Defense (DoD) (Oct 2009). This data layer provides areas where the BLM should consult with DoD when considering development of wind and solar energy facilities.

Geothermal Prospective Areas from Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory - These maps show the regions favorable for the discovery and shallow depth (less than 1000m) of thermal water of sufficient temperature for direct-heat applications. It is probable that only small areas of this region are truly underlain by such thermal water; the region represents that part of the state that deserves exploration for thermal areas. The region is defined on the basis of various geothermal and tectonic phenomena such as locations of thermal wells and springs, above-normal heat flow, youthful volcanism, mineralization, and seismicity. Metadata link to Idaho National Lab Geothermal.

Oil Shale Prospective Areas Metadata - This data set represents the "most geologically prospective" areas for oil shale.

Proposed Section 368 Energy Corridors were downloaded from the West-wide Energy Corridor Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) website at http://corridoreis.anl.gov/eis/fmap/gis/index.cfm. This layer represents lines which have been proposed (per the requirements of Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005) as West-wide energy corridor centerlines for the final "Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, Designation of Energy Corridors on Federal Land in the 11 Western States", November 2008. The energy corridor map data includes both centerline metadata and zone metadata data.

Solar Energy Study Areas were downloaded from the Solar Energy Development Programmatic EIS (PEIS) web site at http://solareis.anl.gov/eis/maps/index.cfm. The Solar Energy Study Areas maps depict the 24 tracts of BLM-administered land for in-depth study for solar development and include the Study Area Name and administering BLM Field Office.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Data Layers

Base Maps
Aerial - Digital Ortho Imagery Metadata
Topo Map NGS Metadata
Roads Map -using ESRI's World Street Map Metadata

Reference Maps
Hydrologic Unit Codes Metadata
303(d) Listed Impaired Waters (pdf or xml) Metadata

Abandoned Mine Lands Data Collection (ppt)
Land Survey Information System Metadata - Cadastral data including Public Land Survey System (PLSS) and other survey-based data from BLM and other (alternate) sources

BLM Cadastral Survey Data Metadata

BLM Shapefile Metadata for cadastral data created from Geographic Coordinate Data Base (GCDB) source files.
Public Land Survey System Township (Township)
Public Land Survey System Township First Division (Section)
Public Land Survey System Legal Area Description (ladesc)

BLM Points and Lines Export Interim Metadata for cadastral data exported from the National Integrated Land System (NILS) Survey Fabric. This file can be used along with the BLM shapefile metadata posted above until the final Points and Lines Export metadata has been developed.

Cadastral Data from Alternate Sources Metadata

Alaska Alternate Source Shapefile Metadata for cadastral data provided by the BLM Alaska State Office.
Public Land Survey System Township
Public Land Survey System Section

Non-USFS Alternate Source Shapefile Data for cadastral data from alternate sources other than USDA Forest Service. This data is found mainly in the central and eastern U.S. on non-USFS lands. The majority of the data was provided to BLM by the USDA Risk Management Agency.
Public Land Survey System Township (township)
Public Land Survey System Section (firstdiv)
Public Land Survey System (seconddiv)
Public Land Survey System (thirddiv)
Public Land Survey System (minorsub)

U.S. Forest Service Regions Alternate Source Data for cadastral data provided by the USDA Forest Service. This data is exported from GeoCommunicator/LSIS in NAD83 datum; however, the following metadata files have not been updated to reflect the correct datum.
Region 1: Northern Region (Bitterroot National Forest, Montana)
Region 2: Rocky Mountain Region
Region 3: Southwestern Region
Region 4: Intermountain Region (Metadata Contact)
Region 5: Pacific Southwest Region
Region 6: Pacific Northwest Region
Region 8: Southern Region (Metadata Contact)
Region 9: Eastern Region (Metadata Contact)
Region 10: Alaska Region (Metadata Contact)