BLM ID Range Improvement Point

This geodatabase of point, line and polygon features is an effort to consolidate all of the range improvement locations on BLM-managed land in Idaho into one database. Currently, the point feature class has some data for all of the BLM field offices except the Coeur d'Alene and Cottonwood field offices. Range improvements are structures intended to enhance rangeland resources, including wildlife, watershed, and livestock management. Examples of range improvements include water troughs, spring headboxes, culverts, fences, water pipelines, gates, wildlife guzzlers, artificial nest structures, reservoirs, developed springs, corrals, exclosures, etc. These structures were first tracked by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the Job Documentation Report (JDR) System in the early 1960s, which was predominately a paper-based tracking system. In 1988 the JDRs were migrated into and replaced by the automated Range Improvement Project System (RIPS), and version 2.0 is currently being used today. It tracks inventory, status, objectives, treatment, maintenance cycle, maintenance inspection, monetary contributions and reporting. Not all range improvements are documented in the RIPS database; there may be some older range improvements that were built before the JDR tracking system was established. There also may be unauthorized projects that are not in RIPS. Official project files of paper maps, reports, NEPA documents, checklists, etc., document the status of each project and are physically kept in the office with management authority for that project area. In addition, project data is entered into the RIPS system to enable managers to access the data to track progress, run reports, analyze the data, etc. Before Geographic Information System technology most offices kept paper atlases or overlay systems that mapped the locations of the range improvements. The objective of this geodatabase is to migrate the location of historic range improvement projects into a GIS for geospatial use with other data and to centralize the range improvement data for the state. This data set is a work in progress and does not have all range improvement projects that are on BLM lands. Some field offices have not migrated their data into this database, and others are partially completed. New projects may have been built but have not been entered into the system. Historic or unauthorized projects may not have case files and are being mapped and documented as they are found. Many field offices are trying to verify the locations and status of range improvements with GPS, and locations may change or projects that have been abandoned or removed on the ground may be deleted. Attributes may be incomplete or inaccurate. This data was created using the standard for range improvements set forth in Idaho IM 2009-044, dated 6/30/2009. However, it does not have all of the fields the standard requires. Fields that are missing from the point feature class that are in the standard are: ALLOT_NO, MGMT_AGCY, ADMIN_ST, ADMIN_OFF, SRCE_AGCY, MAX_PDOP, MAX_HDOP, CORR_TYPE, RCVR_TYPE, GPS_TIME, UPDATE_STA, UNFILT_POS, FILT_POS, DATA_DICTI, GPS_HEIGHT, VERT_PREC, HORZ_PREC, and CONF_LEVEL. Several additional fields have been added that are not part of the standard: wrpt_idwrn, bird_laddr, and year_checked. There is no National BLM standard for GIS range improvement data at this time. For more information contact us at blm_id_stateoffice@blm.gov.

Tags: biota, blm, boise-district-office, bruneau-field-office, bureau-of-land-management, burley-field-office, challis-field-office, department-of-the-interior, doi, farming, four-rivers-field-office, id, idaho, idaho-falls-district-office, inlandwaters, jarbidge-field-office, management, nevada, nv, or, oregon, owyhee-field-office, pocatello-field-office, range, range-improvement, range-improvement-project-system, rips, salmon-field-office, shoshone-field-office, structure, twin-falls-district-office, united-states, upper-snake-field-office, us, ut, utah, vegetation, wildlife, wy, wyoming
Organization: Department of the Interior