Land & water boundaries
| Layer | Agency / source | Update frequency |
|---|---|---|
| National forests | USDA Forest Service (ArcGIS boundary layer) | nightly re-check |
| National park units | National Park Service (ArcGIS boundary layer) | nightly re-check |
| State parks | California State Parks (ArcGIS boundary layer) | nightly re-check |
| County & city parks | Individual county/city park districts (EBRPD, Midpen, Marin, Sonoma, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Solano, and CA city park layers) | nightly re-check |
| Open space districts | Regional open-space agencies (per-agency ArcGIS layers) | nightly re-check |
| BLM recreation areas | Bureau of Land Management | nightly re-check |
| NOAA marine sanctuaries | NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries | one-time snapshot — see note below |
| Marine protected areas | California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife | nightly re-check |
| Rivers, lakes & reservoirs | USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHDPlus HR) | one-time snapshot, refreshed on manual re-run |
"Nightly re-check" means an automated job compares each layer against its official government source every night and logs anything that changed — it does not mean every underlying agency updates its own data nightly. NOAA sanctuary boundaries and the hydrography layer don't publish a live feed this project can poll, so those are static snapshots pulled at build time rather than continuously re-verified.
Regulations & permits shown in map popups
Rule text is drawn from each agency's own public regulations pages and summarized for display. Interpreting a summary of a regulation is not the same as the regulation itself — always click through to the agency's page (linked in the popup) for anything with real consequences (fines, permit requirements, closures).
Hazard / emergency layer
| Layer | Agency / source | Update frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquakes (M2.5+, Bay Area) | USGS Earthquake Hazards Program | checked ~daily via automated job |
| Active fire incidents | CAL FIRE incident API | checked ~daily via automated job |
Community reports
Where you see a citizen-submitted note, it reflects one person's unverified, in-the-field observation, not an agency confirmation. It's weighted accordingly (lowest confidence tier of any source this project tracks) and shown only for context.
License & attribution
Underlying datasets are published by US federal and California state/local government agencies and are generally public domain / open data. This site adds no license terms of its own beyond what each source already publishes; if you reuse the underlying data yourself, go to the original agency source linked above rather than treating this site as the source of record.