The National Wildlife Refuge System provides a variety of geospatial web tools for researchers, cartographers, partners, recreational visitors and others who want to incorporate our authoritative data layers into their map products or spatial analyses. Each layer includes metadata describing its intended purpose and disclaimers.
Data Layers
Simplified National Realty Tracts
These boundaries are simplified from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Realty Tracts data layer containing polygons representing areas of land and water in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a legal interest and/or administration responsibility. It is best used as a framework for use with other data layers in GIS and mapping applications. It is not intended to be used as a land survey or representation of land for legal conveyance or tax purposes.
Simplified National Realty Tracts
National Realty Tracts
This data layer depicts land and water administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in North America, U.S. trust territories and possessions categorized by the type of legal interest the agency possesses or administers. It is best used as a framework for use with other data layers in GIS and mapping applications when the most detailed parcel information is needed. It is not intended to be used as a land survey or representation of land for legal conveyance or tax purposes.
National Realty Boundaries
These boundaries are merged tracts with interior boundaries dissolved and derived from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Simplified National Realty Tracts data layer. That layer contains polygons representing areas of land and water in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a legal interest and/or administration responsibility. These areas represent the exterior boundary of land and water administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with no differentiation for the level of legal interest or administration type. It is best used as a framework for use with other data layers in GIS and mapping applications when there is a need for the most simplified boundary data possible. It is not intended to be used as a land survey or representation of land for legal conveyance or tax purposes.
National Wilderness Boundaries
This data layer depicts the Designated Wilderness and Proposed Wilderness Areas placed upon the land and water administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in North America, U.S. trust territories and possessions. It is best used with other data layers in GIS and mapping applications when there is a need for wilderness boundary data. It is not intended to be used as a land survey or representation of land for legal conveyance or tax purposes.
National Wilderness Boundaries
National Acquisition Boundaries
This data layer depicts the external boundaries of land and water that are approved for acquisition by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in North America, U.S. trust territories and possessions. It is best used as a framework for use with other data layers in GIS and mapping applications when the need to see where the agency has approval to add land and water to the National Wildlife Refuge System. It is not intended to be used as a land survey or representation of land for legal conveyance or tax purposes.
National Acquisition Boundaries
National Realty Centroids
This data layer depicts geometric center points of merged National Wildlife Refuge System land at each U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service station. It is best used with other data layers in GIS and mapping applications when there is a need for point data and official name labels for faster loading mapping applications. It is not intended to be used as the entrance to a station or the visitor center. Users are encouraged to consult the station’s webpage on www.fws.gov to obtain visitor information.
Marine Protected Areas
Provides a dataset of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) within U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service national wildlife refuges.
Visitor Amenities
These data layers depict facilities, infrastructure and other physical assets on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands.
