Development and Updates of Protected Lands Databases in the US (PAD-US, NCED, CARL) Robb Macleod, National GIS Coordinator at Ducks Unlimited rmacleod@ducks.org 734-623-2004
Overview 1. What is the NCED, PAD-US, CARL? 2. How can I find and use the data? 3. How have others used the data? 4. Future of Protected Lands data
1) What is the NCED, PAD-US and CARL?
A database of protected and recreation lands (fee, leased, and easement) within the Great Lakes Region.
Protecting 1.9 million acres
Started in 2001 in Saginaw Bay Watershed Expanded to Great Lakes in 2002 Used GAP Stewardship Layer as the starting point Updated in 2007, 2012 Currently working on update for Fall 2015 Development Partners: Funding Partners: http://www.ducks.org/conservation/glaro/carl-gis-layer
Online spatial database of easements in the U.S. Location, extent, and general information are collected and shared online Comprehensive Public and private easements in all states Currently contains over 105,000 easements covering over 22 million acres
Voluntary Data providers control how much information is shared Collaborative An initiative of the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. Currently managed by four nonprofits: The Trust for Public Land, Ducks Unlimited, Conservation Biology Institute, and NatureServe.
Current Updated yearly, next update in June 2015 This year s updates include: Alabama Colorado Florida Georgia Illinois Louisiana Montana Mississippi New Jersey Ohio Pennsylvania Tennessee Texas Virginia Wisconsin
PAD-US was first released by GAP in April 2009 Version 1.0 Released April, 2009 Version 1.1 Released May, 2010 Version 1.2 Released April, 2011 Version 1.3 Released November, 2012 PAD-US Version 1.4 available in June 2015 http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/
State Data Stewards http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/
Database Summary Protected (fee and easement) as well as Recreation lands (Great Lakes only) Protected (fee lands) for the entire US Uses NCED for easements Conservation Easement only for the entire US
2) How can I find and use the data?
Aside: What s a Withheld Easement? Data Provider codes the easement as sensitive ~ 5% of easements in the NCED Spatial information is: Collected but neither viewable online nor downloadable. never shared without permission. never shown on maps, be they for internal or external use. So what is it used for? summary statistics and spatial analyses. Downloadable tabular information (i.e. information about the easement in spreadsheet format).
Protecting Landowner Privacy How do we create useful datasets while protecting landowner privacy? A. Keep landowner identities private (easements only). B. Be explicit about public access. C. Require that users know trespassing on private lands may subject individuals to sanctions. D. Provide a security option that hides the location of sensitive easements. (The location of sensitive easements are not shared / downloadable) A. Monitor who downloads data via a registration process (NCED).
Download Data Currently only in zipped shapefile format New version coming in Fall 2015 Google Great Lakes CARL
Download Data Need a registered login account NCED EASEMENTS > Download NCED Data Download shapefiles or geodatabases of unrestricted easements Download a csv file of all easements. Web Service coming in July 2015
Downloadable Information Spatial Data: Multi-part polygon layer for ~95% of the easements in the NCED Tabular Information: NCED collects the following information:
Web Map Viewers NCED PAD-US Viewer & NCED Viewer PAD-US databasin.org
Search Map Quick Searches Advanced Searches
Search Map Find an Easement by Location Search by Address or Place Name Township / Range / Section Longitude / Latitude CAVEAT: You cannot search the map for Withheld easements www.conservationeasement.us/browse/map
Quick Searches Find a collection of easements with one click Searches all easements, including Withheld easements.
Create a Summary Report
Create a Summary Report Summarize Counts and Acres Choose to summarize by state and/or attribute Summarizes 10 pre-determined fields with tables and graphs: County (State summaries Only) Easement Holder Type Landowner Type Purpose Public Access Acquisition Date Easement Holder Name HUC4 Watershed Bird Conservation Region Ecoregion
3) How have others used the data?
Strategic Conservation Planning Little Forks Conservancy Planning Assessment of the Tittabawassee Watershed in Michigan
Grant Writing and Reporting
Research with Policy Implications Source: Yonavjak, L. & Gartner, T. 2011. Gaining Ground: Increasing Conservation Easements in the U.S. South. World Resources Institute Issue Brief 7. www.wri.org/publications
CARL Attributes MDEQ CZM Question: How much of the Coastal Zone is open to the public? 38%
Using NCED and PAD-US to assess goals How close is Saginaw Bay to its wetland protection goals?
Advocacy Maps Protecting sensitive lands from proposed pipelines
Conservation Policy Return on investment analyses using NCED and Conservation Almanac have helped protect public land protection funding in many states including Colorado, Ohio, and Kentucky. http://www.conservationalmanac.org
EISPC EZ Mapping Tool NCED and USGS PAD-US are used in suitability models for siting energy corridors NCED informs federal power line planners so they can avoid easements when siting new power lines. https://eispctools.anl.gov/
4) Future of Protected Lands
Moving towards ONE Database Currently working with USGS to migrate CARL to PAD-US (what to do with sensitive data and recreation data) NCED is currently a feature class within PAD- US (does not contain sensitive data) How to efficiently update data? FUNDING!!! WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
Thank you! Robb Macleod National GIS Coordinator Ducks Unlimited rmacleod@ducks.org 734-623-2004 Google: Great Lakes CARL, PAD-US, NCED