This dataset is meant to depict Wilderness Study Areas (WSA's), within the state of New Mexico, identified by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as having potential for wilderness designation. Each study areas has been valuated for its resource values, present and projected future uses, public input, the manageability of the area as wilderness, the environmental consequences of designating (or not) the area as wilderness, and mineral surveys. Data was collected by the BLM - New Mexico State Office.

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This polygon feature class represents the spatial extent and boundaries of BLM National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) Wilderness Areas.

This data has been collected by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in New Mexico at the New Mexico State Office. The initial data source is the statewide Public Land Survey System (PLSS) coverage for the state of New Mexico, generated at the BLM New Mexico State Office. Additional data was onscreen-digitized from BLM Cadastral Survey Plats and Master Title Plats, or tablet-digitized from 1:24,000 paper maps. This revision reflects boundary adjustments made in the Albuquerque area to more accurately reflect boundaries as depicted on USGS 1:24,000 topographic maps. Note for Shapefiles: Shapefiles have been created from coverages using the "Export Coverage to Shapefile" function in ArcGIS 8.3. All occurrences of "#" and "-" in INFO item names are replaced with an underscore character. This includes COVER# and COVER-ID, which become "COVER_" and "COVER_ID". Additionally, the Shapefile format only allows 10 characters in item names, so long item names are truncated. To avoid duplicate names, the items are truncated and assigned consecutive numbers. For example, in a coverage called CITY_STREET the items "CITY_STREET#" and "CITY_STREET-ID" become "CITY_STRE" and "CITY_STR_1" .

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