USGS 3DEP LiDAR-derived terrain
Bare-earth elevation that sees through the canopy.
The USGS 3D Elevation Program publishes airborne LiDAR scans of the United States, processed to bare-earth elevation, canopy height, and derived layers at 10m and finer resolutions. It is the foundation of Bield: Hunt's terrain stack.
50
States covered
10 m → 1 m (per state)
Resolution
PMTiles · Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF
Tile format
Public domain
License
About this dataset
USGS 3DEP is the federal program collecting and publishing high-resolution LiDAR coverage of the United States. Aircraft fly grid patterns shooting pulsed lasers at the ground; the returns are processed into a digital elevation model (bare-earth, no trees) and a digital surface model (with vegetation). From those, Bield derives the slope, aspect, hillshade, canopy-height, and topographic contour layers that drive stand placement, escape-route prediction, and the rut-pressure surface in Bield: Hunt.
Because USGS publishes the underlying data, we host the derived layers ourselves rather than paying a tile vendor — the chart stack doesn't change when a vendor changes pricing, and the layers stay open-licensed.
Why this matters
Terrain is the load-bearing layer in Bield: Hunt — the one your stand placement, escape-route reads, and wind work all sit on top of. We render it directly from the USGS source so the contours, hillshade, and color ramp are tuned for hunting use, and so what you see today still matches the official record next season.
Used in Bield
Where this dataset shows up in the apps.
Bield: Hunt
Topographic basemap
Tri-resolution contours (100ft, 40ft, 20ft) rendered per-state, hillshade-blended.
See it in HuntBield: Hunt
Best-stand intelligence
Slope, aspect, and canopy gaps combined with wind to score stand positions.
See it in HuntBield: Hunt
Escape-route prediction
Terrain pinch-points derived from elevation gradients between bedding and security cover.
See it in HuntBield: Farm
Field elevation profile
Per-field slope and aspect surface for drainage planning and erosion-risk calls.
See it in Farm