PAD-US Data History

Version 4.0 — Released April 2024 is the most recent version of PAD-US

Note on comparing versions of PAD-US:

We strongly discourage comparing two PAD-US versions to look for changes in protection status as many changes reflect improvements to agency and organization GIS systems and data, rather than actual changes in protected area acquisition on the ground.

PAD-US does include a Date of Establishment field defined as: The Year (yyyy) the protected area was designated, decreed, or otherwise established. Currently this field is not fully attributed and data gaps are difficult to address. Values in the Date_Est field strive to represent the year the area received its current Name and Designation, but this is a complex topic due to changes over time with names and designations. Individual agencies/field offices are the best source of more time specific management practices.

Version 4.0 — Released April 2024 https://doi.org/10.5066/P96WBCHS

PAD-US 4.0 includes a variety of updates that support the goals of improving spatial data representing the federal estate, updating state and local lands data, and expanding automation efforts to increase PAD-US update efficiency.

Revisions associated with the Federal estate in this version include updates to the fee ownership parcels, easement interest, management designations, and proclamation boundaries with authoritative data from 7 agencies:
- Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
- U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau)
- Department of Defense (DOD)
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
- National Park Service (NPS)
- Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
- U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
National Cemetery boundaries were added using boundary data provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
NASA boundaries were added using data contained in the USGS National Boundary Dataset (NBD).
PAD-US 4.0 includes updates and additions from 17 states and territories:
- California (state, local, and nonprofit fee)
- Colorado (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement)
- Georgia (state and local fee)
- Kentucky (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement)
- Maine (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement)
- Montana (state, local, and nonprofit fee)
- Nebraska (state fee)
- New Jersey (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement)
- New York (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement)
- North Carolina (state, local, and nonprofit fee)
- Pennsylvania (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement)
- Puerto Rico (territory fee)
- Tennessee (land trust fee)
- Texas (state, local, and nonprofit fee)
- Virginia (state, local, and nonprofit fee)
- West Virginia (state, local, and nonprofit fee)
- Wisconsin (state fee data)
The following datasets were incorporated from NGO data partners:
- Trust for Public Land (TPL) Parkserve (new fee and easement data)
- The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Lands (fee owned by TNC)
- TNC Northeast Secured Areas
- Ducks Unlimited (land trust fee)
- National Conservation Easement Database (NCED)
Scripts used for the major PAD-US data processing steps were updated and refined in this version. This included updating scripts to Python 3.0 to harness new features and use current technology, as well as adding steps and new automated processes to reduce manual data management steps and to provide consistent processing and process transparency.
Several additional data checks were added to the QA/QC script including checking domain codes, date format standardization, populating the Feature Class field automatically, and checking for federal designation types assigned to non-federal areas.
Updates to the reconciliation script include buffering when checking overlaps, calculating the percentage of overlap, evaluating each word of the Unit Name, and creating an output table to prepare for the conservation measures transfer.
Polygons with over 100,000 vertices were identified. These polygons were simplified and densified to remove vertices closer than 5 meters. This leads to a slight alteration of source data but allows for inclusion in the WDPA as well as other analysis and performance increases.

Version 3.0 — Released July 2022 https://doi.org/10.5066/P9Q9LQ4B

PAD-US 3.0 includes a variety of updates and new data, achieving the primary goals to improve spatial data representing the federal estate for PAD-US applications, update state and local lands data, and expand automated data translation efforts to increase PAD-US update efficiency.

Major update of the Federal estate (fee ownership parcels, easement interest, and management designations where available), including authoritative data from 8 agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau), Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal theme in PAD-US is developed in close collaboration with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Federal Lands Working Group.
Improved the representation of National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands, in collaboration with agency data-stewards, in response to feedback from the PAD-US Team and users.
Added a Federal Data Reference look up table to the PAD-US geodatabase to allow users to extract data provided directly (or recommended) by federal managing agencies from the full PAD-US inventory.
Scripted the translation of Department of Defense, Census Bureau, and Natural Resource Conservation Service source data into the PAD-US format to increase update efficiency.
Revised conservation measures (GAP Status Code, IUCN Category) to more accurately represent protected and conserved areas (e.g. FWS Waterfowl Production Area Easements).
California - added or updated state, regional, local, and nonprofit lands data from the California Protected Areas Database (CPAD), managed by GreenInfo Network, and integrated conservation and recreation measure changes following review by the data-steward. Developed a data translation script in collaboration with the data-steward to increase the efficiency of future PAD-US updates from CPAD.
Virginia - added or updated state, local, and nonprofit protected areas data (or removed legacy data) from the Virginia Conservation Lands Database, provided by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation's Natural Heritage Program, and integrated conservation and recreation measure changes following review by the data-steward.
West Virginia - added or updated state, local, and nonprofit protected areas data provided by the West Virginia University, GIS Technical Center.

Version 2.1 — Released September 2020 https://doi.org/10.5066/P92QM3NT

PAD-US 2.1 focused on completing the PAD-US Inventory and maintaining federal land updates:

Integration of over 75,000 city parks in all 50 States (and the District of Columbia) from The Trust for Public Land's (TPL) ParkServe data development initiative (https://parkserve.tpl.org/) added nearly 2.7 million acres of protected area and significantly reduced the primary known data gap in previous PAD-US versions (local government lands).
First-time integration of the Census American Indian/Alaskan Native Areas (AIA) dataset (https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2019/AIANNH) representing the boundaries for federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands across the nation (as of January 1, 2020, as reported by the federally recognized tribal governments through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey) addressed another major PAD-US data gap.
Aggregation of nearly 5,000 protected areas owned by local land trusts in 13 states, aggregated by Ducks Unlimited through data calls for easements to update the National Conservation Easement Database (https://www.conservationeasement.us/), increased PAD-US protected areas by over 350,000 acres.
Major update of the Federal estate (fee ownership parcels, easement interest, and management designations), including authoritative data from 8 agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Census Bureau (Census), Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal theme in PAD-US is developed in close collaboration with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Federal Lands Working Group (FLWG, https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-govunits/federal-lands-workgro…).
Complete National Marine Protected Areas (MPA) update: from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) MPA Inventory, including conservation measure ('GAP Status Code', 'IUCN Category') review by NOAA.

Version 2.0 — Released September 2018 https://doi.org/10.5066/P955KPLE

This is a major update including:

Expanded database structure with new layers: the geodatabase feature class structure now includes nine feature classes separating fee owned lands, conservation (and other) easements, management designations overlapping fee lands, marine areas, proclamation boundaries and various ‘Combined’ feature classes (e.g. ‘Fee’ + ‘Easement’ + ‘Designation’ feature classes).
Major update of the Federal estate including data from 8 agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Forest Service (USFS), Department of Defense (DOD), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The U.S. Census Bureau also provided updated State jurisdictional boundaries, the authoritative standard to attribute 'State Name' in PAD-US. Data from the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), Department of Energy (DOE), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) were transferred from PAD-US 1.4 as best available data. The Federal update was developed in close collaboration with the FGDC Federal Lands Working Group (FLWG) (https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-govunits/federal-lands-workgroup/). Federal lands data include those administered under fee title (e.g. 'National Forest', 'National Park', 'National Wildlife Refuge'), congressional designations (e.g. 'Wilderness Area', 'Wild and Scenic River'), Presidential proclamations (e.g. 'National Monument'), administrative protected areas (e.g. BLM 'Area of Critical Environmental Concern', USFS 'Research Natural Area') and conservation easements. The new 'Proclamation' feature class includes boundaries that provide additional context for the 'Fee', 'Designation', or 'Easement' feature classes, suitable for display as an outline because internal ownership is not represented. These include Military Lands, Proclamation (National Park Service and Forest Service), or Approved Acquisition Boundaries (Fish and Wildlife Service). Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) American Indian and Alaskan Native Lands are not included in PAD-US 2.0.
Major updates in 30 States, plus limited additions in 16 other States following the integration of nonprofit partner databases as described below. The PAD-US State Data-Steward Network provided 12 State updates (including State, local government and (or) privately protected fee lands only) in California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. States and Territories without updates were transferred from PAD-US 1.4. Information regarding State data-stewards is available here.
The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Secured Lands 2015 Public Database (http://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationByGeography/NorthAmerica/UnitedStates/edc/reportsdata/terrestrial/secured/Pages/default.aspx) completely replaced non-Federal data in an additional 9 States and the District of Columbia across the eastern seaboard including States without PAD-US updates since 2014 or where no active State steward is available for Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In addition, new protected areas were added to help complete the inventory in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Please note differences in standards exist. The Nature Conservancy integrates overlapping designations directly into fee ownership. Efforts to improve alignment with PAD-US are in progress.
Ducks Unlimited (DU, https://www.ducks.org) integrated Conservation and Recreation Lands (CARL) data (non-Federal only) in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. DU will no longer maintain CARL and will submit updates directly to USGS for future PAD-US updates.
The Trust for Public Land's (TPL) Conservation Almanac (https://www.conservationalmanac.org) database added protected areas (non-Federal) to PAD-US in 46 States including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, and South Carolina that had more than 50 new additions. Please note that agency source data are not reflected in PAD-US 'Local' fields. 'Local Designation Type' includes National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) descriptions while 'Local Unit Name', 'Local Manager' and 'Local Owner' reflect public spending information collected for the Conservation Almanac. Spending attributes do not always reflect the original spatial data provided by managing agencies. Efforts to improve alignment with PAD-US are in progress.
The Nature Conservancy Lands (TNC, https://www.tnclands.tnc.org/) database update: the national source of lands owned in fee or managed by TNC. Please note that TNC shared easements with the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) team for integration prior to the NCED delivery for PAD-US.
Complete National Conservation Easement Database update (NCED, https://www.conservationeasement.us): Integration of non-sensitive easements (suitable for publication in the public domain) from NCED, provided by NCED Partners Ducks Unlimited and the Trust for Public Land. Federal easements are compiled by USGS in cooperation with the FLWG and shared with Ducks Unlimited for NCED integration.
Complete National Marine Protected Areas (MPA) update: from the NOAA MPA Inventory (https://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov). This update includes significant changes to GAP Status Code and IUCN Category following NOAA’s conservation measures review.
First integration of Bureau of Energy Ocean Management (BOEM, https://www.boem.gov/) managed marine lands: BOEM submitted Outer Continental Shelf Area lands managed for natural resources (minerals, oil and gas), a significant and new addition to PAD-US.
Fee boundary overlap assessment: topology overlaps in the PAD-US 2.0 'Fee' feature class have been identified and are available for user and data-steward reference. Users are encouraged to overview these overlaps prior to analyses involving fee lands data by reviewing the PAD-US 2.0 Topology Overlap Assessment referenced in the Logical_Consistency_Report Section of PAD-US 2.0 metadata. The assessment identifies all overlaps (minimum distance between feature coordinates to evaluate overlap relationship = 0.05 meter), large (greater than 5 acres) and small (less than 5 acres) overlaps between Federal agency lands and between Federal and State agency lands data in the Fee feature class.

See PAD-US Metadata and Supplemental_Info_Readme.txt for more information, including a summary of minor updates:https://doi.org/10.5066/P955KPLE

Version 1.4 — Released May 2016 https://doi.org/10.5066/F7G73BSZ

This is a major update including:

Full replacement of federal lands, developed with the FGDC Federal Lands Working Group ( https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-govunits/federal-lands-workgroup/)
Twenty PAD-US State Steward Network submissions: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, IN, KS, KY, MS, NE, NC, NV, OK, OR, SC, TX, UT, WA and WY.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) owned lands.
Conservation easements from the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED), suitable for distribution in the public domain.
Trust for Public Land (TPL) contribution of local government areas in 13 States.
National Marine Protected Areas (MPA) from the NOAA MPA Center.
Conservation measures reviews (“GAP Status Code”, “IUCN Category”).
Additional standardized “Designation Type” categories.
New standardized “Manager Type” and “Manager Name” fields.
Additional “Date of Establishment” for trends analyses (field in development)
“Public Access” review by select PAD-US Stewards and federal partners.
Available parcel data dissolved on PAD-US attributes to increase database performance.
Many new standard layers to view and interpret PAD-US (Web Map Services coming soon).

Version 1.3 — Released November 2012 https://doi.org/10.5066/F79Z92XD

Updates to 1.3 were generally focused on state lands, easements, marine protected areas and “Date of Establishment”. Specific changes include:

A revised structure with four feature classes and associated attributes: marine protected areas, fee protection, conservation easements and a combined file that integrates all. GAP also developed an analysis file that eliminates the multiple overlaps
(legitimate and boundary errors) that exist in protected areas data. Send requests to the PAD-US Coordinator
State, local government and private protected area updates delivered from PAD-US State Data Stewards: CO (Colorado State University), FL (Florida Natural Areas Inventory), ID (Idaho Fish and Game), MA (The Commonwealth’s Office of Geographic Information Systems, MassGIS), MO (University of Missouri, MoRAP), MT (Montana Natural Heritage Program), NM (Natural Heritage New Mexico), OR (Oregon Natural Heritage Program), VA (Department of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Natural Heritage Program).GAP prioritized the development of a State Data Steward Network following the PAD-US Design Project and continues to invest accordingly. FY11 Data Stewards delivered seven state updates in September 2012 (WA, WY, UT, KY, NM, GA, MS) for integration into NCED and PAD-US v1.4 while FY12 Steward deliveries (NV, AZ, KS, OK, TX, IN, AL, NJ, AK) are expected September 2013.
Integration of non-sensitive National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) easements through July 2012 with PAD-US version 1.2 easements. Duplicates have been removed. NCED and PAD-US are linked via Source UID in the PAD-US version 1.3 Easement feature class. Easements provided by PAD-US State Data Stewards are sent to NCED for UID assignment and integration.
Select local government (i.e. county, city) protected areas aggregated by the Trust for Public Land (TPL) for their Conservation Almanac not previously available in the PAD-US Inventory.
A new “Date of Establishment” field that identifies the year an area was designated or otherwise protected, attributed for 86% of GAP Status Code 1 and 2 protected areas. Additional dates will be provided in future updates.
A national wilderness area update from wilderness.net
The “Access” field that describes public access to protected areas as defined by data stewards or categorical assignment. The new “Access Source” field to document assignment methods. GAP plans to expand available recreation data in future updates.
The transfer of conservation measures (i.e. GAP Status Codes, IUCN Categories) and documentation (i.e. GAP Code Source, GAP Code Date) from PAD-US version 1.2 where appropriate. GAP is meeting with UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) to update the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA, protectedplanet.net) with PAD-US version 1.3 in March 2013.
Official (member and eligible) Marine Protected Areas (MPA) from the NOAA MPA Inventory (March 2011, www.mpa.gov) translated into the PAD-US schema with conservation measures transferred from PAD-US version 1.2 or categorically assigned to new protected areas in collaboration with NOAA and WCMC. GAP identified MPA records that overlap existing protected areas in the PAD-US Fee feature class (i.e. PADUS Overlap field in MPA feature class). For example, many National Wildlife Refuges and National Parks are also MPAs and are represented in both the PAD-US MPA and Fee feature classes.

Note: NLCS National Trails and Wild and Scenic Rivers were not included in this update as they are represented in line format. GAP will integrate these protected areas later this year when polygon data representing their protected areas is available

Protected areas and GAP Status Codes in the US Virgin Islands in collaboration with the US Forest Service staff at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Guam, Palau, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia) protected areas and GAP Status Codes in collaboration with USGS staff from the Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum (PBIF).
New protected areas and GAP Status Code review of Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) lands thanks to WDFW staff.
Results of recommendations from the PAD-US Technical Team to reorganized and refined the Primary Designation Type field to improve database queries.

Version 1.2 — Released April 2011 for data access email pad-us@usgs.gov

Updates to PADUS 1.2 were generally focused on federal and territorial lands. This update includes:

National Park Service (NPS) parcel data and GAP Status Code review in partnership with NPS Lands and NPScape
Official Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), documented in the current NOAA MPA Inventory (March 2010) as member or eligible MPAs for the National System of MPAs.
National Department of Defense (DOD) lands update in partnership with DOD Partners in Flight
National wilderness area updates signed into law in the Omnibus Public Lands Act of 2009 thanks to the Wilderness Institute
Current BLM National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) protected areas with special assistance from the BLM Division of Lands, Realty and Cadastral Survey

Protected areas and GAP Status Codes in the US Virgin Islands in collaboration with the US Forest Service staff at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Guam, Palau, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia) protected areas and GAP Status Codes in collaboration with USGS staff from the Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum (PBIF).
New protected areas and GAP Status Code review of Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) lands thanks to WDFW staff.
Results of recommendations from the PAD-US Technical Team to reorganized and refined the Primary Designation Type field to improve database queries.

Version 1.1 — Released May 2010 for data access email pad-us@usgs.gov

Primary updates between PAD-US version 1 to 1.1 are:

Complete updates (best available attributes, line work and conservation measures) in the northwest states of WA, OR, ID, WY, MT in partnership with the BLM and USFS.
Complete CA update integrating CPAD (best available attributes, line work and conservation measures) into PAD-US in partnership with GreenInfo Network.
Complete updates (best available attributes, line work and conservation measures) in the northeast states of ME, VT, NH, MA, CT, RI, NY, NJ, DE, PA, OH, WV, MD, VA in partnership with The Nature Conservancy’s Eastern Regional Office.
Complete national update from The Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Data Information Systems (CDIS) Unit including nature preserves and publically available conservation easements.
A new core attribute schema with “Category” (Fee or Easement parcel), “Manager Name”, “Secondary Designation Name” and “Status” (Designated or Proposed site) to complement existing fields in PADUS version 1 such as “Owner Type”, “Owner Name” and “Primary Designation Type” developed with the PAD-US Technical Team.
Updated IUCN Category conservation measures.

Version 1.0 — Released April 2009 for data access email pad-us@usgs.gov

Original release of the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) by GAP on behalf of the PAD-US Partnership to the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC). This was the first demonstration of the PAD-US Partnership that seeks to improve efficiency and leverage resources in protected areas data aggregation and maintenance. The geodatabase standardized regional GAP updates (southwest, southeast and middle US) with PAD-US Partner data in the northwest (Conservation Biology Institute) and northeast (The Nature Conservancy). GAP worked with WCMC to assign IUCN Categories to protected areas in PAD-US that meet the IUCN definition of protection as, “A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values”. Over 22,000 US protected areas were submitted to WCMC for inclusion in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) available to view or download from: protectedplanet.net.

For more information contact the PAD-US Team.