Description: Conservation easements are legal restrictions created by a contract between a land owner and a qualified agency or organization that are usually based on limiting the future uses of a property to those compatible with open space, conservation, farming or other defined uses. Such easements reduce or remove development opportunities on these lands. The California Conservation Easement Database (CCED) inventories such easements held in perpetuity or for at least 10 years by public and nonprofit organizations. This release of CCED includes most conservation easements, but is incomplete for two large easement holders, the Calif. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife and the California Rangeland Trust. Data sources for CCED include easement holding organizations and records from the Calif. Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) and the Bay Area Open Space Council - note that all easements in California are officially filed with the relevant County Recorder’s office and are public records data. CCED is an element in the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED).
Definition Expression: N/A
Copyright Text: CCED is made available without charge for a wide range of uses, for example, use by government agencies in planning and operations, use by private consultants in the development of plans and analyses, use by non-profit organizations and educational institutions for strategy, research, planning, management and other functions. While agencies, organizations, individuals and businesses may distribute free of any charges copies of the data, any such replication must include this disclaimer and require user to review the provisions therein. CCED may be used on computer data networks, may not be published for public website maps that allow users to view the data at a scale of 1:100,000 or larger (closer).
Description: This data set represents the extent, approximate location and type of riparian habitats in the western United States. These data delineate the areal extent of riparian habitats as defined by A System For Mapping Riparian Areas in the United States (USFWS 2009). Certain riparian habitats may be excluded from the National mapping program because of the limitations of aerial imagery as the primary data source used to detect riparian habitats. This dataset should be used in conjuction with the Riparian Mapping Areas layer, which identifies the extent and location of Riparian mapping projects.
Description: This data set represents the extent, approximate location and type of wetlands and deepwater habitats in the United States and its Territories. These data delineate the areal extent of wetlands and surface waters as defined by Cowardin et al. (1979). Certain wetland habitats are excluded from the National mapping program because of the limitations of aerial imagery as the primary data source used to detect wetlands. These habitats include seagrasses or submerged aquatic vegetation that are found in the intertidal and subtidal zones of estuaries and near shore coastal waters. Some deepwater reef communities (coral or tuberficid worm reefs) have also been excluded from the inventory. These habitats, because of their depth, go undetected by aerial imagery. By policy, the Service also excludes certain types of "farmed wetlands" as may be defined by the Food Security Act or that do not coincide with the Cowardin et al. definition. Contact the Service's Regional Wetland Coordinator for additional information on what types of farmed wetlands are included on wetland maps. This dataset should be used in conjunction with the Wetlands Project Metadata layer, which contains project specific wetlands mapping procedures and information on dates, scales and emulsion of imagery used to map the wetlands within specific project boundaries.