VA Department of Forestry

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Virginia Department of Forestry — state forests, DOF offices, fire-risk Woodland Home Communities, and the canonical Virginia Conservation Lands aggregator (DCR-curated). 4 layers covering 26 working state forests, 14,535 conservation tracts, 5,433 fire-risk evaluations, and 42 office locations. No credentials required.

What is VA Department of Forestry?

Virginia Department of Forestry data plus the wider Virginia Conservation Lands aggregator (DCR-curated). Four curated layers: VA State Forests (26 working state forest polygons covering Appomattox-Buckingham 19,512 acres, Big Woods 2,399, Cumberland, Crawfords Knob, Whitney, Channels, Sandy Point, Charlotte, Conway-Robinson, Goshen-Little North Mountain, and 17 others); VDOF Offices (42 regional + work-area offices with phone, address, and region); 2019 Woodland Home Communities (5,433 fire-risk-evaluated wildland-urban-interface communities — Fire_Risk distinct values: High 2,606 / Moderate 1,926 / Low 320 / Medium 27 / EXTREME 3; Mit_Hazard distinct: Low 1,479 / Moderate 1,409 / High 335 / Extreme 74; community type Interface 1,333 / Intermix 1,631 / Occluded 23 with 5 typo variants on the column); Virginia Conservation Lands aggregator (14,535 polygons curated by VA DCR, covering all state-managed and federally-managed and private-easement tracts in VA — MATYPE has 70 distinct values led by Conservation Easement 7,961, Local Park 2,015, National Park 1,307, Non-Profit Fee Simple Holding 482, State Park 339, National Forest 330, State Natural Area Preserve 232, National Wildlife Refuge 223, NF Special Biological Areas 202, TNC Preserve 157, State Wildlife Management Area 152, Military Installation 82, TNC Land Holding 72, Reservoir 52, Local Open Space 52, State Forest 42, Regional Park 42, NPS Holding 374, NF Wilderness Area 25, DWR Land Holding 35; MALEVEL distinct: VOF 3,773 / Local 3,005 / Federal 2,966 / Private 2,601 / State 2,177 / Tribal 12; LAYER tier codes EASEMENT 7,592 / FEE-F 2,393 / FEE-L 2,117 / FEE-S 938 / FEE-P 777 / FEE-T 12 / COHOLD 407 / DESIGNATION 299; PUBACCESS is free-text with 38 variants from 'open' 5,357 to 'closed' 8,300 to 'by arrangement with steward'). Section 0 surprises: VDOF Office column names carry an internal USER_-prefix; handler strips it on read. WHC County values are UPPERCASE (ACCOMACK / FAIRFAX / GRAYSON); the Conservation Lands aggregator has no COUNTY column at all — filter by name / agency / bbox. WHC Com_Type column has 5 typo variants of Interface/Intermix — handler matches via substring so any typo falls in the right bucket. Toggle on and use — no setup needed. Last verified live 2026-05-08.

Available Tools

searchStateForests
VA state forest polygons (26 forests; Appomattox-Buckingham at 19.5K acres is the largest). Filter forestName, minAcres (SUM_Acres), bbox, near. Returns name + acres + polygon geometry.
searchConservationLands
VA Conservation Lands aggregator (~14.5K polygons). Filter maType (70 values incl Conservation Easement / State Park / State Forest / State WMA / National Park / Local Park / TNC Preserve), maLevel (Local / State / Federal / Private / VOF / Tribal / Historical Park), maAgency, layerTier (FEE-S / FEE-F / FEE-L / FEE-P / FEE-T / EASEMENT / COHOLD / DESIGNATION), publicAccess (substring match across 38 variants), minAcres (TOTALACRE), bbox. Returns label + name + agency + level + access + acres + polygon geometry. No COUNTY column — filter by name / agency / bbox.
searchWoodlandCommunities
VA fire-risk evals of wildland-urban-interface communities (~5,433 points). Filter community, county (UPPERCASE upstream), fireRisk (Low/Moderate/Medium/High/EXTREME), mitigationHazard (Low/Moderate/High/Extreme), comType (Interface / Intermix / Occluded — handler matches typo variants via substring), bbox. Returns risk ratings + community type + fire district + lots + homes built + lat/lon.
searchDofOffices
VDOF regional + work area offices (42 points). Filter city, region, name (matches both Location_Name and short name). Returns title + street + city + zip + phone + region + lat/lon. USER_*-prefixed field names are stripped on read.
getServiceInfo
Schema, record counts (live), max-page caps, all 70 MATYPE values + 7 MALEVEL + 8 LAYER tiers + 5 fire risk levels, §0 probe notes for any of the 4 curated layers.

Requirements

Toggle on
Toggle on and use — no setup needed.

Quick Setup Guide

Follow these steps to connect your AI agents to this connector

Open /mcp and enable VA Department of Forestry with the toggle — no credentials needed.

Call searchStateForests with minAcres: 5000 for the largest VA state forests, or searchConservationLands with maType: 'Conservation Easement' and minAcres: 100 for over-100-acre easements, or searchWoodlandCommunities with county: 'FAIRFAX' and fireRisk: 'High' for high-risk woodland-urban-interface communities.

Connect to Your AI Assistant

Choose your AI assistant below for specific setup instructions

Follow these steps to connect VA Department of Forestry to Claude:

Step 1: Open Claude Settings

Launch Claude → Click the profile button (bottom left) → Navigate to Settings

Step 2: Access Connectors

Scroll down to the Connectors tab → Navigate to the bottom → Click “Add Custom Connector”

Step 3: Name Your Connector

Enter any name you'd like for this connector

Step 4: Get the Connector URL

Step 5: Add the Connector

Paste the URL in the “Remote MCP Server URL” text box → Click Add

Step 6: Start Using

Your connector is now ready to use in Claude

Follow these steps to connect VA Department of Forestry to ChatGPT:

Step 1: Enable Developer Mode

Go to Settings → Connectors → Advanced → Enable Developer mode

Step 2: Create New Connector

Go back to Connectors page → Click “Create” (top right)

Step 3: Name Your Connector

Enter any name you'd like for this connector (descriptions are optional)

Step 4: Get the Connector URL

Step 5: Add the URL

Paste the URL in the “MCP Server URL” text box

Step 6: Set Authentication

Click the authentication dropdown → Select “No authentication” (PatchOps handles authentication internally)

Step 7: Create the Connector

Click “I understand and want to continue” checkbox → Press Create

Step 8: Using the Connector

Start a new chat → Click the + button (left of text box) → Open dropdown → Hover over three dots labeled “More” → Select your connector

Instructions for connecting VA Department of Forestry to GitHub Copilot:

Coming Soon

Detailed setup instructions for GitHub Copilot will be added here.

For other MCP-compatible platforms:

Step 1: Get the Connector URL

Step 2: Add to Configuration

Add this configuration to your MCP settings file. Replace the URL with your specific connector URL from the /mcp page:

"VA Department of Forestry-MCP": {
  "url": "https://patchops.ai/api/mcp/...",
  "type": "http"
}

Example Configuration

Here’s an example using PatchOps MCP:

"PatchOps-MCP": {
  "url": "https://patchops.ai/api/mcp/...",
  "type": "http"
}