Protected Areas

Overview of Protected Areas datasets, concern levels, categories, and why PAD data is different than some public basemaps

Overview of Protected Areas in Transect

Protected Areas in Transect rely on two datasets:

  • USGS Protected Areas Dataset (PAD), and
  • U.S. Census Bureau's Current American Indian/Alaska Native/Naive Hawaiian Areas National dataset 

The USGS Protected Areas Dataset (PAD) is America’s official terrestrial and marine protected areas inventory. Transect uses PAD to show users the protected public lands that intersect their project. PAD includes lands with federal, state, regional, local, joint, and governmental organizational interests.

The Current American Indian/Alaska Native/Naive Hawaiian Areas National dataset includes the following legal entities: federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust land areas, state-recognized American Indian reservations, and Hawaiian homelands (HHLs). The statistical entities included are Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), Oklahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs), tribal designated statistical areas (TDSAs), and state-designated tribal statistical areas (SDTSAs). Joint use areas are also included in this dataset and refer to areas administered jointly and/or claimed by two or more American Indian tribes. The boundaries for state-recognized American Indian reservations and SDTSAs were delineated by state governor-appointed liaisons for the 2010 Census through the State American Indian Reservation Program and TSAP, respectively.

In Transect, Protected Areas inform users of two essential things:

  1. Land ownership information and
  2. Special regulations or permits that affect the project's footprint, timeline, or budget.

Viewing PAD data

View PAD data by navigating to and clicking on Key Details > Protected areas in the lefthand navigation bar of the Transect Report.

Protected Areas

PAD Concern Levels

  • HIGH: The concern level will be HIGH if federally owned or managed lands are within the AOI. 
  • MODERATE: The concern level will be MODERATE if there are no federal lands within the AOI, but there are state or locally owned or managed lands and/or tribal lands
  • LOW: The concern level will be LOW if there are no protected areas or tribal lands in the AOI.

The Importance of the PAD Category Column

Not all lands in the PAD are "owned" by a public agency. The Category column in the Transect PAD data table provides categories that define various kinds of public land interest in a property. For example, fee lands are outright owned by a public agency and are likely subject to additional permitting, as shown in the Transect Report's Permits & Pathways section. However, a project within an Approved Proclamation or Extent Boundary is an area on an agency's radar but not owned by an agency and, therefore, typically does not require any additional permitting.

  • Fee: Land owned outright by public agencies, nonprofits, or private entities.
  • Easement: Non-sensitive conservation and open space easements provided by the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED).
  • Designation: Not an ownership boundary. Instead, these are policy-designated areas that may overlap fee-owned land, easements, or other designations.
  • Marine Area: Protected waters, including federal, state, and local areas in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) MPA inventory, as well as areas managed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
  • Approved, Proclamation or Extent Boundary: Not an ownership boundary. These are administrative boundaries used for management or reference purposes. A land agency may want to secure more land or make overall plans in these areas. These boundaries frequently include significant private land, but no agency jurisdiction over them exists.
  • Combined: Includes one or more of the above categories.

The screenshot below will help you find the Category column in your report.

Area Category

Why is the PAD data in Transect different than some public basemaps?

Many maps show lands like national parks and national forests as large contiguous blocks of federal ownership. Still, it is important to note that this rarely accurately represents surface land ownership. Rather, the boundary displayed on public maps is often the Administrative Boundary, but the land ownership within the Administrative Boundary is actually a mix of public and private lands. Actual public surface ownership is represented in the PAD. As such, Transect includes the PAD in Transect Reports instead of the Administrative Boundary so that users know exactly who owns the properties intersected by their project. 

An example of the Administrative Boundary versus the PAD surface ownership at Davy Crockett National Forest, managed by the US Forest Service, is provided below.

Sources

Greeninfo Network. What to Know Before Using PAD-US Version 2.0. Available at: http://www.protectedlands.net/what-to-know-before-using-pad-us-version-2-0/

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project (GAP). 2018. Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) Metadata. Available at: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/5b030c7ae4b0da30c1c1d6de?f=__disk__27%2F0c%2F5d%2F270c5df419901e7060f0a4d08076a6ff6d8889bd&transform=1&allowOpen=true#Entity%20and%20Attribute%20Information

U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce. TIGER/Line Shapefile, 2019, nation, U.S., Current American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Areas National (AIANNH) National. Available at:

https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/tiger-line-shapefile-2019-nation-u-s-current-american-indian-alaska-native-native-hawaiian-area