The Natural Resources Program Center conducted a land cover analysis to determine land cover types, acres and their subsequent percentages for the National Wildlife Refuge System. The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 was used to determine land cover classes and calculate number of acres at national and regional scales. Coordination Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, Wildlife Management Areas and Waterfowl Production Areas were extracted from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service interest boundary. Excluding Hawaii and Puerto Rico, other pacific and Caribbean were not included in the analysis due to absence of land cover data in the area. The FwsInterest feature class is an aggregated data layer derived by appending separate regional feature data sets into a single national set. The spatial and positional accuracy of this information will vary depending on the original source data and methods utilized. For additional details on FWS boundary data refer to http://www.fws.gov/GIS/data/CadastralDB/index.htm. The NLCD layer was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. It was developed for the United States at medium spatial resolution. This landcover map and all documents pertaining to it are considered "provisional" until a formal accuracy assessment can be conducted. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer et al. (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.