New USGS data-driven tools can aid restoration of mine lands across America

DENVER, Colo. - Thanks to investments from President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the U.S. Geological Survey today released a web mapping application, a data catalog and an informational report to aid resource managers in mine lands assessment and restoration.

Mine lands, both active and abandoned, exist throughout the United States. These lands can pose environmental hazards and safety risks to humans and wildlife, but there is a lack of information on the whereabouts of mining activities and their potential environmental effects.

As worldwide demand for critical minerals rises, so does mining activity and mine land abundance. Managers of these mine lands need more reliable information to make science-based decisions about how to restore and reclaim these landscapes.

The three new products help address this information gap by providing a suite of complementary tools and information that make it easier to assess and track mining activity, monitor mine land conditions and plan restoration and reclamation projects.

• Mine lands web mapping tool: This interactive, customizable web map allows users to visualize geospatial data to support the assessment and management of mine lands. Within the mapping tool, users can overlay mine lands and mine-related features with a variety of other landscape characteristics, such as geology or fire history. Users can also generate custom data summaries for user-defined areas of interest. In its initial version, the application gives users a quick summary of summary of mine features. Additional data and capabilities will be added to the tool in future releases.