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snippet: This dataset depicts the boundaries of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Wilderness Areas (WLD), Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), and Other Related Lands with wilderness characteristics (LWC) or managed for wilderness characteristics (MWC) in Arizona.
summary: This dataset depicts the boundaries of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Wilderness Areas (WLD), Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), and Other Related Lands with wilderness characteristics (LWC) or managed for wilderness characteristics (MWC) in Arizona.
extent: [[-114.861318634382,31.3558255444693],[-108.93412939863,37.0870336720303]]
accessInformation: Bureau of Land Management, Arizona
thumbnail: thumbnail/thumbnail.png
maxScale: 1.7976931348623157E308
typeKeywords: ["Data","Service","Map Service","ArcGIS Server"]
description: <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;font-size:12pt"><P><SPAN>This dataset includes the polygon features representing the spatial extent and boundaries of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Wilderness Areas (WLD), Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), and Other Related Lands with wilderness characteristics (LWC) or managed for wilderness characteristics (MWC).</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>The data standard for these boundaries will assist in the management of all eleven designations within the NLCS. Particularly, NLCS data pertains to the following BLM groups and their purposes: Land Use Planners, GIS Specialists, NLCS team leads, BLM managers, and public stakeholder groups.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>As early as 1926, the earliest advocates of wilderness preservation had acknowledged the beauty and important ecological values of the desert lands under the BLM’s administration as candidates for wilderness protection. </SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>In 1964, Congress established the National Wilderness Preservation System and designated the first Wilderness Areas in passing the Wilderness Act. The uniquely American idea of wilderness has become an increasingly significant tool to ensure long-term protection of natural landscapes. Wilderness protects the habitat of numerous wildlife species and serves as a biodiversity bank for many species of plants and animals. Wilderness is also a source of clean water.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directed the BLM to inventory and study its roadless areas for wilderness characteristics. Here identified areas became WSAs. The establishment of a WSA served to identify areas for Congress to consider for addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System. To be designated as a WSA, an area must have the following characteristics: Size - roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres of public lands or of a manageable size; Naturalness - generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature; Opportunities - provides outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined types of recreation. In addition, WSAs often have special qualities such as ecological, geological, educational, historical, scientific and scenic values.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>In June 2000, the BLM responded to growing concern over the loss of open space by creating the NLCS. The NLCS brings into a single system some of the BLM's premier designations. The Wilderness Areas, WSAs, and Other Related Lands represent three of these eleven premier designations. By putting these lands into an organized system, the BLM hopes to increase public awareness of these areas' scientific, cultural, educational, ecological and other values.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>The BLM's management of all public lands included data within the NLCS is guided by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). FLPMA ensures that many of BLM's traditional activities such as grazing and hunting, continue on the lands within the NLCS, provided these activities are consistent with the overall purpose of the area.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>A Wilderness is a special place where the earth and its community of life are essentially undisturbed; they retain a primeval character, without permanent improvements and generally appear to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature. </SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>BLM NLCS Other Related Lands are lands not in Wilderness or WSAs that have been determined to have wilderness character through inventory or land use planning. These lands fall into one of two categories. The first category are lands with "wilderness value and characteristics". These are inventoried areas not in Wilderness or WSAs that have been determined to meet the size, naturalness, and the outstanding solitude and/or the outstanding primitive and unconfined recreation criteria. The second category are "wilderness characteristic protection areas". These are former lands with "wilderness value and characteristics" where a plan decision has been made to protect them.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>To be designated as a WSA, an area must have the following characteristics: Size - roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres of public lands or of a manageable size; Naturalness - generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature; Opportunities - provides outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined types of recreation. In addition, WSAs often have special qualities such as ecological, geological, educational, historical, scientific and scenic values.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>There were forty-seven Wilderness Areas established under the Arizona Wilderness Act of 1984 and Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990. These Acts require the BLM to file boundary legal descriptions and maps to Congress for each Wilderness Area. </SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>The standards, format, and language for the legal descriptions and boundary maps were developed during regular meetings of the NLCS Coordinator, GIS specialists and the Cadastral Surveyors. Guidance was provided from congressionally-required map and legal boundary descriptions detailed in the NLCS Designation Manual 6120 (March, 2010). </SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>All Arizona BLM Wilderness Area boundary legal descriptions and maps have been transmitted to Congress and certified by the Chief of Cadastral Survey and Arizona State Director. </SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P><P><SPAN>There should be no changes to Wilderness Boundary GIS data. Boundary changes can only be made through an amendment to the legal description and this would need to be sent back to Congress.</SPAN></P></DIV>
licenseInfo: <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;font-size:12pt"><P><SPAN>These data are provided by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 'as is' and might contain errors or omissions. The User assumes the entire risk associated with its use of these data and bears all responsibility in determining whether these data are fit for the User's intended use. The information contained in these data is dynamic and may change over time. The data are not better than the sources from which they were derived, and both scale and accuracy may vary across the data set. These data might not have the accuracy, resolution, completeness, timeliness, or other characteristics appropriate for applications that potential users of the data may contemplate. The User is encouraged to carefully consider the content of the metadata file associated with these data. These data are neither legal documents nor land surveys, and must not be used as such. Official records may be referenced at most BLM offices. Please report any errors in the data to the BLM office from which it was obtained. The BLM should be cited as the data source in any products derived from these data. Any Users wishing to modify the data should describe the types of modifications they have performed. The User should not misrepresent the data, nor imply that changes made were approved or endorsed by BLM. This data may be updated by the BLM without notification.</SPAN></P></DIV>
catalogPath:
title: BLM_AZ_WLD
type: Map Service
url:
tags: ["DOI","Department of the Interior","BLM","Bureau of Land Management","AZ","Arizona","NLCS","National Landscape Conservation System","NCL","National Conservation Lands","WLD","Wilderness","Wilderness Area","WSA","Wilderness Study Area","boundaries","environment","Other Related Lands","congressional","Management","United States","USA","Western States"]
culture: en-US
name: BLM_AZ_WLD
guid: 4DDF3542-83BC-4EB1-B512-D06687EA2251
minScale: 0
spatialReference: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_12N