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USGS Protected Areas & Public Lands API and MCP server

No authpadus

Nationwide PAD-US protected-area, public-land ownership, management, access, and conservation context.

USGS Protected Areas & Public Lands is published by USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) 4.1 and covers United States.

It refreshes on a schedule the publisher sets.

Last verified . That is when these facts were last rebuilt from the ParcelOps source registry, not when USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) 4.1 last refreshed the data itself.

protected-areaspublic-landsland-ownershipland-managementconservationunited-statesgeojson

API access

Your AI client reaches USGS Protected Areas & Public Lands through one ParcelOps MCP endpoint, so there is no separate key to hold for it and no per-source client to write. Reaching it takes no credentials of your own.

Set up USGS Protected Areas & Public Lands in Claude, ChatGPT, or CursorGet every fact on this page as JSON

Where it came from

PublisherUSGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) 4.1
Sourcehttps://services.arcgis.com/v01gqwM5QqNysAAi/ArcGIS/rest/services/PADUS_Management_Areas/FeatureServer/0
API basehttps://services.arcgis.com/v01gqwM5QqNysAAi/ArcGIS/rest/services/PADUS_Management_Areas/FeatureServer
Docshttps://www.usgs.gov/programs/gap-analysis-project/science/pad-us-data-download

Freshness and coverage

FreshnessScheduled · PAD-US releases are versioned; this connector records the selected service and verification date.
Places coveredUnited States
Time coveredNot declared
CredentialsNo credentials required

What this source cannot tell you

  • ⚠ Anything outside United States. A request past that edge comes back empty rather than approximated.
  • ⚠ Which years it spans, because the covered period is not declared.
  • ⚠ Anything USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) 4.1 does not publish. ParcelOps returns this source as it stands and never fills a blank field from a different one.
  • ⚠ PAD-US is an inventory and screening source, not title, a boundary survey, or a time-specific legal determination.
  • ⚠ USGS recommends consulting the responsible land manager for current local practices.

Methods (2)

A method is one call your agent can make against this source.

  • searchManagementAreas

    read

    Search PAD-US protected and public-land management polygons by place or curated ownership fields.

    Records returnedprotected-area, public-land-management-area
    How to get more resultsnone (limitField: limit)
    Coordinate systemEPSG:4326
    FreshnessScheduled (source-level)
    Input schema
    {
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "bbox": {
      "type": "array",
      "description": "[minLongitude, minLatitude, maxLongitude, maxLatitude] in WGS84.",
      "minItems": 4,
      "maxItems": 4,
      "items": {
        "type": "number"
      }
    },
    "near": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "lat": {
          "type": "number",
          "minimum": -90,
          "maximum": 90
        },
        "lon": {
          "type": "number",
          "minimum": -180,
          "maximum": 180
        },
        "radiusMiles": {
          "type": "number",
          "minimum": 0.1,
          "maximum": 100
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "lat",
        "lon",
        "radiusMiles"
      ],
      "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "state": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^[A-Za-z]{2}$"
    },
    "category": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 160
    },
    "ownerType": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 160
    },
    "managerType": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 160
    },
    "unitName": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 160
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 1000
    },
    "format": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "records",
        "geojson"
      ]
    }
  },
  "required": [],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
    • ⚠ Results do not establish title or legal boundaries.
    • ⚠ One page only: limit bounds the page and there is no offset, so narrow the filters rather than paging to reach further matches.

  • getServiceInfo

    read

    Return the selected PAD-US layer, live fields, record count, and use limits.

    FreshnessScheduled (source-level)
    Input schema
    {
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {},
  "required": [],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

Where this source is used