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<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><SPAN>In 2021, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) initiated a tracking mechanism that requires all federal agencies that own or manage land to categorize the acres of those lands into three broad categories of predominant land use and produce an annual report. In this context the USDA Forest Service has considered the definitions of each category and classified all acres of National Forest System (NFS) lands into 1. Conservation/Preservation, 2. Commercial, 3. Operational designations. Those designations are additionally separated by whether the lands have been identified as Stewardship lands, or if the lands were acquired by the federal government for General Plant, Property & Equipment purposes. In response, the Washington Office Lands and Realty Management staff determined the appropriate data sources for this annual report and developed classification rules and a geoprocessing methodology to overlay and extract a seamless and complete NFS acreage total by the required categorizations. The acres of land in each category are dynamic, as the status of surface ownership may change from year to year based on administrative and congressional designations, purchases, dispositions, or exchanges. The data used to generate the report are updated weekly, and this translates into continuously refreshed reporting and mapping products. Presented here is the spatial representation of the rule-based land category designations of NFS lands.</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN /><SPAN /><SPAN /><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><SPAN>The FASAB land categories are defined as follows:</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN /><SPAN /><SPAN /></P><OL><LI><P><SPAN>Conservation/ Preservation: land or land rights that are predominantly used for conservation or preservation purposes.</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN>Conservation: protection and proper use of natural resources.</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN>Preservation: the protection of buildings, objects, and landscapes.</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN>Commercial: land and permanent land rights that are predominately used to generate inflows of resources derived from the land itself or activities that nonfederal third parties perform on the land, usually through special use permits, right-of-way grants, and leases.</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN>Operational: land that is used for general or administrative purposes.</SPAN><SPAN /><SPAN /><SPAN /></P></LI></OL><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><SPAN>The Land_FASAB dataset covers National Forest System Lands including federally owned units of forest, range, and related land consisting of national forests, purchase units, national grasslands, land utilization project areas, experimental forest areas, experimental range areas, designated experimental areas, other land areas, water areas, and interests in lands that are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service or designated for administration through the Forest Service. </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN /><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN>Additional information on this FASAB and the geoprocessing used to produce this dataset can be found here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/Land-FASAB-dataset-FAQ.pdf</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></DIV> |
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<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P><SPAN>The USDA Forest Service makes no warranty, expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, reliability, completeness or utility of these geospatial data, or for the improper or incorrect use of these geospatial data. These geospatial data and related maps or graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such. The data and maps may not be used to determine title, ownership, legal descriptions or boundaries, legal jurisdiction, or restrictions that may be in place on either public or private land. Natural hazards may or may not be depicted on the data and maps, and users should exercise due caution. The data are dynamic and may change over time. The user is responsible to verify the limitations of the geospatial data and to use the data accordingly.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></DIV> |