[Tagging] [Talk-us] Tagging National Forests

[Mike Thompson]

On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 11:29 AM, Elliott Plack <elliott.plack at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for the continued discussion. It seems that one of you removed the
> offending landuse that I mentioned in my email yesterday (from an import
> that was not attributed). As a result, the tiles have begun to regen, and
> we can now see the beautiful, detailed forest tracing that someone did
> around the ski slopes. This is an example of why blanketing a few hundred
> thousand square miles is not appropriate. Here is a screenshot:
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xgtiodzjvhq1l4/2016-05-10%2013_14_51-OpenStreetMap.png?dl=0
>
Nice!

>
> Now, I gave this some more thought, and I do tend to agree with Steve A
> that landuse=forest indicates an area designated by humans for a particular
> use.
>
We need to be more specific as to what this means. I would suggest that
this tag is only appropriate where there is active commercial cultivation
of trees for timber, pulp or similar products. Steve things otherwise, and
I respect his point of view and appreciate how he is making his argument.
However, if we go with a much less specific definition, such as anywhere
someone can gather camp fire wood, then any land where there is a tree
(with the exception of designated wilderness areas, etc) become
landuse=forest.

We really have a number of different facts we are attempting to represent:
* What is on the ground (i.e. landcover). Currently this is tagged
natural=wood, but we could change to landcover=trees, or whatever we agree
on.
* Who administers the land / has jurisdiction (e.g. US National Forest
Service) - seems like we (the people participating in this thread) agree on
this one.
* How did the landcover get there? e.g. old growth, human planted, natural
secondary growth? I suggest that these be "secondary" tags. In other words,
all treed areas are tagged natural=wood (or whatever tag we agree on), and
tags indicating the origin of the trees be added where this information is
known.
* How is the land being used? This is where we need to come to a consensus
on a more specific definition for landuse=forest - see above.

Mike

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