This spatial data contains Surface Management Agency (SMA, also sometimes called Land Status) information for Idaho from the Idaho Bureau of Land Management (BLM). For federal government lands, this data displays the managing agency of the surface of the land, which does not mean the agency "owns" the land. SMA is sometimes referred to as "ownership", although this term is inaccurate when describing public lands. This Surface Management Agency data should not be used to depict boundaries (for example National Forest, National Park, National Wildlife Refuge, or Indian Reservation boundaries among others). Attribute information for the federal and private lands are from the BLM Master Title Plats (MTPs), the BLM case files, the BLM Legacy Rehost 2000 (LR2000) database, and corresponding federal Orders and official documents. Please note that because these official sources are strictly used, OTHER NON-BLM FEDERAL AGENCY LANDS MAY NOT BE ATTRIBUTED CORRECTLY unless the proper documents have been filed with the BLM and the land actions have been noted on the MTPs and in LR2000. Starting in the spring of 2011 a field called AGNCY_NAME is present in the data. The AGNCY_NAME field is intended to indicate the managing agency for polygons coded as OTHER in the MGMT_AGNCY field. The AGNCY_NAME field will not be used for the 100K Map Series published by the BLM for use by the public as all agencies in this field are not included in H-1553 Publication Standards Manual Handbook and, therefore, have no BLM Cartographic Standard. Except for polygons coded as OTHER in the MGMT_AGNCY field, all managing agency information in the AGNCY_NAME field should be the same as that of the MGMT_AGNCY field. The only intended difference between the AGNCY_NAME field and the MGMT_AGNCY field is where the MGMT_AGNCY is OTHER. In this case, the AGNCY_NAME will contain an abbreviation for an agency that is not represented in the H-1553 Publication Standards Manual Handbook. Examples of the agencies there are BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), USGS (United States Geological Survey), and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). Attribute information for the State lands is received primarily through cooperation with the Idaho Department of Lands. This information might not reflect all State agency lands completely. A detailed analysis of State owned lands has not been done since June 2011; therefore, recent changes in ownership of State lands may not be reflected. Inclusion of State land information into this dataset is supplemental and should not be viewed as the authoritative source of State lands; please contact State agencies for questions about State lands. This data does not depict land management arrangements between government agencies such as Memorandums of Understanding or other similar agreements. When this data was originally generated in the early 2000's, the primary source of the geometry was the BLM Geographic Coordinate Database (GCDB), if it was available. In areas where GCDB was/is unavailable, the spatial features are taken from a variety of sources including the BLM Idaho Resource Base Data collection, BLM Idaho Master Title Plat AutoCad files, US Geological Survey Digital Line Graphs (DLGs), and US Forest Service Cartographic Feature Files (CFFs), among others (see Process Steps). It should be stressed that the geometry of a feature may not be GCDB-based in the first place, the geometry may shift away from GCDB due to a variety of reasons (topology procedures, automated software processes such as projections, etc.), and the GCDB-based features are not necessarily currently being edited to match improved GCDB. Therefore this data should NOT be considered actual GCDB data. For the latest Idaho GCDB spatial data, please contact the BLM Idaho State Office Cadastral Department at 208-373-4000. The BLM in Idaho creates and maintains this spatial data. This dataset is derived by dissolving based on the "MGMT_AGNCY" field from the master SMA GIS dataset (which is edited often) kept by the BLM Idaho State Office. Please get a fresh copy of this data a couple times a year as the SMA data is continually changing. Official actions that affect the managing agency happen often and changes to correct errors are always being made. Nevada SMA data was acquired from the BLM Nevada web site and clipped to the area that is managed by Idaho BLM Boise District. The data steward approved this dataset in October 2023.

For more information contact us at blm_id_stateoffice@blm.gov.