Wildlands of New England GIS Data 1900-2022

Wildlands in New England is the first U.S. study to map and characterize within one region all conserved lands that, by design, allow natural processes to unfold with no active management or intervention. These “forever wild lands” include federal Wilderness areas along with diverse public and private natural areas and reserves. Knowing the precise locations of Wildlands, their characteristics, and their protection status is important as both a baseline for advancing conservation initiatives and an urgent call to action for supporting nature and society. Wildlands play a unique role in the integrated approach to conservation and land planning advanced by the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities (WWF&C) initiative, which calls for: at least 70 percent of the region to be protected forest; Wildlands to occupy at least 10 percent of the land; and all existing farmland to be permanently conserved. This research was conducted by WWF&C partners Harvard Forest (Harvard University), Highstead Foundation, and Northeast Wilderness Trust, in collaboration with over one hundred conservation organizations and municipal, state, and federal agencies. This dataset contains the Geographical Information System (GIS) polygon layer of Wildlands created by this project and used in all analyses for the 2023 report. Another GIS layer will be updated as new Wildlands are brought to our attention or created and will be available at https://wildlandsandwoodlands.org/ for researchers.

新英格兰荒野数据集是美国首个针对单一区域内所有经保护土地进行绘图与特征刻画的研究，此类土地按照设计初衷允许自然进程自然演进，无需人为主动管理或干预。这些“永久荒野土地”涵盖联邦荒野保护区，以及各类公共与私人自然区域与保护地。

掌握新英格兰荒野的精准位置、属性特征与保护现状，既是推进各类保护举措的基础基准，也是呼吁各界采取行动以支撑自然与人类社会的迫切诉求。

荒野在荒野、林地、农田与社区（Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities，缩写WWF&C）倡议所推行的保护与土地规划综合路径中发挥着独特作用，该倡议明确提出三项核心目标：区域内至少70%的土地为受保护森林；荒野占比不低于区域总面积的10%；所有现存农田均得到永久性保护。

本研究由WWF&C合作方哈佛森林（哈佛大学）、海斯泰德基金会以及东北荒野信托基金牵头实施，并与超百家保护组织、地方、州级及联邦机构通力协作完成。本数据集包含本项目创建的新英格兰荒野地理信息系统(Geographical Information System, GIS)面要素图层，该图层已用于2023年报告的全部分析工作。若后续发现或新增荒野区域，另一项GIS图层将及时更新，并向研究人员开放获取，相关数据可通过https://wildlandsandwoodlands.org/查询获取。