GIS data are made available to the public by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory. FNAI must be cited as the source of these data in all reports and products making use of these data. These data are updated frequently, and the user is responsible for ensuring the most recent updates are used. FNAI is not responsible for any errors or incompleteness in user analysis or products based on these data.
We have transitioned our data downloads to a feature class format. This has allowed us to have more text in a single field, making splitting certain fields in the old shapefile format unnecessary. The feature classes also have common language field names, as aliases.
Additional data formats and web maps are available on the FNAI Geospatial Open Data site.
The Florida Natural Areas Inventory is the primary source for information on Florida's conservation lands. FNAI's database includes boundaries and statistics for more than 3,000 federal, state, local, and private managed areas, all provided directly by the managing agencies. National parks, state forests, wildlife management areas, local and private preserves are examples of the managed areas included. The shapefile is called FLMA for Florida Managed Areas; updated versions are published quarterly. A summary of Conservation Lands Acreage is available in PDF format on the conservation lands main page.
FNAI maintains the boundaries of all current Florida Forever environmental land acquisition projects approved by the State's Acquisition and Restoration Council and administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Division of State Lands, for the State Board of Trustees (BOT). These lands have been proposed for acquisition because of outstanding natural resources, opportunity for natural resource-based recreation, or historical and archaeological resources. This map does not include Florida Forever projects administered by the water management districts or by other state agencies. Note that boundaries of each Florida Forever BOT project are for the entire project, including areas that have already been acquired. The FFBOT data are updated approximately every two to four months.
The Florida Natural Areas Inventory also maintains a database specific to lands acquired through the State's Florida Forever Program, which began in 2001, and American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA). The Florida Forever Acquisitions plus ARPA (ff_acquired) data layer contains parcel-specific information pertaining to lands purchased with Florida Forever or ARPA funding. It currently includes parcels acquired by all of the programs that receive Florida Forever monies. Most of the Florida Forever parcels are also incorporated into the Florida Natural Areas Inventory's Florida Managed Areas (FLMA) data layer, either as new managed areas (i.e., conservation lands) or additions to existing managed areas.
FNAI has conducted a statewide analysis of natural resource conservation priorities for the Florida Forever program. FNAI created or compiled GIS data layers for rare species habitat, natural communities, ecological greenways, large landscapes, significant surface waters, natural floodplain, functional wetlands, aquifer recharge, coastal resources, cultural resources, recreation, and sustainable forestry. This analysis resulted in a Conservation Needs Assessment, which established baseline protection status for each natural resource, and provides a tool for tracking progress in resource acquisition.
In 2006, the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida called for an identification of those lands and waters in the state that are critical to the conservation of Florida's natural resources. In response, the Florida Natural Areas Inventory, University of Florida GeoPlan Center, and Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission collaborated to produce CLIP - the Critical Lands and Waters Identification Project. CLIP is a GIS database of statewide conservation priorities for a broad range of natural resources, including biodiversity, landscape function, surface water, groundwater, and marine resources. CLIP Version 4.0 was completed in August 2016. CLIP 4.0 data may be viewed online or downloaded for use in GIS.
The Cooperative Land Cover Map project is a partnership between Florida Natural Areas Inventory and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to develop an improved statewide land cover map from existing sources and expert review of aerial photography for focal communities. The project was funded from 2008 - 2010 by the Florida's State Wildlife Grants program in support of The Florida State Wildlife Action Plan which identified improved habitat mapping as a priority data gap.
FNAI is contributing to the control of invasive plants by developing The Florida Invasive Plants Geodatabase (FLInv) to map invasive plant infestations on public conservation lands in Florida. FLInv is populated with existing data submitted by resource managers and supplemented by FNAI field surveys. Mapping invasive infestations is important because it allows development of management strategies which make the most efficient use of control resources. Data from the FLInv geodatabase for species designated as Category I and II Invasives by the Florida Invasive Species Council are available for download through EDDMapS.
These data are related to the Natural Community Reference Site maps.