On Friday the Trust for Public Land (TPL) announced the launch of a new land conservation database, available at http://www.conservationalmanac.org/. The site has had information available on conservation before, but is now offering parcel-level data and mapping features. The new features are currently available for Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, and Oregon. This morning Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming will be added.

I went straight to the map (http://www.conservationalmanac.org/secure/map.php) and opened up Florida. When you visit the map you’ll get a little ten-slide introduction that gives you an overview to using the site. Once you’ve opened a state (remember not all states have data available yet) you can see protected lands on a parcel level and get information about each parcel. There’s also a detailed report that includes a little more information, nicely detailed in a PDF file.

I thought this was an interesting way to get information on conserved lands, but since there are only five states available you may have to wait a while to use it; I’m not sure of the schedule in adding states. I also noticed when using it that sometimes getting maps of conserved lands was very slow. I’m looking forward to seeing it complete and maybe a little bit faster…