NEW HAMPSHIRE—Employees on the White Mountain National Forest, together with Geospatial Technology and Application Center, have solved the puzzle of how to improve foundational land ownership data in metes-and-bounds-surveyed national forests using Geographical Information Systems.

The current Forest Service lands ownership data layer is decades old—developed prior to widespread use of satellite-based technology for mapping accuracy. In a pilot project, land survey and GIS staff designed a solution to improve the survey network, focused on ownership. The project tackles challenges specific to metes-and-bounds forests to develop more spatially accurate exterior and interior tract boundaries—which are essential for understanding ownership interests unique to each parcel of land acquired (for example, access rights or mineral interests, in addition to surface ownership).

“The resulting process benefits any metes and bounds forest and could be useful to any Forest GIS staff,” said White Mountain GIS specialist Anna Johnston.

Johnston, land surveyor James Detzel and GIS coordinator Olivia Fraser, with the help of GTAC, designed a vertical integration tool that alleviates the workload to align forest features—such as management areas, roads, forest stands, etc.—with the new, improved boundaries that would otherwise have been manually updated. The GTAC team includes Sean Patterson, GTAC remote sensing scientist; Tim Love, GTAC senior geospatial coordinator; and Abigail Schaaf, GTAC project manager.

“The task of improving and maintaining Forest Service spatial datasets now is much more efficient and accurate,” said Johnston. “What used to take months of work to complete, can now take about one week.”

“More accurate data also allows for more informed decision-making, accurate figures for analysis and avoids costly mistakes such as proposing a project on private land,” said Fraser. “It also eliminates duplicative, inconsistent and poor data management practices.”

Additionally, Congress recently articulated its emphasis on access to National Forest System lands (the Dingell Act), as well as the need to maintain infrastructure and protect public lands (the Great American Outdoors Act). Working with partners to further congressional objectives cannot be done effectively without accurate ownership information, particularly in colonial states where the survey network is unpredictable, and the ownership is significantly fragmented.