The Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is a GIS database hosted by the USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) that illustrates and describes public land ownership, management and conservation lands nationally, including voluntarily provided privately protected areas. Version 1.2 of this data set was released by GAP in April, 2011 and can be downloaded from the USGS PAD-US web site (data available in geodatabase and shape file formats). The web site includes an online map viewer for the data as well as information on PAD-US standards, core attribute schema and a summary of commonly requested statistics.
GAP compiled the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) version 1.1 with significant contributions and large aggregated datasets from the Bureau of Land Management (National Operations Center), the U.S. Forest Service (Automated Lands Program), GreenInfo Network (California) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC – National and Eastern Regional offices). Many other federal, state, local, non-governmental organizations and land trusts provided highly valuable data that was more limited in scope.
PAD-US 1.1 (CBI Edition) was published on May 1, 2010, by the Conservation Biology Institute. PAD-US 1.1 (CBI Edition) is freely available for download from the Data Basin Protected Areas Center in multiple formats (ESRI GeoDatabase, shapefile and layer package). The Data Basin Protected Areas Center supports multiple functions, including the ability for users to visualize and download individual state protected area datasets, and to combine them with other available conservation-related data.
PAD-US 1.1 (CBI Edition) provides an updated version of the public and private protected areas across the U.S. at a variety of scales. It uses a standardized spatial geometry and documents standard attributes on land ownership, management designations and conservation status. This update results from a collaborative effort with federal and state agencies (including the USDA Forest Service, USGS GAP Analysis Program, Bureau of Land Management and several state agencies, universities and Natural Heritage Programs), as well as private conservation organizations (including the Nature Conservancy). The project was supported by the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, the USDA Forest Service Legacy Program, and the United States Air Force.
