Description: <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P><SPAN>This dataset contains the Inventoried Roadless Areas that were used in the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule</SPAN><SPAN STYLE="font-size:8pt">. </SPAN><SPAN>The IRA data was originally submitted to GSTC by all national forests through their Regional Offices for the Forest Service’s Roadless Area Conservation Initiative. </SPAN></P><P><SPAN>The data was consolidated at the GSTC and used in the Draft Environment Impact Statement. Between the draft and final stages of the Environmental Impact Statement, the data was updated by the forests to reflect any corrections to Inventoried Roadless Areas that were based on existing forest plans and administrative record. The data was also supplemented to include Special Designated Area information and to include Inventoried Roadless Areas within Special Designated Areas. The data was resubmitted to the GSTC on July 21, 2000 for consolidation and the completed coverage was used in the Roadless Area Conservation Final Environmental Impact Statement. </SPAN></P><P><SPAN>IRAs are based on completed forest plans, forest plans in revision where the agency has established an inventory (this information should be available in Appendix C of most forest plans), or other assessments that are completed and adopted by the agency. RARE II information was used in cases where a forest does not have a more current roadless inventory, which was established using RARE II information. </SPAN></P><P><SPAN>Supplemental Information:</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>Between the draft and final stages of the Environmental Impact Statement, the data was updated by the forests to reflect any corrections to Inventoried Roadless Areas that were based on their existing forest plan. The data was also updated to include Special Designated Area information and to include Inventoried Roadless Areas within Special Designated Areas. After these updates were made the data was resubmitted to the GSTC on July 21, 2000 for consolidation.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>The final consolidation of the national IRA coverage was accomplished at the GSTC with the benefit of having one representative from each region to assist with quality control. All the completed regions were appended together into the national coverage and reprojected from Albers to decimal degrees for analysis and display in the Roadless Area Conservation Environmental Impact Statement. The IRAs only were selected from national coverage to make this dataset.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>On August 2, 2004, a technical correction to the Blue Mountain Roadless Area was performed by GSTC on behalf of the Manti-La Sal National Forest to more accurately reflect the 1983 Roadless Area Reevaluation as shown in the1986 Planning Record. The Blue Mountain IRA boundaries were re-digitized at higher resolution with the aid of topography and classified roads to match the boundary as intended in the “Roadless Area Briefing Guide for Forest Planning for the Manti-La Sal National Forest.”The technical correction complies with direction described in the Roadless Area Conservation Rule 294.11 and Interim Directive 1920-2001-1 section 1925.05.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>On March 20, 2008, a technical correction to the name of an IRA on the Manti-La Sal National Forest was performed by the GSTC. This correction changes the name of the IRA from“Big Mak IRA” to “Roc Creek IRA” as requested by the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The technical correction complies with direction described in the Roadless Area Conservation Rule 294.11 and Interim Directive 1920-2001-1 section 1925.05.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>On May 7, 2012, the following changes were made: 1) the current IRA 'coverage' format was converted to a file geodatabase feature class. 2) The GCS datum was transformed to NAD 83 from the original NAD 27 (using the NAD27 to NAD83 NADCON Geographic Transformation option) to conform with the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) data standard. 3) The previously separate Alaska data was projected to Nad83 using the NAD27 to NAD 83 Alaska transformation option and then merged with this data to make a comprehensive US dataset that included the lower 48, PR, and AK. These changes comply with direction described in the Roadless Area Conservation Rule 294.11 and Interim Directive 1920-2001-1 section 1925.05.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN /></P></DIV></DIV></DIV>