Modernizing Access to Our Public Land Act

Modernizing Access to our Public Land Act

This bill directs the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to jointly develop and adopt interagency standards to ensure compatibility and interoperability among federal databases for the collection and dissemination of certain data.

Specifically, these requirements shall apply to outdoor recreation data related to federal lands and used to depict locations at which recreation uses are available to the public.

Each such department shall digitize and make publicly available on their websites, as applicable, geographic information system mapping data that specifies, with respect to the relevant department, all federal interests in private land, including easements, reservations, and rights-of-way

• to which the federal government does not have a fee title interest, and
• that may be used to provide recreational access to the federal land.

Interior, the Forest Service, and the Corps of Engineers must digitize and publish geographic information system mapping data that includes

• status information as to whether roads and trails are open or closed,
• the dates on which roads and trails are seasonally opened and closed,
• the types of vehicles that are allowed on each segment of roads and trails, and
• the boundaries of areas where hunting or recreational shooting is regulated or closed.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov