Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge

This data set contains boundary layers for the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in Vermont.

National Wildlife Refuges are federal lands managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The primary source for boundary information is the USFWS Realty program (status maps, legal surveys). A joint effort between the Region 5 (northeast - ME, MA, NH,
VT, RI, CT, NY, PA, NJ, MD, VA, WV) GIS Lab and Realty program, has resulted in digital refuge boundaries for all refuges in the northeast at a 1:24,000 scale.

The purpose of this data is to serve as a spatial reference of refuge boundaries for other data layers in GIS and mapping applications. It is specifically not intended to be used as a land survey or representation of land for conveyance or tax purposes. The Realty
Survey program in USFWS is developing cadastral information (boundary and acreage data) appropriate for legal purposes. It is expected that data created in this project will be replaced as better survey
information is collected.

Status maps were registered to geographic coordinates, boundaries digitized and labeled, then stepped through 3 levels of quality review for spatial and thematic accuracy.

Refuge boundaries define areas that are approved by U.S. Congress for acquisition in the National Wildlife Refuge System, or are currently owned by USFWS. Arcs are coded with an item "boundary" that the type
of boundary line and polygons are coded with an item "status" that describes their ownership status.

[Summary provided by U.S. Fish