State Stewards are the Foundation of PAD-US
GAP invests in states annually to improve data sharing capacity, build state data inventories and increase PAD-US update efficiency. Stewards also assist GAP by refining PAD-US standards, assigning conservation measures (GAP Status Codes and/or IUCN Categories) and offering valuable local review of protected area information. PAD-US State Data Stewards are the best available source of aggregated state, local government and private protected areas data in their state. Stewards provide annual geodatabase updates to support PAD-US, or sustainable intervals depending on resources.
Steward Program and Objectives
In April 2008, GAP and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation funded and supported a yearlong design project to develop the organizational and technical strategies needed to create a fully comprehensive and current inventory of America’s protected lands. The resulting proposal summarized in the July 2009 report, “A Map for the Future” relies heavily on the capacity of State Data Stewards. While resources do not currently exist to fully implement the PAD-US vision, interest is growing and substantial progress has been made.
As protected areas data are required for its analyses, the US Geological Survey Gap Analysis Program (GAP) has committed to maintain PAD-US and implement recommendations from the design project to the extent possible. A primary objective is to build and/or coordinate a state data network to improve protected area inventories, increase update efficiency and facilitate local review. The design project called for the identification of three levels of state data providers (these can include state agencies, non-profits working at state or multi-state levels, national non-profit conservation organizations and federal agencies):
- Tier 1: a state that is in the best position, relative to other states, to continually provide the data necessary for the success of PAD-US.
- Tier 2: a state whose data is reliable but needs revision to fit properly into the PAD-US and the sustainability of updates are unknown. States in reliable regional datasets are Tier 2 due to the current challenge of translating extensive regional data into PAD-US.
- Tier 3: a state that has some or little data that is disaggregated or difficult to integrate into PAD-US. The sustainability of updates is unlikely.
Over time, GAP hopes to be able to channel a wide range of resources to states at each of these levels and invested $650,000 into the PAD-US State Data Steward Network between FY10 and FY12. USGS intends to continue investments, assuming resources are available. See the PAD-US website for more information about Stewards or contact the PAD-US Coordinator. The process started with a pilot program, focused on a limited number of states and provided grants to help them build stronger linkage between their data and PAD-US.
The FY10 State Data Steward Project began in October 2010 and included ten Tier 1 states (California, Oregon, Idaho, Missouri, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, and Virginia) with a collective objective to, “develop, translate or augment and maintain a protected areas geodatabase that contributes to the PAD-US”. Specific tasks for all stewards are:
- Build the inventory or update state, local government and private conservation data in a PAD-US replicated geodatabase following national standards,
- Build capacity in the state, through interagency coordination and unique id development, to increase the likelihood additional updates will be available to maintain PAD-US that accurately represent lands management, and
- Provide review opportunities to improve the PAD-US Standard, protected area descriptors (e.g. name or designation) and conservation measures (e.g. Gap Status Code).
The FY11 State Data Steward Project (October 2011 – September 2012) includes Tier 2 and 3 states in need of update (Washington, Wyoming, Utah, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi) as does the FY12 State Data Steward Project (October 2012 – September 2013) in Kansas, Alaska, Alabama, Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas, andNevada.
The first step in each State Data Steward Project is to define a common standard that facilitates the sharing of authoritative protected areas data between agencies, organizations and GAP that ultimately results in a complete and accurate inventory of protected areas for the United States to meet a variety of needs. As each Steward reviews the existing Standard and provides suggestions, continual improvements are made.
Contact the PAD-US Coordinator for more information.
Confirmed PAD-US State Data Stewards
California: GreenInfo Network, CPAD, Larry Orman
Colorado: Colorado State University, CoMAP, David Anderson
Florida: Florida Natural Areas Inventory, Gary Knight
Georgia: University of Georgia, Liz Kramer
Hawaii and Pacific Islands: Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum, Rhyn Davies
Idaho: Idaho Fish and Game, Leona Svancara
Kentucky: Kentucky State Nature Preserve Commission, Greg Abernathy
Massachusetts: The Commonwealth’s Office of Geographic Information, MassGIS, Ben Smith
Mississippi: Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services, Jim Steil
Missouri: The Curators of the University of Missiouri, MoRAP, David Diamond
Montana: Montana Natural Heritage Program, Allan Cox
New Mexico: Natural Heritage New Mexico, Esteban Muldavin
North Carolina: Department of Natural Resources, John Finnegan
Oregon: Oregon Natural Heritage Program, Jimmy Kagan
Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands: USDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Bill Gould
Utah: State of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, Bert Granberg
Virginia: Department of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Natural Heritage Program, Tom Smith
Washington: Department of Fish and Wildlife, Shelly Snyder
Wyoming: Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center
