Effective 1 February 2006 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Service Center Agencies are implementing a new Geospatial Data Distribution policy.

This document establishes the policy on the distribution of geospatial data to USDA federal personnel and all others including the public. Only geospatial data sets produced or financed by USDA Service Center Agencies will be made available to everyone through the Geospatial Data Gateway. Geospatial data not produced or financed by USDA Service Center Agencies are no longer available through the Geospatial Data Gateway to anyone but USDA personnel.

The Geospatial Data Gateway Status Map page shows the current availability of the geospatial data as well as which products are only available to USDA and require an eAuthentication login to order. Links have been provided to the data steward to assist in finding the most current and authoritative source of the geospatial data. The official geospatial portal for the government is Geo.Data.Gov.

Some additional links that might be useful for locating geospatial data are: FGDC Suggested State Clearinghouse Websites, and The GISuser's Guide to locating and downloading Free USGS data.

USDA federal personnel need to use their eAuthentication login to access all available geospatial data through the Gateway. To use your eAuthentication login or to find out more information about obtaining a login, use the Login button at the top of this page.