Hello Torsten:
Please see our wiki page regarding these data (USFS imported data for
national forests and wildernesses) at
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/US_Forest_Service_Data.
Please see our wiki pages at
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:landuse%3Dforest and
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural%3Dwood regarding the
differences between forest (actively managed forests where timber
harvesting can and does take place, whether publicly or privately
owned), and wood, which is "for ancient or virgin woodland, with no
forestry use."
Quite arguably, all national forests ARE landuse=forest: in my mind
there is no clearer example of a landuse tag as "forest" matching so
well as exactly those of the boundaries of national forests. Also
arguably, there are NO natural=wood polygons which would be
appropriate in any national forest, as they are managed forests, not
"ancient or virgin woodland, with no forestry use." These two
categories are mutually exclusive.
The protected_area tags are correct, on that we seem to agree.
However, if there are other natural areas in such protected areas as
national forests, which are correctly tagged landuse=forest (managed
timber) which have other natural coverings, such as scrub or heath,
you are perfectly welcome to add a natural=scrub tag (or whatever)
where those natural landcovers are found, as appropriate. Landcover
is an emerging edge of OSM semantics, and there is much discussion
about it: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Landcover is a good
introduction, and
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/landcover
discusses a major proposal now under way.
Also, http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Protected_Area_Rendering
shows that protected_area=6 (as national forests are/should be
tagged) has specific polyline and dashing rules, but this (these
rules) is/are proposals for the Kosmos renderer only.
No, natural=wood is not a "better" tag (whether in replacement or as
an additional tag) to the tag of landuse=forest for national forests.
There is no interpretation here: as described above, natural=wood
and landuse=forest are quite mutually exclusive.
SteveA
California
(who recently uploaded the southern California national forests, with
careful tagging and discussion both here and in the first wiki page
mentioned above before doing so)
I am relatively new to the talk-us list and have a question
concerning the landuse tags of national forests. Right now (at least
in southern california) all national forests are landuse=forest
which leads to large green areas on the map which look like they
originate from a very old video game with giant pixels. The
boundaries of the national forest often have nothing to do with the
actual landuse=forest/natural=wood boundaries. I would therefore
vote for deleting the landuse tag [and map it separately] leaving
the national forests only as protected_areas.
Before doing this change I would like to have your input/opinion on the topic.
I know that this should actually not be a concern but does anybody
know whether protected areas of level 6 (like national forests) are
rendered? (if not this might be a reason for the initial
landuse=forest tag, although this is clearly mapping for the
renderer)
One more thing: When I look at the definition of the OSM map
features it seems that natural=wood seems to be a better tag. But
this depends a bit on the interpretation whether landuse=forest is
used for land that is primarily managed for timber production or for
woodland that is in some way maintained by humans.
Torsten
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