Assessment of public and private land cover change in the United States from 1985–2018

An assessment of annual land cover on publicly and privately managed lands across the conterminous United States (CONUS) from 1985–2018 was performed, including land cover conversions within their management category, to inform future policy and land-use decision-making in natural resource management. Synthesizing land cover data with land management delineations aids our ability to address effects of land management decisions by public or private entities. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) version 2.1 data delineate land management categories and enable examination of land cover composition and change using the USGS Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) reference data. Average composition of our delineated CONUS results using LCMAP land cover classes is 40% Grass/Shrub (GS), 29% Tree Cover (TC), 18% Cropland (CP), 5% Developed (DV), 5% Wetland (WL), 1.8% Water (WR), and 0.9% Barren (BN). Private (public) land is composed of 35% (52%) GS, 27% (36%) TC, 25% (1%) CP, 7% (1%) DV, 5% (5%) WL, 2% (2%) WR, and less than 1% (3%) BN. Land cover change averaged less than 1% per year. The largest net percentage gains across CONUS were in DV land and GS, and the greatest net losses were in CP and TC. Approximately 73% of CONUS is private land and, thus, land cover change across CONUS is largely a reflection of private land change dynamics. Private compositional changes show net gains from 1985–2018 in DV (2.3%), WR (0.2%), and GS (0.1%) classes, while net losses occurred in CP (−1.9%), TC (−0.6%), WL (−0.1%), and BN (−0.01%). Public land cover changes show net gains in GS (1%), DV (0.2%), WR (0.01%), WL (0.05%), and BN (0.1%) classes, and net losses in CP (−0.3%) and TC (−1%). Our study reveals connections between land cover conversion and various policy and socioeconomic decisions through time.