Description: A metropolitan planning organization (MPO) is a federally-mandated and federally-funded transportation policy-making organization in the United States that is made up of representatives from local government and governmental transportation authorities. The United States Congress passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which required the formation of an MPO for any urbanized area (UZA) with a population greater than 50,000. Federal funding for transportation projects and programs are channeled through this planning process. Congress created MPOs in order to ensure that existing and future expenditures of governmental funds for transportation projects and programs are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive (“3-C”) planning process. Statewide and metropolitan transportation planning processes are governed by federal law (23 U.S.C. §§ 134–135). Transparency through public access to participation in the planning process and electronic publication of plans now is required by federal law.
Description: Montana's landscape is a complex, constantly changing patchwork of federal, state, private and tribal ownership. Within these ownerships are many kinds of designations, including wilderness, parks, wildlife areas, recreation areas, and conservation easements. Because information on land stewardship is critical to effective land management, the Montana Natural Heritage Program began integrating ownership and management data into a land stewardship mapping data system in 1997. The goal of the Montana Land Stewardship Mapping Project is to manage a single, statewide digital data set that incorporates information from both public and private entities. The project assembles information on land ownership and management, conservation easements, state and federal agencies, and land trusts on a regular basis, with a major database update occurring annually. The Montana Managed Areas layer contains information on special land designations that impact management decisions. Examples include Indian Reservations, National Wildlife Refuges, State Parks, and Wilderness Areas. Managed Area boundaries do no necessarily correspond to ownership boundaries; a Managed Area may be made up of fee lands, easements, leased lands, and/or other terms. The other Stewardship layers may be referred to for ownership and conservation easement information. Visit the Montana State Library Data List to obtain Conservation Easement and Public Lands data (http://msl.mt.gov/GIS/DataList). Map features in this data set are not intended as a legal depiction of public or private surface land ownership boundaries and should not be used in place of a survey conducted by a licensed land surveyor. Similarly, map features do not imply public access to any lands.