ESRI Conservation Program Resources:

General Conservation

(ECP and CTSP members, sites of interest for mapping/GIS, scholarly papers and ESRI Conference Proceedings, and sites with public conservation and GIS data for downloading) (Under Construction)

(Legend: CTSP sites are coded "c" plus the year of the grant, (cs=software, cm=mac), ECP grantees are coded "e". Many groups, especially newer grantees, do not yet have their own sites and are colored green. Other new groups may be described or supported by other sites, INDEX)

1000 Friends of Florida Fl c99 . (P.O. Box 5948 Tallahassee, Florida 32314-5948 Work Phone: (850) 222-6277 Work Fax: (850) 222-1117 Main Email: dpen@tallynet.com ) "protect and improve Florida's quality of life by advocating responsible planning for the state's population growth. Our planners, attorneys and community activists work to protect natural areas, fight urban sprawl, promote sensible development patterns, and provide affordable housing. Above all, we strive to give citizens the tools to keep Florida's communities livable...Over the last decade, the advances in personal computers and software have changed the field of planning analysis. It is very common for local governments or individual developers to have the ability to manipulate data to show various land use scenarios or patterns when making decisions. 1000 Friends is often in the position of evaluating those decisions. Yet we are hampered because we do not have the same data manipulation capabilities as those on the other side of the table. ...Past efforts of 1000 Friends where the use of "borrowed" GIS has been important include: helping to develop various greenway/trails in the state; analyzing natural resource impacts for various specific land use planning legal cases; and, participation in community visioning and land planning scenarios. " see: Planning for Tomorrow: A Citizen's Guide to Smarter Growth in Florida

1000 Friends of Oregon . ( 534 Southwest Third Avenue, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97204, Phone 503-497-1000 Fax 503-223-0073 E-mail rll@friends.org Contact: Robert Liberty ) . "works for land-use policies that conserve farm and forest lands, protect natural resources, and promote compact and livable cities. ...using advisory committees on land use and sprawl with groups such as farmers, timber producers, developers, and local officials." Check their map of their statewide network of collaborators . See how they used their GIS in: Overview and Accomplishments of the Oregon and Metro Portland Planning Programs . Vision to Action: How 1000 Friends of Oregon helped Portland grow, say no to a big highway and stay healthy .

Adirondack Council Ny . (The Adirondack Council PO Box D-2, 2 Church Street Elizabethtown, NY 12932-0640 Tel. (518) 873-2240 Fax (518) 873-6675 e-mail: adkcouncil@aol.com GIS Contact: Richard McCaffrey richardm@eagle.ptialaska.net) "The Adirondack Council is a non-profit environmental group that has been working since 1975 to protect the open-space resources of New York State's six-million-acre Adirondack Park and to help sustain the natural and human communities of the region. The Council's advocacy on behalf of the Park also extends to the state capital and Washington. "

Alaska Boreal Forest Council c97 (Alaska Boreal Forest Council, Hidden Drive, Number 3, P. O. Box 84530, Fairbanks, AK 99708-4530 USA Tel: 907-457-8453 Fax: 907-457-5185 E-mail: abfc@polarnet.com ) . We seek to define ecologically sustainable forestry in Interior Alaska's boreal forest. Learning as we go, our mission is to build consensus among all members of the Tanana River Basin community; acknowledging that parts of the forest may be used without damaging the ecosystem. Through respect, earnest application, and rigorous commitment, we believe resource conflicts must be resolved through a process of consensus. This is a departure from traditional bureaucratic forest management and is called "community forestry." It requires sharing the active responsibility of forest management among elected officials, agency personnel, scientists, forest users and other people. We seek to become community foresters.

Alaska Center for the Environment (519 W. 8th, #201, Anchorage, AK 99501 (907) 274-3621 Fax 274-8733 email: mailto:akcenter@alaska.net)  . "ACE is a non-profit environmental advocacy and education organization dedicated to the conservation of Alaska's natural resources." Check out their conservation accomplishments here .

Alaska Southeast Links - Environment & Ecology . by Manchee & McLean, Curators of the Juneau Web, PO Box 32960 Juneau, Alaska 99803 907-789-HELP (4357)

Alaska Marine Conservation Council c97 . (P.O. Box 101145 Anchorage, AK 99510-1145 Tel: 907-277-5357 Fax: 907-277-5975 amcc@igc.apc.org GIS Contact: Francine Bennis mailto:fjb@akmarine.org .) . "AMCC's membership consists of fishermen, subsistence users, researchers and others throughout Alaska working to protect the health and diversity of our marine ecosystem. Its goals include: clean fishing; ecosystem management; marine habitat protection; sustainable community-based fisheries; clean water; increased marine research; and participation by coastal Alaskans in decisions affecting the marine environment." . See the Habitat Mapping Project for their GIS work "AMCC recently added a layer of local and traditional knowledge to our latest mapping project on Kodiak Island red king crab. In the summer of 1998, Violet Yeaton conducted interviews with local people of Kodiak Island regarding red king crab abundance and distribution and how it has changed in the last thirty years. The information gathered is being applied in GIS maps to help illustrate the recent history of red king crab around the Kodiak Archipelago. " . See Alaska Marine Conservation Council's Major Campaigns . GIS NEWS: "Having the capacity to use ArcView and the maps it creates is of tremendous help in our work in fisheries reform. A big part of what we do is public education, and often the best, most direct way to convey a message is through maps. Additionally, we can be part of the ever-expanding data loop now that federal, state, and local agencies are devoting attention to GIS work in fisheries and other aspects of the marine environment. As mentioned earlier, we are working on a GIS project of the red king crab Around Kodiak Island, mapping the changes in their abundance and distribution over the last several decades. There was a dramatic development of the red king crab commercial fishery there in the 1960's and 1970's, followed by an equally dramatic collapse of the fishery by 1983. We are using survey and fishery data to help track the changes. Additionally, one of the "layers" of data is based upon interviews we're conducting with people to collect local and traditional knowledge regarding red king crab and the fishery. In a way, this is a melding of the modern and the ancient; we are able to bridge the gaps of knowledge and understanding in the marine environment by working directly with people who know it well through their day to day living experiences, then have the information conveyed via computer generated maps. "

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies (Box 8731 Missoula, MT 59807 ph:406-721-5420 fax:406-721-9917 email: mailto:awr@wildrockies.org) . "formed in 1988 to meet the challenge of saving the Wild Rockies Bioregion from habitat destruction and deforestation. We're 700 organizations, business owners and thousands of individuals who have joined together in an ecosystem-based, bioregional approach to protect and restore this great region. " See: Ecosystem Defense Project . Don't miss their Map showing major designations under The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA). . see: Core Ecosystems of the Northern Rockies . see: Protecting Biological Corridors for another fine map . Their Salvage Logging Report includes PDF maps of salvage sales in the northern rockies .

American Association for the Advancement of Science, Population and Sustainable Development Program Dc e98 . (200 New York Avenue NW, Washington DC 20005 Tel: (202) 326-6658 * Fax: (202) 289-4958 Email: vdompka@aaas.org GIS Contact: Lars Bromley ) "Funded by a grant from the Summit Foundation, PSD is currently collaborating with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to use ArcInfo and ArcView to manage and display the datasets which best depict population-environment interactions. PSD is drawing on the AAAS membership--the worlds largest federation of scientific and engineering societies--and our international contacts for expertise in choosing, analyzing, and commenting on the data gathered to ensure the greatest accuracy....Our outputs from this project will be extensive. First, a publication entitled "A World Atlas of Populations and the Environment," will be released in late 1999 to coincide with the anticipated Cairo +5 international population conferences. This Atlas, which Bansen Publishing has expressed interest in, will be distributed among institutions, academia, business, and individuals worldwide. Themes such as 'Human Populations and Coastal Areas,' or 'Human Consumption and CO2 Emissions,' will be chosen, data gathered from public and institutional sources, and GIS-generated maps created for review. The most effective of these maps will then be rendered for publishing in the Atlas together with commentary supplied by leading experts in their respective fields. "

American Wildlands, Bozeman MT c96 . (40 East Main Street, Suite #2, Bozeman, MT 59715, Phone: (406) 586-8175 Fax: (406) 586-8242, Email: webmail@wildlands.org ) American Wildlands is a science-based activist and advocacy group dedicated to preserving and maintaining wildlands and wildlife in the Northern Rocky Mountain region....As we defined our approach to the problem (science, law, politics, economics) and the implementation of a science-based solution (education, advocacy, activism) we felt that the structure (or infrastructure) we were shaping was analagous to a tree. American Wildlands Links Pages & Data Sources .

Appalachian Mountain Club, Gorham NH c95. (5 Joy Street Boston, MA 02108 tel:617-523-0636 fax:617-523-0722 email:conservation@amcinfo.org) "Since the AMC was founded in 1876, we have been at the forefront of the environmental protection movement. By co-founding several of New England's leading environmental organizations, and working in coalition with these and many more groups, the AMC has positively influenced legislation and public opinion. GIS PROGRAM: "AMC's Research Department uses GIS in many of their conservation efforts and research programs. Working with the Northern Forest Alliance, a consortium of 30 environmental organizations, the AMC uses Landsat satellite imagery and other data sources to inventory and map natural resources on over 18 million acres in northern Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Through the application of a GIS system with Landsat imagery they have identified areas of recent human impact and have located potentially critical wildlife habitat and ecosystems deserving of protection. The map-based and factual information from the AMC's Northern Forest database were critical to the completion of a report released by AMC and two conservation partners, entitled "An inventory and Ranking of the Northern Forest Lands of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine". The GIS program also provided the ecological maps and analyses used in a report released by the Northern Forest Alliance entitled "Wildlands: and Conservation Strategy for the Northern Forest...The AMC's Research Department has also initiated several cooperative projects with large timberland owners to inventory and map their lands such that timber harvest plans can be better integrated with resource protection. During the summer of 1996, AMC scientists and student interns worked with the Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge and a large timber owner to inventory/ map sensitive ecological resources, and to develop ecologically sensitive timber harvest plans on their lands which abut the refuge. This project has received extensive and favorable publicity (including a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal ) and has been widely noted as an example of the type of cooperative effort that is needed to further the twin goals of economic and environmental sustainability for the Northeast. In addition, the AMC serves as a major source of information on the region, and provides maps and data to a wide range of conservation groups, land trusts, state agencies, and public policy forums. Recently, AMC produced new, digitally-composed hiking maps of the 790,000-acre White Mountain National Forest region by creating digital base maps and GPSing over 1,200 miles of hiking trails in rugged, mountainous terrain. These maps are used by tens of thousands of hikers annually. " " see: Northern Forest Ecology : "This map, derived from satellite imagery, shows (in red) the cumulative amount of forest clearing from 1973-1991 in the vicinity of Baxter State Park and Moosehead Lake in central Maine. Most of this represents clear-cutting, but other clearing due to fire, windstorms, or development is also present.". see: Alpine Ecology. . Don't miss the Land & Water Conservation Fund project page, with full details on this fundamental source of US open space funding. You can see Online Maps of LWCF lands in your state here, or report by congressional district, project type, or national land unit . "In 1965, Congress created the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to preserve open space, develop recreation opportunities, and assure that all Americans have access to quality outdoor recreation. It was a simple idea: A "pay as you go" program using revenues from resource use to support the creation of parks, forests, clean water, and open spaces...Congress has broken its promise with the American people by misusing the Land and Water Conservation Fund. LWCF receives $900 million each year, and every year, as much as 85 percent of the Fund is diverted for purposes other than conservation and recreation. In fact, since Congress originally made its commitment to conserve the American outdoors in 1965, it has diverted $12 billion of LWCF funds to other uses. In recent years, Congress has not funded the State Grant Program at all. Every year, we lose countless opportunities to conserve precious resources and open space for all Americans to enjoy. . "

Appalachian Trail Conference Wv e98 . (799 Washington Street P.O. Box 807 Harpers Ferry, West Virginia 25425 tel:304/535-6331 email:info@atconf.org GIS Contact: Robert B. Williams bwilliams@atconf.org) "a volunteer-centered nonprofit, maintains the 2,160-mile Appalachian Trail footpath and helps manage the lands that protect it. " GIS PROGRAM: "In coordination with the National Park Service, the Appalachian Trail Conference is now working with GIS Specialist Mark Grupe. This addition to our staff will enable us to begin work on the construction of a GIS digital database. Our intent is to link the GIS system with the Trail Resources Database (TREAD) that is already in use. Linking Treads to a GIS will enable us to incorporate spatial relations to our existing database. The combination of mapping and relational database capabilities of GIS will help us to prioritize lands in terms of preservation and protection. The flexibility in GIS display, along with the visual images that can be created will be influential when approaching landowners and other organizations with conservation projects."

Aral Sea Information Committee, Sausalito, CA e92. (William T. Davoren, 1055 Fort Cronkhite Sausalito, CA 94965 , Phone: 415. 331. 5122 Fax: 415. 331. 2722 email: perc@igc.apc.org ) . "The ASIC was formed in Moscow in March 1991 by non- governmental representatives of Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyztan, plus southern Kazakhstan) and the USA. The primary goals are to bring the problems of the Aral Basin to the world audience and to bring rational management to the water, soil, air and public health resources of the Basin."

Aspen Wilderness Workshop, Co c99 . (900 El Jebel Road, #66 Deer Trail, El Jebel, CO 81628 ,P. O. Box 9025, Aspen, CO 81612 USA tel:(970) 544-9509 fax:(970) 544-9509 email:sloan@rof.net GIS contact: Richard Compton, Beverly Keifer) growing out of GIS developments at the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Program and the Mt. Sopris Sierra Club in 1998 . " The Aspen Wilderness Workshop was founded in 1966 to advocate for the creation and protection of Wilderness Areas and to promote wilderness values in the Aspen, Colorado area. Since then the mission has grown to embrace the protection of all mountain ecosystems threatened by a burgeoning recreation industry as well as direct resource extraction. As small, localized ski areas have mushroomed into regional resort and support complexes, the Workshop has had to expand its area of concern as well. This area, which encompasses most of the White River National Forest, is roughly a semi-circle with a 60-mile radius extending west, north and east from Aspen. "..GIS PLAN: "The mission of the Ecosystem Mapping Project is to provide GIS mapping services to its parent organization (the Aspen Wilderness Workshop) and other local and regional non-profit groups for the purposes of public education and conservation advocacy. The Ecosystem Mapping Project is also a regional affiliate of the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project...we will use GIS primarily for our ongoing work with the White River National Forest's Forest Plan Update, and also to provide technical support for the Colorado BLM Wilderness Campaign being led by the Colorado Environmental Coalition. ."

Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions . (P.O. Box 157, Mendham, NJ 07945 Phone: 201-539-7547 Fax: 201-539-7713 Sally Dudley, Executive Director mailto:SallyANJEC@aol.com) . "The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) provides technical training and information resources for municipal environmental commissioners, other local officials, and interested citizens." An excellent overview of ANJEC's GIS work and good advice for anyone starting GIS is given in: . . Toward Planned Open Space: "..How can municipalities move toward a more comprehensive, orderly and cost-effective open space effort? In contra-distinction to the ad-hoc decision making currently employed, it is possible to develop a planned approach to open space acquisition that prevents community discord and results in an orderly strategic plan with public support...One promising tool to assist in developing an overall planning effort involves computer analysis using Geographic Information Systems, abbreviated as "GIS." ..With these tools and skills, your commission will be able to aid your community's open space planning efforts by producing maps of critical environmental factors such as wetlands, slopes, land use and land cover. ".. . Find out about Environmental Commissions and how they work for the environment .

Audubon Kissimmee Prarie Sanctuary Fl e97 . (100 Riverwoods Circle, Lorida, FL 33857 tel:941-467-8497 fax:941-467-8460 Audubon@okeechobee.com GIS contact: Dr. Paul N. Gray ) "The natural hydrology of the Sanctuary has been altered due to activities on neighboring properties. These hydrological problems have caused reproductive failure in our population of endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrows in two of the past three years. This is one of the four populations of these sparrows remaining in the world. We hope to be able to solve some of these problems with improved information that we can attain by using Spatial Analyst. Spatial Analyst will also help in other areas of sanctuary management."

Bastrop County Environmental Council, Bastrop TX c95 . (Gary Bassner , P.O. Box 1069 , Bastrop TX 78602 , (512) 321-1600, Ansel Glover, Tom Dureka (akamai@onr.com)) "Formed in 1990 in response to the threat of a hazardous waste facility the BCEN has grown to be Bastrop's primary environmental organization. BCEN, a non-profit organization, produces a free educational newsletter, supports scholarships for deserving students, supports citizen's efforts to protect the Colorado River, and is committed to the preservation and conservation of the natural resources of Bastrop County." . "programs include dedication of wildlife preserves in our urbanizing county, creation of a regional environmental network between Austin and Houston focussing on environmental concerns of the rural populations, founding a regional ground water management association, and others." .

BC Wild, Vancouver BC c95. (Box 2241, Main Post Office, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 1H2, Phone: (604) 669-4802 Fax: (604) 669-6833 E-mail: twebb@helix.net) . BC Wild is dedicated to healthy environments, economies and communities that can be sustained in the long term, with primary focus on wilderness protection and sustainable forest practices. Through its mapping program, BC Wild provided conservation groups with satellite images of areas under negotiation in Commission on Resources and Environment processes. Other mapping projects (A Conservation Vision Map of Southwestern British Columbia) have identified the gaps between what is already protected and what is needed to conserve representative samples of the province's diverse ecosystems. ...Proposed protected areas were identified during a series of workshops by individuals representing a range of environmental organizations. Participants were asked to draw lines around those areas most important to their respective organizations and then BC Wild completed a GAP Analysis.

Bicycle Federation of America Dc c98 . (1506 21st Street, NW Suite 200 Washington DC 20036 202.463.6622 202.463.6625 moemail@erols.com ) "We prepared a joint presentation on the use of GIS/ArcView in bicycle and pedestrian planning at our biennial conference, Pro Bike/Pro Walk, in September -- and have founded a GIS/Bike/Ped users group to support the development of improved methods in this area. We are working on a new model which relies on the spatial analyst for several key functions, iincludingthe introduction of slope and grade into the model. "

Biodiversity Associates, Laramie WY c95 . (P.O. Box 6032, Laramie, WY 82070 (307)745-7776, 742-7978 Leila Stanfield, Jeff Kessler email:jkessler@igc.apc.org) . Biodiversity Associates work to protect native species and their habitats, primarily on public lands in the Rocky Mountain West. "

Border Information & Solutions Network (BISN) Tx e98 . (143 East Price Road, Brownsville, Tx 78521 USA tel:956-546-1161 fax:956-982-1876 email: bisn@bisn.org ) "is dedicated to promoting sustainable development of the US/Mexico border by enhancing collaboration and communication through the Internet. GIS NEWS: "A GIS workshop with presenters from ESRI and INEGI representatives was held on Tuesday, June 10th from 8 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The workshop was held in conjunction with the meeting of the Transboundary Resource Inventory Program (TRIP) and enabled users and potential users of GIS to explore the opportunities and realities of GIS use within the lower Rio Grande/Rio Bravo region. "

Bucks County Audubon Society Pa e98 . (6324 Upper York Road, New Hope, PA 18938 tel:(215) 297-5880 fax:(215) 297-0835 email:BCAS@BCAS.org ) . "With over 2300 members, BCAS is one of the largest citizen membership groups representing environmental and ecological interests in Bucks County...The Bucks County Audubon Society has collected 200 years worth of birding data, making our collection a valuable resource. This data has already been used in several projects including the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Index, the Bucks County Natural Resources Inventory, the _Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas_ and a book, _The Birds of Bucks County_. In depth analysis made possible with GIS technology can make the data even more useful. Environmental education is the foucus of Bucks County Audubon Society. "

Canaan Valley Institute Wv e98 , (Davis, WV 26260 . OR . P.O. Box 673 Route 1, Box 190 Snowbird Building Davis, WV 26260, tel:304)-866-4739 fax:(304)-866-4759 Gis Contact: Paul Kinder pkinder@mail.canaanvi.org ) committed to improving the quality of life for the residents of the Mid-Atlantic Highlands, offers assistance to eligible groups interested in enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of their communities." GIS PROGRAM: "..Complile and organize existing GIS data (from Fed, State, Local, Private Sources) and create customized or tailored coverages and shapefiles to serve the needs of local watershed stakeholder groups. All data that we compile or create will be designed for use with ArcView at the local level. We will assist local groups in conservation activities by (1) providing data and information critical to problem identification and assessment and (2) provide the education and training necessary to use these data with ESRI tools such as ArcView, ArcExplorer." . GIS Projects & Data Server: Canaan Valley Institute Map Browser Live interactive mapping, Canaan Valley Institute Thematic Mapping, ArcExplorer Data Server, GIS Data Internet Links . Don't Miss their GIS INTERACTIVE MAPPER . "Welcome! This interactive mapping page offers access to many spatial data layers for this region. Different map layers may be displayed by checking the boxes next to the layer names, then pressing the Update Map button. Click on the layer names for more information about a layer. " also see The Watershed Approach and Why Watersheds? .

Canadian Society of Environmental Biologists . (Canadian Society of Environmental Biologists National Office PO BOX 962, Station F Toronto, ON Canada M4Y 2N9, email: cseb@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca) . "Today the CSEB members hail from a diversity of environmental biology disciplines, including wildlife, fisheries, forestry, environmental toxicology, limnology, soils, and zoology."

Center for Biological Diversity . (P.O. Box 710, Tucson AZ 85702-0710, TEL: 520.623.5252, FAX: 520.623.9797 email: mailto:tortuga@sw-center.org or swcbd@sw-center.org GIS Contact: Mr. Noah Greenwald, email: ngreenwald@sw-center.org ) (Formerly The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity) "Protecting and restoring natural ecosystems and imperiled species through science, education, policy, and environmental law." CBD represents the union of the most successful biodiversity activists in the Southwest. It combines rigorous conservation biology with innovative legal strategies and a powerful vision of what we can build together. " see: FIRE & FOREST ECOSYSTEM HEALTH IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST by Kieran Suckling . see Center Biodiversity Alerts for a comprehensive index/database of important issues and crises. "Since its inception in 1989, the Southwest Center has filed 34 Endangered Species Act (ESA) petitions for species including the Mexican spotted owl, northern goshawk, Gila trout, California gnatcatcher, jaguar, southwestern willow flycatcher, and Sonoran tiger salamander. Together, these species inhabit virtually every habitat type in the Southwest from coastal wetlands and maritime chaparral, to old growth forests, to desert riparian areas and mountain streams. The Southwest Center has followed up the petitions by filing over 50 habitat protection lawsuits, and by conducting extensive public education and organizing around ecosystem protection....The ability of Geographic Information Systems to integrate complex population and spatial data, and allow in-depth analysis and communication of this data will greatly enhance all Southwest Center Programs. The Southwest Center's active involvement in listing and protecting endangered species requires accurate surveys of the status of imperiled species and an ability to effectively convey this knowledge to various state and federal agencies, involved scientists, and the public. "

Central Cascades Alliance, Or c99 . (203 Second Street, next to the Columbia Art Gallery, PO Box 1104, Hood River, OR 97031 tel:541.387.2274, fax:541.387.3182 email:cascades@gorge.net GIS Contact: Kimberly Burkland) "The Central Cascades Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the long-term economic, cultural and biological sustainability of the Central Cascades community. We are motivated by the historical fact that societies that ignore the ecological health of the land surrounding them do not survive. CCA's region spans Washington and Oregon, extending from Mt. Rainier to Mt. Jefferson, with an emphasis on the area between Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood....CCA will utilize GIS to collect, analyze and display data in support of our Ecosystem Status Report for the Central Cascades. The goal is to produce a comprehensive draft report that gives a detailed picture of the current condition of ecosystems, the plants and animals that inhabit them and the ecosystem services " see Where We Live for maps coming soon.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Md e98 c99 . (162 Prince George Street, Annapolis, MD 21401 tel:410/268-8816 fax:410/269-0481 email:chesapeake@cbf.org GIS contact: Michael Lester, Land Planner, email:mlester@savethebay.cbf.org) GIS STATUS: "The Lands Program of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) received three grants of ESRI software in 1998 for nominal or no cost. The software was essential for the success of the Lands-at-Risk mapping project. We have parlayed the grants into a functional GIS for our department, likely to survive the project that led to its development. The Lands Program started the Lands-at-Risk Project to combine the benefits of GIS with grassroots organizing. Land-use is both a visual phenomenon and a local process. The task was to better educate citizens about the meaning of land-use to their lives, and help them take action to reform it. We mass-produced a map for each rural community in the project under pressure from growth -- two each in Maryland and Virginia. The map clearly shows the pattern of future development, and its impact on farmland, forests and wetlands. We hired a community organizer for each state to help leaders in each community find ways to put pressure on local government for better development practices. The maps are done and the communities are organizing in Maryland and Virginia. Now we are preparing our Pennsylvania project....We helped another conservation group, Washington Parks and People (WPP), make the best use of GIS based on our own experience. We helped WPP hire a mapper and equip itself for in-house GIS. The Lands Program is well-situated to help other small non-profits determine whether GIS is right for them, Local land trusts who could use GIS to identify parcels suitable for conservation easements. They are wary of GIS for now, however because of the high cost and their modest budgets....The essential problem of GIS for conservation non-profits is why and when to take the plunge. To make effective use of it, the organization must have a clearly defined project for which to use it. But to build in-house GIS based on one project is costly, especially in an organization like CBF where small departments like ours seek most of their funding independently of each other. Thus, many projects that could use GIS shy away from its high, up-front costs. CBF might have gone after GIS organization-wide, but would likely have fallen in the other trap: good capacity with unclear need. I suspect many organizations that have GIS just to have it end up discarding it because they don't plan what they want it to do beforehand." . .SEARCH .

Chicago Wilderness . (Debby Moskovits, Field Museum 312-922-9410 ext.699; fax 312-922-1683; E-mail: moskovit@fmppr.fmnh.org . GIS Contact: Tim Sullivan, Brookfield Zoo, @ bzconbio@ix.netcom.com.) . "is the globally significant concentration of rare Midwest natural communities - the grasslands, woodlands, streams and wetlands - that survive in the Chicago metropolitan region. It encompasses more than 200,000 acres of protected natural lands, including tallgrass prairies and some of the finest open oak woodlands in the Midwest."..Geographic Information Systems : The GIS work being done for Chicago Wilderness involves technology, people, and data from Chicago Wilderness organizations. These organizations are using GIS for the restoration, protection, and management of the natural resources (natural lands, plants, and animals) in the Chicago Wilderness area.... See their extensive Project List ..

ClearWater Conservancy of Central Pennsylvania, Inc. Pa c98 . (PO Box 163 State College, PA 16804 tel:(814) 237 0400 mailto:clearh2o@vicon.net . Ms. Kristen Saacke Blunk, Executive Director ) "The ClearWater Conservancy was founded in 1980 when a group of local citizens organized to work proactively with local government and developers to influence how inevitable growth could best avoid environmentally sensitive sites. From this humble beginning, ClearWater has grown to a countywide organization that positively influences planning decisions based upon sound conservation principles. In addition, ClearWater serves as a land trust, providing conservation tools such as easements....ClearWater sponsored the original Spring Creek Corridor Study which, completed in 1995, sparked the wider community's interest and energy in watershed planning. The study ultimately resulted in bringing the 1996 Countryside International Stewardship Exchange to Spring Creek, in which a team of international experts provided recommendations to the Community on how to proceed in watershed protection/management. "

Colorado Environmental Coalition, Denver CO c96 . ( 1536 Wynkoop St #5C, Denver CO 80202. Phone: 303-534-7066 fax 303-534-7063 Executive Director: Elise Jones, mailto:elise@cecenviro.org) "Colorado Environmental Coalition is a grassroots, citizen’s group committed to protecting Colorado’s lands. This coalition of individuals and organizations believes that too much of Colorado’s wild lands have already been lost to development, road building, mining, clear-cutting, and grazing. Simply put: What’s Wild Should Stay Wild! " Must see: Citizen's Wilderness Proposal: Colorado Wilderness Map of 1999 . "The Citizen's Wilderness Proposal Wilderness designation of the lands contained in this proposal will complete a Congressional goal established in 1976 -- namely, the extension of the National Wilderness Preservation System to lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). "

Colorado's Decision Support Systems - (Colorado Dept of Natural Resources, Division of Water Resources, 1313 Sherman Street, Room 818 Denver, CO 80203 Attn: Ray Bennett . mailto:cdss@state.co.us) "CRDSS is a data-centered system integrating several models which will help water users and water managers make more informed decisions." . CDSS Products include CDSS GIS Data and Supporting Software : a variety of hydrological and climatological data available for download as ESRI shapefile.

CommEn Space, Wa e98 . (1305 4th Ave. #303 Seattle WA 98101 tel:206-749-0112 email:info@commenspace.org GIS contact: Chris Davis, Eugene Martin ) "CommEn Space is a nonprofit organization that provides affordable mapping and geographic information technologies to environmental and community organizations in the Pacific Northwest...We serve as both a community education resource and a research lab that supports the institutional goals of client and partner organizations. We use GIS to assist groups in our network of partners to address their spatial analysis problems. In furthering this goal, CommEn Space will develop, maintain and distribute data resources of use to the environmental community. When required, spatial analysis and visualization will be supported by the development of software tools. " GIS PROJECTS: Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center We have been working with the Brainerd Foundation to construct a GIS of their Environmental Learning Center. This includes tracking changes in land cover and land use, and developing a "viewshed" for the property on Bainbridge Island." Don't MIss their Interactive IMS Map of the site:"Welcome to the Environmental Learning Center's Interactive Site Map! Clicking on the 'Launch' button below will open a new window that displays a schematic map of the ELC Site on Bainbridge Island. Clicking anywhere on the map will display an aerial photograph of that location." . . . Strait of Juan de Fuca Oil Spill Study Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez tragedy in Prince William Sound, we collaborated with People for Puget Sound to develop an application illustrating the potential effects of an oil spill in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. . Student Conservation Association's EarthWork Northwest Every year the Student Conservation Association has an Earth Work Day. This year they used our services to create a map showing all the sites where they had volunteers doing restoration work. . Bellevue Community College Student Mapping Project: As the Community College was going through major administrative changes, administrators wanted to know where students were living in relation to the school. We worked with them to see how these changes affected their student body. . City of Seattle Urban Watershed Characterization: This was a project to map the major landscape features in the Seattle area and identify key factors such as non-point pollution which impact the watershed. Rapid Hazard Assessment for Critical Habitats in the Puget Sound Basin Working with The Nature Conservancy, we helped them to locate hazardous sites in the Puget Sound region and conduct watershed analyses to track the flow and direction of runoff.. Don't miss their Excellent MAP & ANALYSIS GALLERY .see: Data Download Page . Free ArcView Software Tools page .

Conservation Fund, Southeast Regional Office, Chapel Hill NC c96 . (The Conservation Fund, North Carolina Office, P.O. Box 271, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 . Phone: (919) 967-2223 Fax: (919) 967-9702 Contact: Will Allen, GIS Director. mailto:will@tcf.arcana.com) . The Conservation Fund seeks sustainable conservation solutions for the 21st century, emphasizing the integration of economic and environmental goals. Through real estate transactions, demonstration projects, education, and community-based activities, the Fund seeks innovative long-term measures to conserve land and water....The Conservation Fund and its partners have protected more than 1.4 million acres of the nations natural and cultural heritage." GIS PROJECTS: "As a decision support tool, GIS integrates conservation science and human values through interactive, real time comparisons of alternative land use scenarios in order to develop consensus-based planning solutions. Using this powerful GIS technology, coupled with the Fund's technical expertise - sustainable community development, economic capacity building and land use planning - The Conservation Fund supports efforts of urban and rural communities to protect their cultural, historic, and natural resources through community-driven efforts such as the following: Albemarle-Pamlico Bioregional Greenway Plan, Chattooga Watershed Conservation Plan, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Roanoke River Greenway Project. ...In March 1996, The Conservation Fund received a grant from the Conservation Technology Support Program (CTSP) from Hewlett-Packard (HP), Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), and the Smithsonian's Conservation Research Center (CRC). The Fund received an HP UNIX Workstation and DesignJet plotter, ESRI's ArcInfo and ArcView software, and training from HP in UNIX system administration, ESRI in using ArcInfo and ArcView, and CRC in conservation applications of GIS. This GIS system, located in the Fund's Research Triangle, NC office, will greatly enhance the Fund's ability to provide conservation GIS technical assistance to the corporate, government, academic, and nonprofit sectors for years to come. In addition, the Fund has received a commitment from ESRI to donate GIS software to the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) in Shepherdstown, WV. ESRI's donation will enhance the NCTC's conservation GIS training program allow the Fund to collaboratively develop conservation GIS curriculum for the nation's land and water conservation professionals.

ConservationGIS.com - A Resource for Conservation GIS Professionals . (The Conservation Fund, North Carolina Office, P.O. Box 271, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 . Phone: (919) 967-2223 Fax: (919) 967-9702 Contact: Will Allen, GIS Director. mailto:will@tcf.arcana.com) "dedicated to providing you with relevant, timely information on the use of geographic information systems (GIS) mapping tools for the conservation community." Check out: GIS Strategic Planning . GIS User Needs Assessment . ArcView Map Making Tricks

Conservation International, Wash DC e91 . (2501 M Street, NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20037 1-202-429-5660 GIS contact: John Musinsky tel: 1-202-429-5660 email - mailto:j.musinsky@conservation.org) "Conservation International promotes biodiversity conservation in rain forests and other endangered ecosystems worldwide." Their long history with spatial analysis tools is evident in their extensive list of Information and Decision Support Tools . "The Information Distribution Program expands on CI's eight years of work compiling and analyzing data for conservation research and planning; our efforts to develop appropriate decision support tools and provide training to analyze data; and our work to get the information and tools into the hands of researchers and conservationists in the field. " .Condor: is CD-ROM containing a GIS-based planning tool that permits the integration of biodiversity, social, and economic variables in infrastructure project planning for the Andean region of South America. . . ..CISIG is a computer tool that integrates and displays maps showing biological, social, and economic data for conservation analysis. Capacity-Building in Science and Technology . "One of the primary objectives of the Conservation Planning department is enhancing technical capacity of conservation groups in the developing world. ...using a "tool-box" approach of appropriate technologies and analytical methodologies" including GIS. . Remote Sensing for Regional Scale Monitoring: is a CI methodology for using satellite imagery and aerial photography and videography to map and monitor natural resources. . . The CI-UNESCO Biosphere Reserves Partnership describes a large number of GIS-based collaborative planning workshops operated by CI around the globe. . CI's Conservation Priority-Setting Workshops are a model for collaborative Regional Conservation GIS Analysis, completed in 14 countries and regions worldwide, see the example MAP . "CI pioneered the use of Conservation Priority Setting Workshops (CPWs) to build consensus and focus limited resources on biodiversity conservation. These workshops have looked at different geographical units, including large ecosystems encompassing several nations (biomes, e.g. Amazonia), regional subsets of ecosystems (e.g. the northeastern Atlantic Forest region in Brazil), and discrete countries (e.g. Papua New Guinea). The method begins with a thorough process of pulling together the available biological and socio-economical data, cartographic information and satellite imagery. This information is then reviewed and refined in a workshop format, involving the leading experts on that particular region. " see also the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science . .

CONSGIS Mailing List WWW Gateway . Biological Conservation and GIS ListServer and Discussion Group Archives..

Corvallis Environmental Center, Or, c98 . (POB 2189 Corvallis OR 97330 USA Tel: 541-753-9211 Fax: 541-753-4507 E-mail: ecenter@peak.org . Director:Nancy Sieglitz . Gis Contact: Christopher Beatty ) "The Corvallis Environmental Center was founded in 1994 and is a local center for environmental education and awareness...In late 1996, we embarked on a program to raise awareness about the status of the Willamette River in order to motivate clean-up and restoration of this precious resource...The primary output of the first phase of the project was the Willamette Water Quality Map. This tool consolidates a large amount of existing information about the watershed. The map and the data behind it represent the kernel upon which our GIS system would be started. We have invested heavily in the past year in the "people" and "data" portions of the GIS system described in the tutorial. In lieu of actual GIS tools, we downloaded USGS data for the Willamette and created the map using Freehand. The Water Quality Map has been well-received as a teaching and awareness tool throughout the valley (copies are available if there is interest). A primary conclusion from studies conducted to date is that agricultural runoff is the number one problem in this basin. A GIS system would be used to help understand the consequences of various agricultural practices and help devise policy to minimize the impact on the environment. " see also Green Community Data Project: "The goal is the development of a region-wide ecological dat base to assist in local park and land use management."

Creative Environmental Conservation, Seaside CA cm96 . (100 Campus Center, Seaside, CA, 93955, USA, tel 408-582-3685 fax 408-582-3691 email watershed@monterey.edu)

Defenders of Wildlife Pacific Northwest Office, Lake Oswego OR e96 . (Defenders of Wildlife-West Coast Office 1637 Laurel St. Lake Oswego, OR 97034 (503) 697-3222, defender@teleport.com) . "Welcome to NatureMapping, a wildlife education project involving Oregon citizens of all ages in collecting data on amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. If you have a love of nature, if you enjoy observing and identifying wildlife, and if you want to contribute useful information to our collective knowledge of Oregon‘s wildlife, then NatureMapping is for you... NatureMapping is about being proactive. The reports you submit provide valuable information on the distribution of Oregon's wildlife. Alone, your data may or may not be especially useful. But when combined with data collected by other NatureMappers, your collective data can be very useful to students, land use planners, and resource managers, to name just a few."

Defenders of Wildlife (1101 14th Street NW #1400, Washington, D.C. 20005 tel:202-682-9400 webmaster@defenders.org) Their On-Line Library lists many useful publications: Dont miss their excellent report: Saving Biodiversity: A Status Report on State Laws, Policies and Programs Including a State by State review of Biodiversity GIS and data programs: "We believe this report makes two significant advances on behalf of environmental law and policy. First, it continues the effort of establishing biodiversity conservation as a central indicator of overall environmental protection by creating a matrix of key biodiversity legal components. Second, for the first time ever, this report compiles the extremely varied laws and programs of the 50 states to help government officials and non-government advocates better protect biodiversity. " . see also: The Citizen's Wildlife Refuge Planning Handbook Charting the Future of Conservation on the National Wildlife Refuge Near You "The Citizen's Wildlife Refuge Planning Handbook is designed to guide you through the important role you can play in helping your local refuge plan for the future. The ground-breaking National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-57, USC668dd) requires all refuges to create 15-year comprehensive conservation plans (CCPs) for refuge management and to involve the public in the planning process. " Their Biodiversity Center publishes: The Case for a Constitutional Amendment for Biodiversity .

Dian Fossey Mountain Gorilla Protection, New Brunswick, NJ c96 . (Anthropology Dept, Rutgers University, Douglas Campus, Ruth Adams B, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903-0270, 908-932-9351, fax 404-627-7514 email STEKLIS@GANDALF.RUTGERS.EDU) . The Mountain Gorilla Protection Project is a collaboration between H. Dieter Steklis of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (D.F.G.F.) and Dr. Scott Madry from the Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis located in Rutgers University. The purpose of this project is to provide a digitized database of the mountain gorilla habitat. The database will include layers of information that contain vegetation patterns, gorilla ranging and human use of gorilla habitat. Don't miss the Extensive Collection of maps, including 3-D perspectives, Vegetation maps, Watersheds, and flyovers videos. GIS NEWS: "We have created a Poaching Activity layer in our GIS that now contains a few months of poaching activity. However, use of GPS units had to be suspended, so that final analysis of poaching "hot spots" will depend on our ability to collect additional GPS points or the use of accurate grid maps (see below). Since GPS units cannot currently be used in the Virungas we will begin to systematically assess the impact of poaching activity on gorilla ranging behavior through use of 100m grid maps (superimposed on our GIS Virunga topo map). Our anti-poaching rangers will collect daily data on location (within a 100m grid) of each of 3 habituated gorilla groups and sample for poaching signs (e.g., snares, poachers' footprints) the area traveled by each group since leaving their previous night nests."

The Earth Conservancy, Pa e98 . (101 South Main Street, Ashley, PA 18706. Telephone: (570) 823-3445. Gis Contact: Mark Packard GIS Analyst/ Data Base Manager tel:(717)-823-3445 email:packard@intergrafix.net . Web site provided by Kenneth M. Klemow, Ph.D., Biology Department, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766. (570) 408-4758, kklemow@wilkes1.wilkes.edu.) "The Earth Conservancy is a non-profit organization initiated in 1993, and now based in Ashley, PA. One mission of EC is to restore mine-damaged land in the Wyoming Valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania.GIS STATUS: "Earth Conservancy is a n.p.o. that has become the owner/custodian of 17,000 acres of abandoned strip-mined coal lands in northeastern PA through government and local organizational grants. Our first task is simply to understand what and where the land actually (legally) lies. The GIS lab has been instrumental in keeping track of what state all of the parcels are in and what type of attributes each of the parcels have. We basically have a rough idea and are using GPS and surveying techniques to fill in literal legal boundaries. We have also been able to support other activities that occur on a a day-to-day basis within Earth Conservancy. Since we have received and installed the above mentioned software, we have been able to expand our capabilities considerably. GIS projects to date have accompanied organization projects including engineering work as well as simply providing presentation materials. One of the new projects that we have recently under taken is to scan 1,200 linen mining maps and to provide them to the Anthracite Branch of the Office of Surface Mining via CD as well as retain a copy for our own archives. Once scanned, we can use the mining maps in the GIS by geo-referencing them and further processing them in ArcScan. These maps contain valuable survey and coal content information, both above and below ground, and make a valuable back drop on which to perform current day GIS projects. This allows us to combine 100 year old maps with current day electronic coverages. "

Earth Design Consultants, Corvallis OR e94 ..(800 NW Starker Suite 31, Corvallis, OR, 97330, tel: 541-757-7896 fax: 541-757-7991 email pam@earthdesign.com Contact: Jim Strittholt).."Earth Design Consultants, Inc. (EDC) was established in 1994 and is dedicated to providing a wide range of technical services to government agencies, profit and non-profit organizations and individuals interested in evaluating natural environments and planning for ecologically sustainable ecosystems. By integrating principles of landscape ecology and conservation biology with computer mapping technologies (geographic information systems --- GIS and remote sensing), EDC is committed to providing a unique blend of scientific expertise and computer mapping skills to solve complex environmental problems. Projects: Enduring Features of Northern Rockies, GIS-based Water Quality Study of Tillamook Bay (Feb 1997), Kalamath-Siskiyou Conservation Planning, The Wildlands Project Mapping, The Use of Adult Aquatic Insects as a Wetland Characterization Tool (Oregon, Ohio &Texas), Earthwatch (Big Bend National Park Research Project)

Earthspan, Glen Arm MD cs97 . (c/o War & Peace Foundation: 32 Union Sq. East #418, New York, N.Y. 10003 Tel. (212) 777 6626 . Fax (212) 777 2552 .... E-mail: warpeace@interport.net Website: http://users.rcn.com/warpeace/ ) "A Global C-Span of the United Nations"

East West Center, Honolulu , HI e94 . (1601 East-West Road Honolulu, HI 96848-1601, Telephone: 808-944-7111 , Fax: 808-944-7376 , email: ewcinfo@ewc.hawaii.edu ) "The East-West Center, a national education and research institution, is a major resource of knowledge and information about Asia and the Pacific -- the world's most populous and economically dynamic region. Their Environment group does GIS work, see...Working Paper : Mapping Customary Lands in East Kalimantan, Indonesia: A Tool for Forest Management . "This project demonstrated a method for mapping customary land use systems using oral histories, sketch maps, and GPS and GIS methodologies"....Working Paper : Land Use and Landscape Dynamics in Northern Thailand: Assessing Change in Three Upland Watersheds Since 1954 .

The Ecology Center, Missoula MT e91 c95 . (801 Sherwood Street, Suite B Missoula, MT 59802 phone: 406-728-5733 fax: 406-728-9432, email: ecocenter@wildrockies.org Contact: Tim Bechtold) The Ecology Center is a non-profit, public-interest conservation organization. Our staff works to protect biological diversity and ecosystem integrity, primarily in the Wild Rockies Bioregion (including Montana, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming, British Columbia, Alberta, Oregon, and Washington). We also work to pressure agencies to conform to environmental legislation, and to increase citizen participation in public lands management.... GIS Projects: ...TECI is the site of all the GIS analyses for the Bozeman-based Roads Scholar Project(RSP). ... As in previous years, in 1995 TECI managed the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act database for the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. ... Mike Bader of AWR and TECI's Timothy Bechtold prepared a report in December of 1995, published as AWR Special Report #8, The Conservation Biology Alternative for Grizzly Bear Recovery in the Salmon-Selway Region. ...Supported by a grant from the Town Creek Foundation, TECI was able to assist two graduate students to prepare localized reserve designs for areas in the High Plains ecosystem. ...TECI also worked with the Rocky Mountain Environmental Coalition, of Calgary, Alberta, to help create analyses of the effects of roads and oil and gas pipelines on fragmentation of habitat of the Rocky Mountain front in southern Alberta.... With funding from the Harder Foundation, TECI created preliminary habitat effectiveness analyses for grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Area and parts of the adjacent Idaho Panhandle National Forest..."With funding support from USAID, through ISAR, TECI is collaborating with the Wildlife Foundation, of Khabarovsk, in the Russian Far East, to create a database of the protected areas of the Amurskaya oblast in far eastern Siberia.... TECI also completed GIS work for many conservation organizations in the region in 1995, including the Swan View Coalition, the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Coalition, the Rock Creek Trust, and the Road Removal Implementation Project." see: Analysis of Road Densities paper below .

Ecotrust, Portland, OR e92 . (Ecotrust, Suite 490 (Information Services), 1200 NW Naito Pkwy., Portland, OR 97209 Tel: 503/226-8108 Fax: 503/226-8110 Email: info@ecotrust.org contact Ed Backus, GIS email: mapdesk@ecotrust.org . Prior names: Pacific GIS, Interrain Pacific) "The Map Desk extends Ecotrust's extensive geographic information system and mapping capabilities at reasonable rates for both short-term projects and long-term organizational support....Ecotrust is committed to developing new strategies for conservation by helping local communities build new economies based on protecting their environment...Our strategy is to act as catalyst and broker to promote conservation-based development in the coastal temperate rain forests of North America...Fourteen principles of the conservation economy guide our work in meeting three bottom lines - environmental, social, and economic - through practical work in communities"....Projects: Ecotrust, Ecotrust Canada, Interrain Pacific, Nanakila Institute, ShoreTrust Trading Group, Willapa Alliance. Their book The Rain Forests of Home: Profile of a North American Bioregion, is one of the finest examples of a conservation atlas ever done. Ecotrust makes some truly stunning poster maps, see/order them at: The Rain Forests of Home and Coastal Temperate Rain Forest . Don't miss their excellent Conservation GIS/Mapping CD-ROM project sites: Willapa Watershed Information System CD-ROM . Applegate Watershed GIS CD-ROM . Glacier Bay Ecosystem Geographic Information System CD-ROM . . Conservation GIS Starter Kit CD/Book (see main ECP page)

Environmental Advocates, Iowa City IA cm97 . ( Steve Hendrix, Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, 312 Chemistry-Botany, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 tel: 319-335-1065 fax: -335-3620 email: mailto:stephen-hendrix@uiowa.edu or shendrix@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu) "The broad research interests in our laboratory center around conservation biology and restoration ecology at the population and community levels of organization. At the population level, we are concentrating on the effects of habitat fragmentation on reproduction of prairie forbs (non-grass-like flowering plants). "

Environmental Defense Fund, NY NY e94 . (257 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010, 1-800-684-3322) The Environmental Defense Fund is people: scientists, economists, attorneys, and others who work in teams to find solutions to environmental problems....Endangered Species Found Clustered in "Hot Spots". also: A new action-oriented guide for local leaders, residents and businesses, the Environmental Sustainability Kit, provides tools for creating sustainable communities. See also: Scorecard Project, below.

Environmental Defense Fund Scorecard (Scorecard Architect and Project Manager: Dr. Bill Pease Environmental Defense Fund, 5655 College Ave, Oakland CA, 94618 . tel: 510-658-8008 fax:510-658-0630 email: mailto:Bill_Pease@edf.org) Scorecard is an online interactive ArcView/Java/Oracle driven application created by Karl Goldstein, Steve Goldman and Peter Black, to let anyone instantly see maps of pollution, toxic releases and other environmental problems in their immediate neighborhood. "Scorecard’s most popular feature is its "type in your zip code" approach to finding local information about local environmental conditions and problems. The site’s interactive maps, which let you click down to a local neighborhood in a second or two, are another popular pathway. Our goal is to make the local environment as easy to check on as the local weather."

Environmental Resource Center / Sawtooth Science Institute . (P.O. Box 2167, Sun Valley, Idaho 83353. Telephone/Fax: (208) 788 - 9686. Contact: Christine Gertschen, Director , E-mail:cgertsch@micron.net ) "The Sawtooth Science Institute, an educational outreach center of the Idaho Museum of Natural History and Idaho State University, has offered more than 100 environmental study and natural history workshops to more than 1300 Idaho teachers since its inception in 1990....Under the direction of Ms. Gertschen, the Institute has been at work on the development of a GIS project for Idaho entitled "NatureMapping", modeled on a successful program in Washington state supported by the Gap Analysis project of Washington and Washington Fish and Wildlife Service and which has become a national program....There is a strong need for programs which integrate technology into the K-12 core curriculum. GIS offers so many opportunities for conservation science but also for vocational advancement that public education needs to begin to train teachers in GIS....The rural conservation education center we propose is a state-of-the-art learning facility that will galvanize the efforts of many partners working in education and the environment to place the tools, information and critical thinking skills about the delicate ecology of the bioregion into the hands of the citizens of south-central Idaho. "

Environmental Science & Policy Institute, Lexington , MA e94 .(6 Valley Road, Lexington, Massachusetts, 02173 Contact: Justin Lancaster ) "ESPI is a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation committed to merging public health studies and environmental science, employing state-of-the-art information technologies...To explore how we might manage environmental resources and mitigate impacts of global and regional change, given best community education and integrated management practices, the Environmental Science and Policy Institute (ESPI) initiated the North East Co-Laboratory (NECOLAB) in 1993, the IM3 Research Project in 1994, and the NECOLAB Environmental Education Testbed (NEET) Project in 1995.

Florida Internet Center for Understanding Sustainability FICUS Fl e97 . (Florida Center for Community Design and Research, 3702 Spectrum Boulevard, Suite 180 Tampa, FL 33612 Phone: (813) 974-4042 Contact:Kyle N. Campbell email:campbell@sacd.arch.usf.edu) "The mission of FICUS is to produce a high quality multimedia educational resource and communication forum that assists citizens in the creation of a more sustainable Florida. " GIS NEWS: "FICUS serves an expanding network of over 20 non-profit organizations dedicated to a sustainable vision for the state of Florida. We are currently producing a geographic navigator for the web site that will allow users to navigate the state's bioregions and find geographic information on the location of learning centers, volunteer opportunities, environmental resources, and key ecosystems. In addition, we will use the software to publish ArcInfo and ArcView maps for our sustainable community masterplans on the internet and CD-ROM. This capability will allow more citizens to participate in our community design process." Don't miss: Hillsborough County Lake Atlas, online interactive GIS . SEARCH .

Florida Trail Association, Inc. Fl, c98 . (P.O. Box 13708, Gainesville, FL 32604 tel:1-800-343-1882 ) "The Florida Trail Association (FTA) is a not-for-profit, volunteer organization of approximately 6,000 members who are dedicated to the construction, maintenance and enjoyment of over 1,000 miles of hiking trails throughout Florida....Using this latest geographic information system technology (ESRI ArcInfo) and the most up-to-date information available, the GIS trail maps will replace the less-detailed and more difficult to update maps of the current Hiking Guides. Complimenting this effort, the University of Florida has developed GIS maps for the National Forests in Florida depicting the twenty-mile wide planning corridor identified in the Comprehensive Plan for the Florida National Scenic Trail to aid in identifying potential trail routes where their are gaps. Through this partnership, the FTA hopes to incorporate existing digital land parcel and ownership data into the GIS and thus eliminate a great deal of courthouse research. The FTA also plans to work with the University of Florida to fine tune their trails GIS modeling effort so to identify potential Florida Trail linkages. "

Forest Concerns of the Upper Skagit (FOCUS), Wa . (c/o Cascadian Farm, Inc. 719 Metcalf Street, Sedro Woolley, WA 98284 or P.O. Box 93, Rockport, WA 98283 ) "FOCUS is a non-profit (501(c)(3)) environmental organization founded in 1988 in response to widespread over-harvesting of corporate forests in the Upper Skagit watershed. We have recently shifted our emphasis away from single-issue activism towards building capacity for sustainable development within our community, which includes the rural towns of Concrete, Rockport, Marblemount, Newhalem and Diablo (about 2500 residences). We believe that we can learn as a community how to live within the ecological limits of our valley, while still providing economic opportunities for ourselves and future generations...The basis for sustainable resource management is understanding the characteristics of a watershed, evaluating the existing conditions of the resource base, and then identifying the key components necessary to maintain and restore ecological functions of the system over time. This is what we mean by "ecosystem-based planning", and we intend to use GIS mapping and analysis as a primary tool to achieve this end. Using GIS, we will identify and map ecologically, geologically and culturally sensitive areas in the context of the whole watershed. This information will then be used to inform the community about how best to protect or restore critical resources, while at the same time providing for ongoing, sustainable economic opportunities. A community-generated plan does not carry regulatory clout, or control management decisions on corporate and public forest land. However, a technically defensible landscape level analysis is difficult for government and industry to disregard since they have not conducted a similar level of analysis. In addition, by presenting an alternative option to the status quo, a powerful tool is provided to the community to advocate for its own informed vision of the future. At the same time, it builds capacity within the community to work together to plan for and anticipate change rather than react to it. A community generated ecosystem-based plan provides the framework for cooperative management, private/public partnerships, and creates incentives for alternative practices. "

Forest Guardians, Santa Fe NM c96 (Forest Guardians 1413 Second St., Suite 1 Santa Fe, NM 87505 505-988-9126 swwild@fguardians.org) "Forest Guardians is leading the fight to protect and restore the forests, rivers, grasslands and wilderness of the Southwest.Years of grassroots efforts to map forests, riparian zones, wildlife habitat, and vegetation communities in the Southwest, have resulted in an extensive collection of both hardcopy and digital layers at various scales. This information has been extremely valuable to activists and organizations working to stop destructive practices and develop a vision of land management that is both long range and science-based. Much of this map information will be available either as an on-line resource or through Forest Guardians, for a reasonable fee...Forest Guardians is the first conservation group to lease state land for protection and restoration - instead of livestock grazing. An antiquated system of preferential rights has allowed ranching interests to maintain a stranglehold on state lands - until this year. This is a case where environmentalists are using innovative, market-based solutions to protect and restore public lands." Check out their GIS contributions to the Southern Rockies State of the Ecosystem Report . see also: Participating in Livestock Grazing Decisions on the National Forests: A Citizen Handbook (pdf download).

Gaia Institute / Bronx Council for Environmental Quality , Ny c99 . (99 Bay Street, 440 City Island Avenue, Bronx, New York, 10464 USA tel:718 885-1906 tel:718 885-0882 temail:gaiainst@aol.com Gis contact: Dr. Julie or Paul Mankiewicz ) "BCEQ has long fought for the protection of the New York City Watershed instead of the siting of a huge and expensive filtration plant in the north central Bronx. At the same time, the Gaia Institute has developed methods and approaches for conserving, enhancing and reconstructing the natural systems within the watershed to increase filtration (AKA: biogeochemical filtration). " GIS PLAN: "In tandem with a grant that the BCEQ has obtained from the USEPA, the organization hopes to map community wells located with the Croton Watershed System. The Croton System is part of the watershed that provides drinking water for the City of New York...For a different dimension of watershed work, Gaia Institute has received funding from the US EPA to investigate how wetland and upland soil buffers can be constructed and enhanced to protect receiving waters of the Great Swamp in Dutchess and Putnam Counties. The aim is to identify specific 'short circuits' where stormwater flows directly from roadway, parking lot, or other infrastructure directly into the waters of the Great Swamp, and to design water holding systems, from terraces to wetlands, wet meadows, and forest soils. "

Galveston Bay Foundation e97. (17324-A Highway 3, Webster, TX, 77598-4133, tel: (281) 332-3381, fax: (281) 332-3153, email: gbf@electrotex.com contact: Katherine Bruce, Habitat Plan Coordinator . "The mission of the Galveston Bay Foundation is to preserve and enhance the Bay for its multiple uses. To accomplish this mission the Foundation has targeted four goals: - Education: Provide resources and guidance for education projects aimed at developing a constituency for the Bay, from schoolchildren to public officials. - Conservation: Develop projects aimed at preserving/enhancing the natural resources of the Bay system. - Research: Support the allocation of public and private resources for research into the multiple resources of the Bay system and ultimately establish a research endowment. - Advocacy: Encourage and actively seek solutions to conflicts among the diverse users of the Bay. Wise, prudent and careful utilization of administrative and legal proceedings when required and approved by a 2/3 majority of the Executive Board present and voting. Committees established by the Trustees of the Foundation will develop specific objectives designed to meet these goals of the Foundation, including the required fundraising efforts. The Foundation will also seek appropriate levels of funding and staff for an administrative office to provide the necessary support and coordination of these efforts." the Habitat Conservation Blueprint is built from 37 GIS data layers to help coordinate communities with the ultimate goal of restoring 29,000 acres of Galveston Bay habitat by the year 2010.

Georgia Forest Watch, Atlanta, GA c95 . (GEORGIA FORESTWATCH 4 River Street Suite C Ellijay, GA 30540 tel:706-635-8733 tel:706-635-TREE, 706-636-1371 email: mailto:gfw@mindspring.com President: Dr. Robert Kibler) . Georgia Forest Watch is a forest watchdog group protecting biodiversity, soil & water quality, and monitoring compliance in the national forests of Georgia..see..Map of National Forests in the Southeast . The Forest Plan Revision Update section provides news and a series of maps on their ongoing efforts to ensure that the desires of local communities and conservationists are included in the new plans . MAPS-- Oconee, Chattahoochee, and Armuchee National Forests . NATURE, HUNTING AND LIFE by Lamar Marshall explores the ecological benefits and personal values of hunting from a native American perspective. Wild Watch is a clickable map of areas of conservation crises and issues in Georgia needing immediate citizen action . Don't miss their Sensational Tabloid Section!!! .

Great Swamp Watershed Association, New Vernon NJ c96 . (P.O. Box 300 New Vernon, NJ 07976 tel:201-966-1900 email: greatswamp.org contact Julia Sommers) . "The Great Swamp Watershed Association is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the protection of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness Area and its surrounds. The watershed is a 55 square mile region in Morris and Somerset Counties of the state of New Jersey, and includes portions of 10 different towns" See their Science & Technology reports . The GSWA Model Stormwater Ordinance is now on-line. . A Green Plan for New Jersey is now on-line as a .txt or .doc download: "Twenty diverse environmental organizations -- including the GSWA -- united to develop a plan for New Jersey's environmental future and a way to measure the government's success in meeting public expectations." . Hiking Map to the refuge . Stuart Udall Writes About Open Space Too! . Online Map of the Great Swamp Area . The Great Swamp Watershed Management Plan with extensive graphics is now online . Don't Miss the excellent online book: The Benefits of Open Space by Len Hamilton .

Greater Ecosystem Alliance, Bellingham , WA e94 . (Mitch Friedman, Executive Director Greater Ecosystem Alliance POB 2813 Bellingham Washington 98227 fax (206)671-8429 e-mail: gea@igc.apc.org or Contact Brian Vincent bvincent@pacificrim.net ) "The Greater Ecosystem Alliance is dedicated to protecting the wildness and diversity of transboundary areas of British Columbia and the Northwest states. GEA combines science and advocacy, and focuses on landscape scales." Their quarterly newsletter, Northwest Conservation: news and priorities, is posted on Econet at the gea.news conference . see:Fire & Forest Management: Myth & Reality .by Evan Frost (From Columbiana: Ecology and Culture in the Pacific Northwest, Chesaw Route, Box 83) "Wildfires burned across nearly 3 million acres of the West during summer 1994, including over 200,000 acres in eastern Washington. But just as the season's forest fires died down, the debate over fire policy and salvage logging ignited. Congress recently passed bills that would exempt salvage logging from existing environmental laws..." check out their video BIODIVERSITY: The Variety of Life . see the High Country News 10-3-94 short article about GEA: "Hikers can bear grizzlies" .

Green Mountain Forest Watch, Brattleboro VT c96 . (48 Elliot St. Brattleboro, VT 05301 (802) 257-4878 contact: Mathew Jacobson email:grnmt@sover.net) Green Mountain Forest Watch is the only conservation organization that continuously focuses on and involves the public in the management of public lands in Vermont. see WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS: "The Brattleboro based conservation organization Green Mountain Forest Watch is challenging what it calls 3rampant and illegally clearcutting by the US Forest Service of in areas of the Green Mountain National Forest set aside in the Forest Plan to protect their unique remote character."

Headwaters Environmental Center, Ashland OR c95 . (PO Box 729 Ashland, OR, tel 541-482-4459 fax: 541-482-7282 email: headwtrs@mind.net ) Headwaters is a primary protector of the 3 million acres of public forests in southwest Oregon... with the crucial assistance, of course, of the Siskiyou Regional Education Project in Takilma, Umpqua Watersheds in Roseburg, and other local groups such as Friends of Elk River, Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, Rogue Group Sierra Club, and more....The largest area of Late-Successional Reserves was established to protect Roadless Areas and other lands connecting the Wilderness Areas of the Siskiyou National Forest, due to our work describing this area, and the incredible slide show tours of Siskiyou Project's Lou Gold. Don't miss their new Map: "Siskiyou Crest Connects the Redwoods with the Cascades" . See their roadless areas work in the Kalmiopsis Wildlands Map and their Wildlands project page .

Heartwood, Elletsville, IN e94 . (PO Box 1424 Bloomington, IN 47402, Kevin Miller Heartwood 8801 N Bottom Road Ellettsville, IN 47429, Telephone: (812) 337-8898, email: inform@heartwood.org or E-mail: kmill@opndem.state.in.us) "Heartwood is an association of groups, individuals, and businesses dedicated to the health and well being of the native forest of the Central Hardwood region, and its interdependent plant, animal, and human communities" Check out their Clickable Map of current forest action alerts in the Southeast....Citizens' Guide to Protecting Your National Forest !. Their Forest Watch Page has tools for activists . GIS UPDATE: the Appalachian Restoration Campaign includes a series of GIS analyses and maps along the Wildlands Recovery model: " ARC hosted the Central Appalachian Ecological Integrity Conference in which conservationists and scientists exposed our environmental crises and established the need for a Central Appalachian Wilderness Preserve. Since then, we have held regional mapping meetings and have developed the ecological basis for large-scale protection of Appalachia. Specific accomplishments include: . -Producing the first map of recorded rare and endangered species for the Central Appalachian region. . -Completing the Central Appalachian Assessment, Part I: Ecological Criteria. (See Wild Earth 7(3) in press; Natural Areas News 2(1): 7) . -Supporting the Dogwood Alliance with GIS maps of chip mills, pulp mills, and oriented strand board factory locations. . . .Our current project identifies Priority Restoration Areas (PRAs) and landscape corridors in Central Appalachia as Part I of the Central Appalachian Assessment. This on-going project is part of our campaign to create a Central Appalachian Wilderness Preserve in which human activity is compatible with ecological recovery and health. In 1997, we began this unprecedented effort to identify large-scale restoration goals in the Central Appalachians based on new applications of state and federal data. . . . .Meanwhile, to enable conservation efforts on public and private lands, ARC offers Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping to Heartwood member groups in the Central Appalachians. Our campaign for a Central Appalachian Wilderness Preserve consists of two principal projects. The Central Appalachian Assessment defines ecological goals and political opportunities for a preserve; the Member Group Support project empowers these goals with tangible conservation projects within the Central Appalachian region. . . . . . Member Group Support . . -Survey forest protection organizations in the Central Appalachians to determine their needs for conservation information and mapping services. . . -Expand the Heartwood network in the Central Appalachians by at least 5 organizations. . . -Support on-going conservation programs with Geographical Information System (GIS) products for at least ten Heartwood member groups within the Central Appalachians. . . -Distribute GIS information through the World Wide Web. Appalachia needs a large-scale strategy to protect the health of the landscape and its inhabitants. Although immediate ecological threats to the region are real and intensifying, conservation of the Central Appalachians will continue to be scattered and defensive without long-term direction for restoration. Our project aims to create these goals and to empower organizations within the Central Appalachians towards this end. This project changes the debate over the future of Appalachia by offering a vision of something better. "

Heritage Trails Fund, Walnut Creek CA c96 . (1350 Castle Rock Road, Walnut Creek, CA 94598 Telephone: 510-937-7661 Fax: 510-943-7431 E-Mail: htrails@earthlink.net) "The Heritage Trails Fund, a nonprofit organization, was founded and incorporated by George Cardinet of Concord, California in 1982 for the purpose of securing and preserving our nation's beautiful trails and parks throughout the United States."

High Country Citizens Alliance, Crested Butte CO c97 .(P.O. Box 1066, Crested Butte, CO 81224-1066 (303)349-7104, fax:(970)349-0164 . tel:1-800-635-7820 Contact Gary Sprung email: hcca@csn.net) . "The mission of High Country Citizens'Alliance, active since 1977, is to protect, restore and enhance the natural ecosystems and quality of human life in the Upper Gunnison River Basin, in the Mountain West, and on Earth." dont miss their List of Accomplishments .

Hill Country Wild Tx e97 c98 . (P.O. Box 8270, Austin, Tx 78713-8270 tel:(512) 419-7590 GIS Contact: John Andrews tel:(512) 371-0146 j.andrews@mail.utexas.edu) "Hill Country Wild is a non-profit organization founded to preserve and restore the native species and evolutionary processes of the central Texas Hill Country. Our immediate goal is to design a regional wildlands restoration plan incorporating the principles and methodologies embraced by The Wildlands Project (i.e. map-based conservation planning based on core-corridor modeling). Implementation of this plan will require the education of local communities about the nature of our ecosystem and the importance of wild places, both for humans and non-humans..Hill Country Wild is assembling a geographic information system (GIS) of regional and large-scale datasets in effort to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the Hill Country landscape. With assistance from our GIS we are better able to identify appropriate areas for inclusion in the Central Texas wildlands reserve network based on landscape characteristics including vegetation, historic and contemporary distribution of vertebrate species, location of state parks, human population density, etc... " Online GIS Maps and Analyses Library . Maps include Land Cover/Vegetation, Critters, Physiography, Hydrography, Demography.

Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition Ny c99 . (900 Walt Whitman Road Melville, NY 11747 tel:(516) 547-1518 fax:(516) 547-1520 email:friends@hbcac.org GIS contact: Mrs. Mildred M. Galgano) "The Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition is a volunteer grassroots community breast cancer organization. Along with breast cancer groups across Long Island, we are dedicated to promoting and providing breast cancer awareness, education, advocacy, involvement and support. Announcement of their GIS Grant (by Jenna Kern-Rugile). "...In fact, the grant is the only one that the conservation technology organization awarded to a health-related non-profit, rather than an environmental group....Though not an environmental group per se, HBCAC is greatly involved in seeking out the environmental causes of breast cancer. "There are so many possible causes, from electromagnetic fields to pesticides to industrial emissions and more," says Mimi Galgano, an HBCAC director and volunteer who headed up the survey project. "Perhaps it's a combination of various exposures that is too much for the immune system to bear." see also Breast Cancer Study . see also SCGIS Newsletter 2 Article .

The Idaho Conservation Data Center (CDC) ( Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game, 600 South Walnut Box 25, Boise, Idaho 83707-0025. Bob Moseley Coordinator/Plant Ecologist email: bmoseley@idfg.state.id.us GIS contact: George Stephens email: gstephen@idfg.state.id.us ) "the central repository for information related to the state's rare plant and animal populations. (part of the TNC Natural Heritage Network"

International Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, WA e90 . (4649 Sunnyside Avenue North, Suite 325, Seattle, Washington 98103 USA (206) 632-2421 Fax (206) 632-3967 E.mail:islt@serv.net, Dr. Rodney Jackson, Conservation Director ) "The International Snow Leopard Trust (ISLT) is dedicated to the conservation of the endangered snow leopard and its mountain ecosystem through a balanced approach that considers the needs of the people and the environment"....don't miss their Snow Leopard Habitat Map .

Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Des Moines , IA e95. . (444 Insurance Exchange Building 505 Fifth Avenue Des Moines, Iowa 50309-2321, Phone: 515/288-1846 Fax: 515/288-0137 E-mail: mackelson@inhf.org) . "The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation builds partnerships and educates Iowans to protect, preserve and enhance Iowa's natural resources for future generations. The Foundation's current priorities include permanent land protection, trail, greenway and habitat complex establishment, and promotion of improved land management."

Island Institute, Maine c96 . (Island Institute, 410 Main Street, Rockland, Maine 04841, voice (207) 594-9209, fax (207) 594-9314, email:inquiry@islandinstitute.org . GIS Contact: Chris W. Brehme, GIS Analyst (207) 594-9209 x133 cbrehme@islandinstitute.org) "We are a membership-based community development organization focusing on the Gulf of Maine, particularly the 14 year-round island communities off the Maine coast...We are guided by an island ethic that recognizes the strength and fragility of Maine’s island communities and the finite nature of the Gulf of Maine ecosystems...Our GIS and Remote Sensing facilities support the organization's study of marine, estuarine and coastal environments..The Island Institute is committed to providing free public access to the data we generate." Check out their Coastal Guide to Remote Sensing download and their overview of Sattellite Data . Penobscot Bay has been a major focus of their GIS & Mapping work: Intertidal Mapping: "Data collected with an airborne, multi-spectral sensor known as CASI was used by Peter Larsen and Cynthia Erickson of Bigelow Laboratory to define, classify and map the intertidal and nearshore habitats of two portions of Penobscot Bay, Islesboro and the Muscle Ridge Channel." see the article: Intertidal Habitat Definition and Mapping in Penobscot Bay. . Surficial Geology: "Association of marine biological information with these geological parameters (by means of GIS) will produce the most complete documentation of marine habitats yet in the Gulf of Maine." A Fishermen's GIS covers their cod and haddock GIS work. see also their Great Cranberry Island GIS Project . Great Marsh GIS & Remote Sensing Project . Ducktrap Coalition Mapping project ...."The Herring Spawning Project is part of our Fishermen's GIS initiative, a series of projects designed to involve fishermen in the collection and analysis of fisheries data. This particular project involved locating and describing herring spawning sites in the waters off the coast of coastal eastern Maine." SEARCH .

Keeping Track © , Inc., Jericho VT c96 . (Susan Carol Morse Wolfrun, RFD 1 Box 263 Jericho, VT 05465 802.899.2023) KEEPING TRACK is a research and education project with both national and local focus. Forest carnivores such as cougars and bears are "umbrella species"; habitat protected for these large mammals guarantees healthy habitat for all species within their ecosystem--plants and animals alike. Preserving habitat for the large and wide-ranging carnivores will help us halt the disastrous and irreversible loss of more than five species of plants and animals every day."

Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, New Orleans CA c96 . ( LAKEWAY 1 STE 820, 3900 CAUSEWAY BLVD, (PO BOX 6965) City: METARIE,LA, 70009-6965, USA, 504-836-2215 Fax: 504-836-7283 Contact: JEFF WATERS) "The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to restoring and maintaining the environmental health of the entire Lake Pontchartrain Basin."

Lakes Environmental Association, Bridgton, ME e92 .(102 Main Street Bridgeton, ME 04009 Phone: 207-647-8580 mailto:lakes@megalink.net G.I.S. Program Manager: Susan Breau) . Alternate site . The Lakes Environmental Association is a private, non-profit organization founded in Naples, Maine in 1970 to protect the water quality and watersheds of the Sebago-Long Lake Region. "Our first meeting twenty-eight years ago was held in Phil Chute’s barn...Today we have a very detailed protocol for monitoring and testing over thirty lakes. Once, we randomly worked on mitigation and shoreline restoration. Now, our advanced GIs computer mapping system zooms in and identifies the source of problems in any watershed. check out their Achievements, and see their Holt Pond Nature Area Map . Watershed Modeling gives a detailed overview of their GIS research and their work developing a "hotspots" model for lake ecology. GIS PROGRESS: Pilot Municipal GIS for Bridgton: "This program is awaiting approval from the Town of Bridgton. The focus of this goal has changed since its inception. Initially we had intended to provide GIS training and technical support to the town in exchange for software, financial support, and data acquisition. We are now more familiar with the magnitude of the commitment necessary to keep a GIS program running, and are in the process of more clearly defining our role as a source of local GIS support. Our goal is to encourage and support local conservation GIS users, while not taking full responsibility for the system administration tasks of the groups we assist. Our challenge is to discover and define the boundaries of this task. "

The Lands Council, Spokane WA cm97 . (formerly Inland Empire Public Lands Council, 517 S Division, Spokane, WA 992202-1365 tel:(509) 838-4912 mailto:tlc@landscouncil.org) . "The Inland Empire Public Lands Council is dedicated to the transition of the Greater Columbia River Ecosystem from resource extraction to long term community and biological sustainablility. The Council will achieve it's goal by increasing public awareness through education and promoting public participation in decision-making processes." . see Inland Empire Public Lands Council Joins Zero Cut Ranks from the Forest Voice newsletter.

Laurentian RC&D Council, Duluth MN cs97 . (4850 Miller Trunk Hwy, 3B Duluth, MN 55811 Phone: 218-720-5225 Fax: 218-720-3129 contact: Kim L. Sameulson, Executive Director, email:kls@mn.nrcs.usda.gov ) Laurentian RC&D Council is a nonprofit organization sponsoring resource conservation and rural development projects in Minnesota. Among the services they provide to area landowners are: Geographic Information System (GIS) transfer, Promote watershed best management practices, Assist area schools with educational projects, Promote forestry, agriculture and agroforestry .

Maine Audubon Society, Falmouth ME c95 c97 . (118 U.S. Route One P.O. Box 6009 Falmouth ME 04105-6009 Tel (207) 781-2330 Fax (207) 781-0974 email: home@maineaudubon.org ) . Since its inception in 1843 as the Portland Society of Natural History, the Maine Audubon Society has become one of New England's leading regional organizations for environmental advocacy and education. ..."Maine Audubon first acquired a GIS for its Northern Forest Project in the spring of 1994. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) donated software and training, and a grant from another source provided us with the funding to purchase the initial hardware, except for a plotter which is still needed. Maine Audubon has been using GIS continuously since then (particularly ArcView) to analyze data on the ecological and recreational resources of the Northern Forest; to identify and prioritize Maine Wildland Conservation Areas; to produce small (8 1/2" x 11") maps to communicate Maine Audubon's conservation plan for the Northern Forest with the public and stakeholders; and to produce large (3' x 4') maps for outreach with specific groups of landowners, stakeholders, local citizens and officials.... Mapping Wildland Conservation Areas: "GIS Specialist Barbara Charry, Sandra Neily, and intern Melissa Carey recently took maps of Maine Audubon’s five Wildland Conservation Areas on the road. The maps are a compendium of key ecological and recreational features within Maine’s Northern Forest Region, outlining the general areas that Maine Audubon and its Northern Forest Alliance partners would like to see preserved (see "Defending Our Priorities, Maine Audubon’s Proposal for Protecting the Best of the Northern Forest," Habitat, Fall 1994). Landowners, foresters, guides, biologists, tourist business owners, and interested citizens from Jackman to Machias were asked to review the maps and suggest various conservation strategies. Charry is incorporating comments received during this process into the maps, and several communities have expressed interest in using the revised maps for planning purposes. Grassroots Action includes tips and guides for citizen action . Wetlands Manual includes a comprehensive overview of wetlands conservation and mapping . Valuing The Nature Of Maine is a bibliography of the economic role of Maine's woods and wildlife: "Enhancing Maine's economy through the wise stewardship of its resources could be the most enduring legacy we leave our children." . Don't miss Anti-Environmentalists Target Conservation Progress in Maine : "Every national and state poll that asks voters if they would compromise environmental quality to enhance business growth has found that a wide majority of voters will not compromise the health of our environment...In seven hearings around the state on a comprehensive plan to manage development in over 10 million acres of our northern forest, over 70% of those who wrote and testified asked for increased forest protection... In the last two years, an extreme anti-environmental movement targeting environmentalists as the “enemy” of Maine and its way of life and economy, has been very active in small towns, local planning commissions, Maine’s legislature (and Congress as well). "

Maine Natural Resources Information and Mapping Center. (22 State House Station Augusta, Maine, 04333 Telephone: 207-287-2801 E-mail: nrimc@state.me.us) "It is the mission of the Natural Resources Information and Mapping Center to provide the People of Maine with quality information to facilitate informed decision-making for natural resource management, economic development, conservation planning, and regulation; to provide public assistance; and to promote education. The Center will inventory, map, assess, and interpret Maine's geology and the ecology of the State's plants, animals, and natural communities. The Center will support its mission by using computerized geographic information systems and databases, and by publishing maps and reports...The Maine Natural Areas Program's mission is to ensure the maintenance of Maine's natural heritage for the benefit of present and future generations. MNAP facilitates informed decision-making in development planning, conservation, and natural resources management. "

Massachusetts Audubon Society, Lincoln MA e94 . (87 Perkins Row, Topsfield, Mass., 01983, tel: 508-887-9264 fax: 508-887-0875 email: tpsmith@shore.net ) . "The Massachusetts Audubon Society is the largest conservation organization in New England. Concentrating its efforts in Massachusetts, the Society has protected more than 28,000 acres of conservation land/wildlife habitat, conducts nature education programs for 200,000 children annually, and advocates for sound environmental policies." check out their clickable Map of Sanctuaries .

Memorial Ecosystems: A Living Legacy, Nc, (GIS Contact, Dr. Kerry Brooks) for more info see under Clemson University for Dr. Kerry Brooks. "In 1996 Memorial Ecosystems was formed to create a nationwide system of for-profit nature preserve cemeteries. We offer a thoughtful alternative to those of you who care deeply about the environment but are unhappy with the tremendous escalation in funeral and burial expenses. Our company legacy will be thousands of acres of ecologically significant, functioning nature preserves that will also serve as important open spaces for contemplative recreation. "

Montana Natural Resource Information System (NRIS) . (Allan Cox, Director Natural Resource Information System Montana State Library 1515 East Sixth Ave., Helena, MT 59620-1800 406 444-5354) . NRIS was designed to simplify the task of identifying and acquiring natural resource information. As a program of the Montana State Library, NRIS makes information on Montana's natural resources easily and readily accessible. Program: The Natural Heritage Program, The Water Information System, The Geographic Information System (GIS) provides maps, map data, analytical services, and technical assistance for the growing number of users of computerized mapping programs.

Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) Nc . (34 Wall Street, Suite 407, Asheville North Carolina 28801 USA tel:704-255-0182 fax:704-254-2286 GIS Contact, Wally Bowen, email:wallyb@main.nc.us ) "In the tradition of rural electric cooperatives, MAIN is one of the few community networks in the United States to seek sustainability by operating as a non-profit Internet cooperative. In rural areas where major institutional support for community networking is rare, enabling citizens to use their Internet dollars to support their local community network is imperative." Don't Miss: Spatial Data and GIS in Western North Carolina by Scott Pearson, and interesting collection of GIS stories and Landscape Ecology tutorials. . "In addition to the summer workshops, the project also included an online tutorial entitled "The Citizen's Guide to Spatial Data and the NSDI" . Recipients of the summer training will serve as "citizen-access-to-GIS" volunteers to provide continuing technical assistance and public outreach to help citizens, students, and local government staff understand the NSDI and use MAIN to access the N.C. Geographic Data Clearinghouse. " . Their Geographic Information Resources is a link to online data resources . Their Accessing Spatial Data Tutorial is a nice online GIS tutorial (see under ECP training) . They also have an extensive collection of online downloadable MAPS . SEARCH .

Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust Wa e98 . (1011 Western Avenue, Suite 606, Seattle, WA 98104 tel:(206) 382-5565, fax:(206) 382-3414, Email:MTSGreenway@tpl.org GIS Contact: Amy Brockhaus email:Amy.Brockhaus@tpl.org ) "The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust has benefited greatly from its involvement in the ESRI Conservation Program. Since receiving our grant in 1997, our staff has expended the time and energy needed to overcome the steep initial learning curve as well as the expected technical difficulties associated with an undertaking of this kind. We have made great progress and are now able to effectively utilize ArcView on a day-to-day basis. Listed below is what our staff has accomplished since receiving the grant as well as the projects to which we have applied our new skills: . -Worked in conjunction with our Director of Education to produce a series of maps intended to improve map reading skills for elementary school children and to teach them about urban growth issues, hydrologic cycles, watershed function, and the interaction between humans and wildlife. . -Developed both overview and close-up maps designed to clarify the components of a complex land deal involving the purchase, donation, and partial development of a 2,400-acre property. Maps were created for distribution to potential donors, the public, and the media. Large format maps were printed for use in public meetings. . -Incorporated into our quarterly newsletter an exported ArcView layout which illustrates the importance of a recently completed land exchange between a large timber company and the United States Forest Service. . . -Produced numerous maps to assist in negotiations with land owners and to identify privately-owned parcels which are important linkages within the Greenway. "

National Wildlife Federation-Northeast Natural Resource Center, Montpelier VT cs97 . (National Wildlife Federation 8925 Leesburg Pike Vienna, VA 22184 Main Phone#: (703) 790-4100 ) . (Northeast Natural Resource Center 58 State St. Montpelier, VT 05602 802/229-0650 FAX: 802/229-4532) . "NNRC is working to determine the economic consequences of selected public and private development proposals in the New England-New York region, with a major emphasis on the sustainable use of the Northern Forest through a Timber Certification program. The Center also places special attention on economic benefits of investments in water quality and water-based recreation. " . See also their excellent overview and fact sheets on Habitat Conservation Plans . The Schoolyard Habitats project assists schools in using their grounds as learning opportunities for conservation, as does the Backyard Habitats Project .

Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington , DC e94 . (NRDC, 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011, email: nrdcinfo@nrdc.org) The Natural Resource Defense Council's purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. ..We work to foster the fundamental right of all people to have a voice in decisions that affect their environment. We seek to break down the pattern of disproportionate environmental burdens borne by people of color and others who face social or economic inequities. Ultimately, NRDC strives to help create a new way of life for humankind, one that can be sustained indefinitely without fouling or depleting the resources that support all life on Earth. Campaigns: Campaign to Save the Gray Whale Nursery, Testing the Waters - 1999 - Campaign to Stop Beach Pollution: See their beach maps for: . Maine . Minnesota . Mississippi . New Hampshire . Oregon . Washington . Campaign to Save Clayoquot Sound, Campaign to Save the Florida Everglades, Campaign to Protect Oceans and Marine Wildlife, Campaign for Sustainable Transportation, Stormwater Strategies Community Responses to Runoff Pollution: Don't miss: Reclaiming Our Heritage What We Need to Do to Preserve America's National Parks . Among the findings for parks like Cumberland Island National Seashore was a woeful lack of current data and GIS capacity. Efficient Wood Use in Residential Construction A Practical Guide to Saving Wood, Money, and Forests .

Nature Discovery's Wildlife and Conservation Web Guide. (by Windsor Publications, Phone: 800-635-4194 Fax: 541-367-5006 mailto:naturediscovery@nature-discovery.com) areas: Birding, Fishing, Wildlife Identification Posters and Guides, General .

NatureMapping Oregon . (see Defenders of Wildlife-West Coast Office 1637 Laurel St. Lake Oswego, OR 97034 (503) 697-3222, defender@teleport.com) .

New Jersey Conservation Foundation, NJ e98 . ( Bamboo Brook 170 Longview Road Far Hills, NJ 07931 . email:mail@njconservation.org . Gis Contact: Ingrid Vandegaer, Christie Salerno, christie@njconservation.org) "Over nearly 4 decades, NJCF has used many innovative techniques to protect over 77,000 acres of New Jersey's important and natural open space...We currently list more than 120 parcels as land fund projects, and hold title to more than 80 parcels and easements for eventual transfer to stewardship agencies or organizations. " GIS STATUS: Our GIS program began in 1996 years ago when a volunteer entered NJCF properties into Atlas GIS with the help of Somerset Geographics. In 1997 we received an ISTEA grant for Greenprint - a greenway plan for NJ. This grant provided support for one and one half staff members and a summer intern to digitize/cogo enter all of the non profit holdings in the state, gather county open space GIS data, digitize greenway plans and concepts and publish a document with a 1000 person distribution with our findings....The resulting data will be utilized to plan a statewide greenway network including greenways of national, state and local significance. Greenprint will serve as a crucial document to state, county and local government agencies and conservation organizations in their planning and land protection efforts....Our GIS use for land acquisition activities is increasing, with internal staff training, several staff are versed in creating views and layouts in ArcView.....We created a GIS data layer in AV shapefiles of the non-profit protected open space in NJ with 15 attribute fields and metadata statement. We distributed this to Green Acres (NJDEP), NJ Natural Lands Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Upper Raritan Watershed Association (primarily for use in their role as coordination of the GIS NJ Non-profit users group), the Highlands H2O project, Environmental Defense Fund and it is available to anyone who requests it from us with the exception of the Nature Conservancy parcels which are being distributed by the Nature Conservancy directly. "

New Jersey Non-Profit GIS Community Page . (Contact: Doug Schleifer, Director, at (908)234-1852 or urwa@net-lynx.com.) "mission is to provide non-profit organizations operating in New Jersey with facilities and technical and conceptual support for projects requiring the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology..Thanks go to the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), creators of ArcGIS software products, which donated 500 copies of ArcView software to New Jersey non- profit organizations, libraries and environmental commissions. If your (New Jersey) 501 c(3) non-profit organization is interested in acquiring ArcView software through this donation program, please call the NJDEP at (609)984-2243 ."

New York City Audubon Society, New York NY cm97 . ( 71 West 23rd Street, Room 606, New York, NY 10010-4102. Executive Director Marcia Fowle (212) 691-7483 email: fjewett@pclearn.com ) . In 1979 the New York City Audubon Society (NYCAS) was founded by twenty-seven dedicated National Audubon members who believed that a voice was needed for New York City's natural environment. Pioneering the protection of grasslands, woodlands, wetlands and wildlife throughout the five boroughs, the new chapter addressed the critical task of preserving New York City's natural habitats. That small beginning grew to a membership of over 10,000 environmentally-committed city residents, becoming the largest of National Audubon Society's 518 chapters. Maps: Harbor Herons Project, Jamaica Bay Coastal Habitat Restoration Project, Wetlands Mapping Project .

North American Wilderness Recovery Inc.(the Wildlands Project) c95 . (see under Widlands Project) .

North Carolina Coastal Federation, Newport NC c97 . (3609 Hwy. 24 (Ocean), Newport, NC 28570 or Call our membership hotline at 1-800-232-6210, email: nccf@coastalnet.com) . "The North Carolina Coastal Federation is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to involving citizens in decisions about managing coastal resources. Its aim is to share technical information and resources to better represent present and long-term economic, social and environmental interests of the North Carolina Coast. " see their List of Achievements . Don't miss their Clickable Map of Essential Estuary Habitats .

Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, Jackson WY cm95 . ( PO Box 2705 Jackson, WY 83001 Phone: 307-733-6856 Fax: 307-733-6574 Contact Peyton Curlee. or Dr. Frank Lance Craighead. See under Craighead Environmental Research Inst.) "The purposes of Project ECOSYSTEM, as stated in our CTSP application, are (1) to promote ecosystem management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) by means of partnerships in which high school students collect and synthesize ecological data needed by resource managers, and (2) to help schools and resource managers realize their potential as educators of tomorrow's ecosystem managers....To date, we have obtained over 80 coverages from the Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF). We assisted the BTNF in creating export files for import into ArcView. The scales of these coverages range from 1:24K to 1:2M and depict a wide variety of natural resource themes. We have been communicating with both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks regarding data they might have to offer....We are developing an ArcView curriculum that uses cases studies from throughout the GYE to teach students basic GIS principles. We are linking each case study to a chapter of the NRCC's 1990 curriculum, Conserving Greater Yellowstone. In addition, Project ECOSYSTEM's field research projects will be linked thematically to these case studies. Our goal is to have a draft version of this curriculum ready for use in classrooms in the upcoming school year. "

Northwest Ecosystem Alliance Bellingham, WA c98 . (1421 Cornwall Ave., Suite 201 Bellingham, WA 98225 360 671-9950 GIS Contact: Tom Platt: 360/671-9950(ext. 17) fax:671-8429 email:tplatt@ecosystem.org . ) "The NORTHWEST ECOSYSTEM ALLIANCE protects and restores wildlands in the Pacific Northwest and supports such efforts in British Columbia. The alliance bridges science and advocacy, working with activists, policymakers, and the public to conserve our natural heritage." see Loomis Forest Conservation Program .Forests Fires and You . GIS RESEARCH: "We have used DCW data in support of a joint Siberian/American forest protection project we are involved with, and expect that DCW will also aid our efforts to aid other international activist organizations as our projects develop. In particular, our forest ecologist is interested in forging links with Chilean forest scientists working on logging projects being implemented by a corporation based here in Bellingham. " "Mapping a vision for the next millennium: In addition to our continual efforts to track and respond to biodiversity threats, we also are looking towards the distant future with an ambitious project to analyze key parts of the Northwest landscape and set broad conservation priorities. The vision we hope to describe is based upon the conservation biology concepts and mapping methods championed by The Wildlands Project, which advances science-informed proposals for interconnected networks of large nature reserves capable of sustaining large predators throughout the continent. This region-wide mapping project is the most ambitious NWEA has ever undertaken. It is a natural extension of the reserve mapping we've already done, that produced biodiversity protection plans for the Washington's North Cascades and the Columbia Mountains of southern British Columbia. In addition to the work of our staff biologists, our previous efforts utilized the skills and technical support of two GIS consultant organizations, Sierra Biodiversity Institute and Middle Fork GIS. "

Northwest Habitat Institute, Or . (P.O. Box 855 Corvallis, OR 97339 ph: 541-753-2199 fax: 541-753-2440 GIS Contact: Charles W. Barrett mailto:charley@nwhi.org ) (site design blocks external links and there is no search, you'll have to find the gis projects manually) "Northwest Habitat Institute (NHI) is a non-profit scientific and educational organization located in Corvallis, Oregon. NHI transitioned from a state-supported research group, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - Ecological Analysis Center (ODFW-EAC), to a non-profit organization in July, 1998... Our mission is to promote and facilitate the conservation of our native species and habitats through: 1.Development and dissemination of data-rich and verifiable information, maps, and tools; and 2.Restoration and enhancement of native habitats...Specific objectives of the institute include developing products and tools that assist landowners and land managers conserve native species and habitats, developing and implementing inventorying and monitoring programs, and coordinating and facilitating activities (e.g., land-use planning and management objectives) that promote the conservation and management of our natural resources....NHI is continuously developing and refining spatial data layers for the northwestern United States. The Interactive Biodiversity Information System (IBIS) is currently being expanded by NHI and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to contain spatially referenced wildlife and habitat information for more than 700 wildlife species occurring within the Northwest. NHI recently completed a new Oregon GAP vegetation map (250 acre minimum mapping unit with 62 classes) and is in the process of developing a finer scale (10 acre) vegetation map of Oregon (Attachment 1 & large-format). We have also derived an Oregon habitat map, based on the GAP vegetation map and containing 31 functional classes, which will be used with IBIS to model wildlife species' distributions. We are currently developing similar GIS layers for Washington and Idaho. NHI also created the Willamette Valley Land Use / Land Cover Map (Attachment 2). This data layer, containing 22 distinct natural vegetation and 6 agricultural cover types, was created from 1:24,000 color aerial photographs and extensive field work. NHI intends to enhance this map in the near future by extending its coverage to encompass the Portland Metro and surrounding area. The Willamette River Basin Map (Attachment 3 & large-format) combines the data from the state and Willamette Valley mapping efforts. More information on these data layers, as well as sample maps, can be obtained at http://www.nwhi.org/nhiweb/projects.html.".... GIS DATA: ArcInfo Coverage Download: "On this page, you can download the Willamette Valley Land Use/ Land Cover map. We are providing this ArcInfo GIS coverage for use by other researchers, agencies, organizations, and the general public to use free of charge."

The Northern Forest Center, Nh c98 . (P.O. Box 210 Concord, NH 03302-0210 Phone: (603) 229-0679 Fax: (603) 229-1719 E-mail: nfc@northernforest.org ) "The Northern Forest is the largest wild forest remaining in the eastern United States. It comprises 26 million acres of forest spanning New York's Adirondacks, northern Vermont and New Hampshire, and Maine's North Woods. It contains the headwaters of the major rivers of the northeast and provides a home and livelihood to one million people." . NFC GIS PROGRAM: "We are planning to publish a simple guide to the cultural resources of the Northern Forest. As our first GIS product, we would like to produce a simple map of the Northern Forest indicating the location and type of each of these resources...We next plan to develop and publish a Northern Forest Wealth Index. This will be an indicators report examining the well-being of the Northern Forest as measured through an integrated set of economic, social, and environmental measures...In the course of learning more about how AV maps are compiled, we discovered that part of our first goal - creating a multi-dimensional, regional basemap' - was not an efficient way to begin developing our GIS. Instead, we are working more on a project-by-project basis. Because of the great variety of information we use in our various program areas - culture, community, economy, ecology - each mapping project requires specific kinds of data. We are now able to put together geographic information about the Northern Forest for many of these basic purposes we have, given the breadth and seamlessness of the data we received from ESRI. We expect that as we approach mapping our Wealth Index project (see below) we will have to look for much more complex and recent regional demographic data. " see also the Northern Forest System Modeling Project .

Northwoods Wilderness Recovery Inc. Marquette , MI c95 . (P.O. Box 122, Marquette, MI 49855 (906)482-4364, Lawrence Wolfe Alternate contact: c/o Murray Dailey, 43 Slater N, Lake Orion, MI 48362 (248) 693-9589, murphwild1@aol.com ) . "NWR provides species and habitat data to the public, scientific community and environmentalists working to develop solutions to the global biodiversity crisis. We funded NWR's "End-of-the-Road" project which educates citizens about the need to preserve biodiversity, while emphasizing the importance of alternative economics and low-impact land-use practices. " .

The Ohio Environmental Council, Oh . (1207 Grandview Avenue Suite 201, Columbus, Ohio 43212 USA tel:614-487-7506 fax:614-487-7510 email:oec@theoec.org ) "Today, the mission of the Ohio Environmental Council is to inform, unite and empower all Ohio citizens to protect the environment and conserve natural resources by rectifying past abuses and preventing future harm....As the only Ohio-based, statewide organization dedicated exclusively to protecting the state's environment, the OEC is Ohio's #1 watchdog over state legislative and executive agency policy-making activity that impacts the environment. "

Oregon Biodiversity Project (Defenders of Wildlife-West Coast Office 1637 Laurel St. Lake Oswego, OR 97034 (503) 697-3222, defender@teleport.com) "The Oregon Biodiversity Project starts with computers, data bases and state-of-the-art geographic information system (GIS) software -- high-tech tools for understanding where natural systems survive." . It is "a public/private partnership working to develop a biodiversity strategy for the state. More than forty cooperators from academia, state and federal agencies, private industry, and conservation groups are involved. Project staff are compiling GAP and other data sets in GIS format to characterize the ecological and socioeconomic landscape and make specific recommendations concerning areas that should receive high priority attention. ...The strategy will be published in atlas format with full-color maps and a poster showing the priority areas in the state. The information will also be produced electronically on a user-friendly CD-ROM. "Most decisions about protecting Earth's biological diversity always be made in courtrooms and Congress, in an atmosphere of conflict and polarization? Sara Vickerman, director of state conservation programs for Defenders of Wildlife, believed there must be a better way. That's why, in 1994, she and her staff in Lake Oswego, Oregon, launched the Oregon Biodiversity Project....Already, computer mapping has helped identify a number of threatened Oregon ecosystems. The Boardman Bombing Range, for example, harbors Oregon's last remnant of the original bitterbrush-sagebrush plant community that once covered the arid Columbia Plateau." (see also National Stewardship Initiatives:. article under papers below)

Oregon Coast Range Association, OR e97 . (PO Box 2250, Corvallis, OR 97339 tel:541-758-0255 email:chuckw@coastrange.org ) "We work to restore salmon habitat with a coastal network of activists. We are presently using AV3 and Spatial Analyst to conduct these analyses using soils, elevation, vegetation, hydrography and ownership layers. With Spatial Analyst we can determine ownership of priority areas for protection of salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Landslides and debris torrents are important elements which shape salmon habitat, however, removal of trees in critical areas can cause a simplification of stream structure, and contribute to excess siltation in streams (also a problem for salmon) . "

Oregon Environmental Council, Or c98 . (520 SW 6th Ave., Suite 940, Portland, OR 97204 tel:503-222-1963 ex 110 GIS contact: Sarah Doll, Environmental Equity Program Director , sarahd@orcouncil.org ) "The Oregon Environmental Council is 30 years old -- the oldest statewide environmental group in Oregon. We have built a solid reputation as a strong and effective leader in the environmental movement, and many of our policy accomplishments have served as national models. Our accomplishments have included the nation's first Bottle Bill; the country's toughest law regulating cyanide heap-leach mining; and passage of the Oregon Groundwater Protection Act. " GIS PROJECTS: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: "On Saturday, September 26, OEC co-hosted an environmental justice gathering with the Environmental Justice Action League, based in North Portland....The gathering also featured a demonstration by OEC's Sarah Doll of the maps she has developed of North Portland, using Geographical Information Systems. (GIS) With the help of volunteer Minott Kerr and intern Aaron Jones, she has mapped numerous types of information including contaminated sites, polluters, civic and religious organizations, and educational facilities. These maps are intended to be used by residents of North Portland to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the community, and as a tool to work for improvement. " . ALBINA PROJECT: "We will combine key environmental data with socioeconomic information in a community level GIS. The Albina GIS will allow us to generate clear maps of community "hot spot" priority areas and opportunities....We had success getting information from a variety of sources but it was tremendously time consuming to clean it up and figure out how to make different projections work with each other. We finally decided that we just had to create snap shots in time. We ended up having to reduce the scope of what we wanted to do....We were very successful in working with the community to understand their needs related to a GIS. This was a useful exercise to make sure that we were providing information in a way that the community wanted and that we were being responsive to community priorities. We found that the community we were working in did not want hugely detailed maps and very few folks have access to the Internet." see also "How safe is our air? ...by Sarah Doll " includes some nice analytical maps.

Oregon Natural Desert Association, Bend OR c95 . (16 NW Kansas , Bend, Oregon 97701 tel: 541/330-2638, homepage: www.onda.org/~onda , email: onda@onda.org or mailto:bmarlett@onda.org) . "The purpose of the Oregon Natural Desert Association is to promote the preservation, protection and rehabilitation of Oregon's arid-land environment and to educate the general population on the values of preserving the natural arid-land environment." Their Conservation GIS work is on display in their proposal to nominate 1.1 million acres of BLM land as the Pronghorn Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), esp. MAP 1a: Boundaries of the proposed Pronghorn ACEC: and : MAP 5: Conservation Opportunity Areas identified by the Oregon Biodiversity Project and the proposed Pronghorn ACEC . see their Grazing issues and resources section . see Put BLM Lands on the Oregon Map .

Oregon Natural Heritage Program, Portland OR cs97 . ( 821 SE 14th Ave. Portland, OR 97214-2531 (503) 731-3070 ext. 335 or 338 Fax No.: (503) 230-9639, email: orfo@aracnet.com ) . Mission: To acquire, maintain and distribute information on the organisms and ecosystems that constitute Oregon's natural heritage....Oregon's most comprehensive database of rare, threatened and endangered species includes site-specific information on the occurrences, biology and status of over 1,000 species throughout Oregon. It includes the state's only database of natural vegetation, with descriptions and information on the occurrences and protected locations of all known ecosystem types.

Oregon Natural Resources Council, Bend OR c95 . (5825 North Greeley, Portland, OR 97217-4145, USA. Telephone 503-283-6343 (voice), 503-283-0756 (FAX). email: info@onrc.org ) ONRC is a leader in combining advanced GIS methods with exhaustive on-the-ground volunteer work to establish exactly what is going on in wild nature on the ground. See: Notes from the first eastside wilderness mapping workshop By Tim Lillebo, Policy Advocate (mailto:tl@onrc.org) "Hearty ONRC Adopt-a-Wilderness volunteers defied the elements in ONRC's first wilderness-mapping training workshop. " "Oregon Natural Resources Council is a conservation consortium promoting environmental protection by educating the public and influencing the public's servants through legal and legislative processes. ...ONRC was the first group to appeal a Forest Service timber sale based on concern for the spotted owl ...ONRC was also instrumental in persuading Congress to create and enact the Endangered American Wilderness Act and the Oregon Wilderness Act, which together protect more than 1.2 million acres of Oregon's most threatened wild lands." "Whether you prefer hiking in the woods or tabling at a street fair, drawing lines on maps or presenting slide programs, there's a place for you in ONRC's exciting effort to permanently protect Oregon's wild forests." Don't miss: Oregon Wild Campaign " The first stage of the Oregon Wild Campaign is to produce an up-to-date map of the state's remaining wild forests that are 1,000 acres and larger. More than 100 people already have signed up as Wilderness Adopters, with more jumping onboard every day. These volunteers are now out in the field, updating the maps that will form the basis of a solid and credible wilderness proposal. " see Big Money and Big Timber By Ken Rait, Conservation Director.

Pacific Biodiversity Institute, Winthrop, WA e89 c96 . (PO Box 298 Winthrop, WA 98862, Send tel: 509-996-2490 Fax: 509-996-3778, email: pbi@methow.com) . PBI are national leaders in the use of GIS for wilderness and roadless area research. "Pacific Biodiversity Institute (PBI) conducts scientific research in the fields of ecology, conservation biology and natural resource management. Our activities are focused on the conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of ecological integrity in the Pacific region. PBI develops advanced analytical tools and methods that aid the conservation of biodiversity and provide access to these tools, as well as research and consultative services, to public agencies, educational institutions and other non-profit conservation organizations. We provide scientific and technical information for use in the public review of public land management policies. PBI engages in a variety of educational activities including: the production of publications related to conservation and natural resource management issues, the organization of scientific conferences and public symposia, the development of educational materials and community level environmental education." They were the Authors of the Conservation GIS Starter Kit CD-ROM . They provide GIS research, services and support to numerous other groups as well as a free data download and map viewing site . The Endangered Species Information Network coordinates endangered species data for the Pacific Northwest. Here you can find endangered species lists and maps by State and by Species.Don't miss their latest roadless analyses and maps: Wildlands of Oregon State . Map of Washington State's National Forest Roadless Areas by Size Category . Map of Granite Mountain Roadless Area Comparing Forest Service Inventoried Roadless Area with Actual Roadless Area. and many others. Be sure to check out The Wildland Information and Action System: "Pacific Biodiversity Institute (PBI) has been working toward the development of a roadless area information system for the Pacific Northwest that will utilize the extensive research and information we have developed and acquired on roadless areas, their characteristics and contents...We propose to put such information covering each roadless area on an Internet map and data server with interactive database capability. This will enable all conservationists in the region to have full access to this extensive information. This project will allow access to this information without requiring individuals to acquire new computer hardware, new software or to learn new computer skills. All this information will be accessible using a standard Internet web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer). Conservation users of this system will have easy access to over 20 gigabytes of information regarding the characteristics of roadless areas in the Pacific Northwest " Their other IMS project is Wildland Information Network Map Server,. see also: Forest and Vegetation Mapping section for information on their Redwoods forest mapping, wetlands research and habitat mapping . Landscape Analysis and Conservation Prioritization: "The following projects demonstrate the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis and design techniques used by Pacific Biodiversity Institute for conservation prioritization. "

Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Inc., Pa c98 . (1211 Chestnut Street, Suite 900, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107 tel:(215) 563 0250 email:pecphila@libertynet.org GIS contact: Joanne Denworth ) . "Since our inception, a major emphasis has been revising the law and policies that encourage sprawl. We have been instrumental in drafting and promoting revisions to Pennsylvania's land use planning legislation. We promote alliances to increase the effectiveness of organizations sharing our goals. We have convened 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a statewide alliance of more than 95 organizations committed to a shared agenda: fight sprawl; promote the revitalization of cities and boroughs; and conserve natural, heritage and fiscal resources. As part of the GreenSpace Alliance project, staff in Philadelphia are developing an Internet site that will go on-line next spring. It will map and permit database queries for the natural and cultural recreation sites in southeastern Pennsylvania. While helping users find the best spot for biking, swimming or other funtime activity, the web site will also promote awareness of the extraordinary wealth of open space and historical places in the region. " Greenspace Alliance Interactive Map Site . Don't Miss: Watershed Atlas of the Allegheny River: for a cool online multimedia map atlas, including a historic timeline .

Plateau Restoration, Inc., MOAB , UT cm96 . (may be defunct. Contact: Kara Dohrenwend, email: plateaurestorew@mail.sisna.com) "Plateau Restoration Incorporated (PRI) is dedicated to finding solutions for human impacts on fragile terrain through hands-on research, education, restoration, and revegetation. To this end, PRI coordinates volunteer service projects with both local residents and area visitors to define restoration strategies, and revegetate damaged areas with native vegetation. We seek to restore wildlife habitat often damaged by human use in the desert areas of southeastern Utah."

Prairie Plains Resource Institute, Ne e98 c99 . (1307 L Street, Aurora, Nebraska 68818-2126 USA tel:(402)694-5535 fax:(402)694-2231 email:ppri@hamilton.net ) . "PPRI is an educational land trust founded here in 1980. It is the originator of local high-diversity prairie and wetland ecological restoration techniques and a nationally-recognized youth field daycamp and teacher training workshop called SOAR (Summer Orientation About Rivers)". . GIS PROJECTS: "One GIS bright spot in the summer was use of DOQQs of a length of the Platte River during a mapping session of our elementary daycamp. We were able to display right off the computer those areas we had visited in field trips. Students discussed the images and tried to identify familiar elements they saw on the ground. We then zoomed onto other reaches of the river to compare different areas and land usage. Active display use offers much presentation potential for all ages. ...Our new printer came at an opportune time as I had recently initiated a process of meeting with local county commissioners regarding our Platte River Corridor Initiative (One of the commissioners is also a grassland owner along the river). For the first meeting in December I created three printouts showing various parts of the river - some sections familiar to them and others totally foreign in the sense that the orthophoto perspective and detail is so different to people not used to high-quality aerials. On these printouts I labeled and outlined various items to give viewers a better sense of what they were viewing. The responses to the GIS discussion were good. A first reaction, though uncommunicated, seemed to be that we at PPRI know what we are talking about - it gave us a credibility factor. One visual showed a large wet meadow system adjacent and upstream from a municipal well field and therefore I was able to more strongly make the point that this should be a source water protection area. On other photos I was able to graphically show the cedar infestations of the rangeland, the sand and gravel mining with attendant high-density housing, etc......Prairie Plains Resource Institute has been called a "bootstrap" organization because we have done a great deal for 20 years with almost nothing. While the bootstrap concept has its benefits, it also has its limits. It does help to build an organization slowly and deliberately, and to elevate frugality to great heights. In concert with such deliberation it is also good to be thorough and do high-quality work - do small things in a big way. Now, PPRI is at a point where it cannot remain a "bootstrap" group. We need to keep building capacity in infrastructure of tools, office, etc., and in personnel capacity (up from 1.5 people presently). In the process we hope not to sacrifice the values that got us this far, and not become obsessed with growth and high-tech tools that make us look good to people who can't tell the difference. "

Prospect Park Alliance, Ny e98 . (95 Prospect Park West Brooklyn New York 11215 USA tel:(718) 965-6545 fax:(718) 965-6595 email: prospect@interport.net ) "founded in 1987 as a not for profit public/private partnership between a group of influential private citizens, supporters of the Park and the City of New York...The master landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed the 526 acre Prospect Park in the 1860s. Located in Brooklyn, New York, the Park is on the National Register of Historic Places....The Alliance undertook strategic planning in early 1997. The result was a document that recommended the development of a 10 year comprehensive plan for the Park. As part of that comprehensive planning process, it was decided that a GIS would be developed to collect data about the Park. The GIS will be used to organize a series of studies and data collection efforts into an integrated data base to serve as an ongoing planning and management tool for the Park. "

Public Research Works, Tx c99 . (611 South Congress, Ste. 150, Austin, Texas 78704 USA tel:512.326.5655 fax:512.326.5922 email:tmain@io.com ) "Environmentalists in Austin are now in a position of strength due to effective grassroots organizing and recent legal victories which have largely centered on protecting the environmentally sensitive Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. In the last year, there has been a turn for the better and long-time foes have begun to work together under the banner of Smart Growth. Eleven bond proposals were passed by voters in 1998 with support from both camps, including one allocating $65 million to purchase land and development rights in over the Aquifer. Even so, there are and will be continuing controversies over land use. In this new context, environmentalists need sophisticated tools in working with the business community more directly over land use planning. In the last two years, Public Research Works, under the leadership of Todd Main, is developing an expertise in GIS mapping in the public interest, producing maps for a range of consumer and environmental interests. With the emerging consensus for Smart Growth, there is a critical need for detailed maps of the Edwards Aquifer region to overlay sensitive environmental features, existing development, undeveloped areas and current ownership data."

Rainforest Alliance .Smartwood Program, Richmond VT c97 . (Goodwin-Baker Building, 61 Millet St,. Richmond, VT 05477 USA, Tel: 802-434-5491 Fax: 802-434-3116 mailto:info@smartwood.org . International email: mailto:international@smartwood.org) "In 1994, the SmartWood Network was established by the Rainforest Alliance and several independent non­profit organizations to facilitate research, policy and field level program implementation related to forest monitoring, evaluations, assessments and forest products certification...The SmartWood Program reduces the negative impacts of commercial forestry by rewarding its seal of approval to responsible forest managers. SmartWood's regional experts work in tropical, temperate and boreal forests to reduce the environmental damage caused by wood harvesting and to maximize the positive impacts of commercial forestry on local communities. " You can find out about their International Network . See also Institute for Sustainable Forestry in ECP Forestry.

RESTORE: The North Woods, cm95 . (P.O. Box 1099, Concord, MA 01742 (508)287-0320 fax (978) 287-5771 e-mail: restore@restore.org) "a non-profit, grassroots organization whose purpose is to restore and preserve the ecological integrity of the North Woods ecoregion of the U.S. and Canada through public awareness and citizen activism." .see also: The New Hampshire Wolf Alliance was founded in 1995 for the purpose of educating the public about wolves and wolf hybrids...The NHWA; recently participated in a Northeast Wolf Recovery Strategy meeting, sponsored by RESTORE: The North Woods and the Wildlands Project.

Rocky Mountain Ecosystem Coalition e94 , (Suite 921 - 610 8th Avenue, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. T2P 1G5) . "Its mandate is to promote the principles of ecosystem management and the conservation of ecological integrity and biodiversity in the Canadian Rockies, an area of over 120,000 square miles straddling the continental divide in British Columbia and Alberta." The study A Fish Management Plan for Jasper National Park includes a number of ecological maps, including. Native fish distribution maps within Jasper National Park . Don't miss: Maps to Slocan Valley Watersheds . See also:Cumulative Effect Analysis On Alberta's Southern Eastern Slopes: Grizzly Bear Pre-Berry Season Habitat Value (GIS analysis and map generation by Ecology Center GIS, October 1996) . Their GIS methodology is well developed in: British Columbia's Level 1 Interior Watershed Assessment Procedure as a Tool for Monitoring Potential Impacts of Development on Aquatic Ecosystems in Canada's Rocky Mountains (by David W. Mayhood[1], Michael D. Sawyer[2] and William Haskins[3]. Paper presented to the Science and Management of Protected Areas Association (SAMPA III) Conference, Calgary, AB, 12-16 May 1997. Accepted for publication in the Proceedings. ) . Dont miss: How Roads Kill Streams by David W. Mayhood "...Road networks can greatly increase erosion in drainage basins: in fact, roads alone commonly contribute more sediment to watercourses than all other land-use activities combined. ...)

Rodale Institute Experimental Farm, Pa e98 . (611 Siegfriedale Road, Kutztown, PA 19530 USA tel:610.683.1449 fax:610.683.8548 GIS Contact: Bill Heasom, email:bil88@aol.com ) "Making the vital connection between healthy soil and healthy people has been the central thrust of The Rodale Institute for more than three generations. The first task was finding agricultural solutions to major health and environmental problems. The second was proving they worked. The third is now sharing them with the world." GIS STATUS: notes from Bill Heasom: "I am a civil engineer, surveyor, and environmentally concerned person and contribute a substantial amount of my time to Rodale Institute Experimental Farm near Kutztown, PA. They are a non-profit research and teaching organization and a (501c3) charity. They have pioneered the organic farming movement. They have done extensive outreach in environmental education and have international programs that reach Senegal, Guatemala, Japan, and other nations. They maintain the oldest continuing field research trials comparing organic agricultural management practices with conventional. My involvement relates to the "farm regeneration initiative" which is a planning and construction program so that the Kutztown farm (330 acres) can model and research techniques for the farm of the future. How will farms look after fuel is no longer cheaply available? How will we farm if global climate changes become severe? These are questions we are trying to address in advance. After nearly a year of work on this planning project and after visiting with Dr. Martin (head of Geography Dept. at Kutztown University) it is clear to me that GIS will speed our work and give a better result. Also, the Rodale Institute has accumulated over 20 years of field data that is not being fully utilized because the older sets are not well organized. I am sure that GIS can mine additional data from this information as well as speeding the analysis and display of data (soil tests, groundwater readings, plant varieties, etc spread over a hundred individual research plots). "

Scenic America, Dc c98 . (801 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Suite 300 Washington, DC 20003 Phone (202) 543-6200 Fax (202) 543-9130 . E-mail webmaster@scenic.org . GIS contact: Deborah Myerson email:myerson@scenic.org) "Scenic America is a national, private, nonprofit organization dedicated to to preserving and enhancing the scenic character of America's communities and countryside. We were founded in 1978 to fight billboard proliferation and reform the Highway Beautification Act. In the early 1990's we broadened our mission to embrace a broad range of scenic conservation issues...In Scenic America's "Smart Growth / Scenic Stewardship Initiative," we are helping communities integrate scenic conservation principles and practices into the movement for better land-use...GIS technology is a key opportunity to expedite the documentation of scenic and historic resources. Scenic America will work with communities along Route 15 to undertake GIS mapping of the scenic and historic landscape that is threatened by current growth patterns. Mapping these historic, scenic, natural, and cultural resources in a GIS will permit citizens and local leaders to make educated land use choices in a regional context. " LINKS .

Seatuck Foundation, Islip, NY c95 . (581-6908) .

Shawangunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership, Ny . (c/o Mohonk Preserve, Inc. 1000 Mountain Rest Road, Mohonk Lake, New Paltz, NY 12561 tel:(914) 255-5969 email:mpres@mhv.net GIS contact: John E. Thompson ) . "an eleven member public/private partnership formed in 1994 to protect the Shawangunk Mountains, designated by The Nature Conservancy as a "Last Great Place" in the western hemisphere." Shawangunks Ecosystem Research Program: "This coordinated, six-year program was designed to expand understanding of the maintenance of this endangered-species-rich landscape by investigating four major areas: (1) the description and delineation of natural communities; (2) the influence of environmental gradients; (3) the importance of historical events; and (4) the development of ecological models. The Partnership will use the findings to prioritize areas for protection and design ecological management strategies to assure the continued viability of rare species and natural communities. A vital tool in meeting the goals of the Shawangunk Ecosystem Research Program is a Geographic Information System. A GIS has been created by The Nature Conservancy Eastern Regional Office incorporating: roads, hydrography, major tract boundaries, town boundaries, New York Department of Environmental Conservation wetlands, New York Natural Heritage Program element occurrences, a digital elevation model, natural communities classified and mapped by the Partnership, and digital orthophotographs produced from NAPP color infrared aerial photographs. "

Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association, Alna ME c97 c99 . (P.O. Box 125, Alna, Maine, 04535 email - svca@lincoln.midcoast.com, President Nicholas Barth) . "The Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association (SVCA) was created on Columbus Day in 1969...The SVCA is chartered to operate in the Sheepscot River Watershed, which includes a drainage area approximately 228 square miles within the Mid-Coast Counties of Lincoln, Kennebec, Knox and Waldo.. Major Current activities of the SVCA include a land trust of Association owned properties and conservation easements, in stream and land use water quality monitoring, and educational outreach. see: Watershed Map . GIS STATUS: "With the assistance of USFWS and the local U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service we added geo-referenced aerial photographs. USFWS and NRCS also collaborated to develop a coverage of farmland use and areas lacking adequate riparian buffers. The route of a proposed natural gas pipeline corridor was also added as a coverage. Using a GPS Datalogger, we developed a point layer coverage showing the location of our water quality monitoring program sites. We have paid for the digitizing of two local communities' tax maps....Since receipt of the CTSP grant, the SVCA has grown from an all-volunteer organization to a professional entity with a staff of 2 ½.....GIS products, primarily ArcView maps, have greatly increased our effectiveness in acquiring easements and trust lands, made us more effective advocates for protection of the natural resources within the Sheepscot watershed, increased our ability to communicate effectively with SVCA members and the public, and improved our fundraising capability. Perhaps most importantly, it has provided access to-and the ability to communicate-information about the watershed, land use, and natural resource values. This has made us more professional and effective advocates for protection of these values. "

Sierra Biodiversity Institute, Nevada City CA e89 c96 . (13920 Miller Rd, Nevada City, CA, 95959. 916-292-3625, Contact Steve Beckwitt, Eric Beckwitt, email:sbi@oro.net) . SBI was one of the very first non-profit conservation groups to use GIS for science-based conservation action. Their History details their growth and experiences as an "early adopter" of GIS in the nonprofit conservation arena. "Sierra Biodiversity Institute (SBI) is a small non-profit, public interest, scientific research and educational organization focused on biodiversity issues. Our main goal is to aid in the protection and maintenance of biological richness through cooperative research and information dissemination. SBI is devoted to bringing the best of science and technology to bear in finding creative solutions to urgent conservation issues related to natural resource use and other land use issues. Our contributions have been disproportionate to our size. We are recognized leaders in developing new information on the status and health of ecosystems in California. We are leaders in developing new tools to aid the conservation movement in our collective struggle to protect biodiversity. ...SBI is engaged in a multi-year project to empower local and regional environmental groups with access to environmental GIS databases and technology. This project includes a comprehensive training program, extensive user support, and distribution of a wide variety of environmental data. We are currently working with numerous conservation organizations throughout Washington, Oregon, and California. " Sierra Biodiversity Institute Maps includes an extensive collection of ecological and roadless analysis maps of the Sierra Nevada and forest areas within, as well as ecological and GIS analysis mapping work in Siberia, India, and Washington/Oregon. Don't Miss: Scientific Support for Biodiversity Protection in the Sierra Nevada: "In cooperation with the Science Committee of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, Sierra Biodiversity Institute is evaluating alternative map-based strategies for the long-term protection of aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity in the Sierra Nevada. Building on the work of the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, we are analyzing the potential role that several science based conservation strategies could play in an overall landscape plan for sustainable forest management and biological conservation in the Sierra."

Sierra Club Northeast Office, Central Appalachia Ecoregion Task Force, Ny e98 . (85 Washington St. , Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, tel:1-518-587-9166 e-mail:ne-ny.field@sierraclub.org ) "The Central Appalachia Ecoregion Task Force (CAER) is part of the Critical Ecoregions project - a joint project of the Sierra Club and the Sierra Foundation, and operates as a non-profit group. We are a volunteer-based conservation organization. This GIS project aims to use ArcView to collect data, perform monitoring and analysis, and generate maps and reports to support three long-term conservation campaigns: 1. Maintaining & restoring wildlife and biodiversity, 2. Restoring a healthy environment, with a focus on watershed quality, and 3. Stopping suburban sprawl and creating livable cities. " The campaigns include: Restoring And Maintaining Biodiversity, Creating Livable Cities / Challenge To Sprawl, and Restoring A Healthy Environment .

The Siskiyou Project Or c99 . (P.O. Box 220, Cave Junction, OR 97523 tel:(541)592-4459 Kelpie Wilson . GIS Contact, Romain Cooper email:romain@siskiyou.org) "The Siskiyou Project works to protect the ecological integrity and biodiversity of the Klamath- Siskiyou Bioregion...The Siskiyou Project is sponsoring the Klamath-Siskiyou Biodiversity Conservation Plan, research effort headed by Dr. Reed Noss. The Klamath-Siskiyou Biodiversity Conservation Plan (K-SBCP) is a comprehensive study of the elements of biodiversity in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion. The K-SBCP is a truly path-breaking approach that will allow conservationists to move beyond uncoordinated and piecemeal strategies. This scientifically based plan will help conservation groups identify priorities for protection and help set the conservation policy agenda for the region. The K-SBCP is the first project to gather complete computerized mapping data (GIS) for the Klamath-Siskiyou region, but it is also innovative and fundamentally different from other GIS mapping projects. The result is not merely a set of maps, but a policy recommendation for the conservation of biodiversity based on the principles of conservation biology and nature reserve design. The plan has been accepted by The Wildlands Project as one of their six pilot projects. The World Wildlife Fund is interested in the Ecoregion and has recently joined us in sponsoring this work. "

Sitka Conservation Society, Sitka AK c95 c97 . (P.O. Box 316 Sitka, Alaska 99835 phone: (907)747-7509 fax: (907)747-6105 email: sitconsv@ptialaska.net) . We believe that our economic future depends on a healthy environment and a sustainable lifestyle. Those who care for this area must work together to protect its rich diversity and incomparable beauty. We use geographic information systems (GIS) to aid in understanding and analysis of natural resources and to share knowledge with others interested in issues affecting the coastal temperate rainforests of Southeast Alaska. Currently, our most critical issue is the revision to the Tongass Land Management Plan. The Planning Team is analyizing public comments on the draft now. We felt that protection for fisheries and wildlife habitat was far less than recommended by scientists... GIS STATUS: " One of the major goals that SCS had developed in 1997 was to produce an atlas of the local use area which focused on the distribution of natural resources and the economic importance of not harvesting timber...The goal was to provide a model of community-based planning for the US Forest Service and other communities in Southeast Alaska. The project responds to a need for a more balanced approach to land designations at the local as well as the regional scale. For our analysis, six resource sectors were to be examined: sustainable timber, non-timber forest products, subsistence food sources and wildlife habitat, commercial fisheries, tourism and recreation. The analysis would build on USFS data and siting criteria, then include information from other organizations and local knowledge to refine siting criteria and allocate resources in a more holistic manner...David and I spent a great deal of time wrestling with analysis and design decisions. We realized as we struggled with these issues that we had a lot of questions about the data and its suitability for the type of finer-scale analyses we hoped to accomplish. Because this project was so complex, planning discussions became a big time sink without much visible result. This was hard for the SCS board to understand, and led them to question what their GIS program was accomplishing... The concern about data understanding led me to work with the Sitka Ranger District to develop a collaborative proposal to document data....Goals of the project were to develop better data and user documentation on US. Forest Service (FS) data sets, and to develop a predictive model on the biomass of certain under-story resources of the Sitka area. Part of the project funding came from the collaborative stewardship project money of the FS. This funding was highly significant for several reasons: 1) Data barriers will be reduced, making the work of our facility much more efficient and assisting other groups in using this data. 2) Development of the models benefits management of existing resource uses and study of potential for new businesses. 3) It assists with the current shift in focus we are hoping the FS will make from primarily timber resource management towards more integrated multiple resource management. 4) The project was rather unique as a cooperative effort between a conservation group and the FS and will improve our ability to effect change. It is one of the first tangible projects of the collaborative stewardship initiative of the FS.I entered into this project with high hopes that, through collaborative analyses with USFS staff, I would be able to gain much greater understanding of landscape ecology, GIS skills, and improved ability to apply the data. I also had a goal that was somewhat adversarial in nature; in that I hoped the project would formally document limitations and inappropriate uses of the data. The vegetative cover layer used by the FS in habitat capability modeling was developed with a primary goal of estimating timber volume rather than forest structure. It is not capable of discriminating differences in habitat quality. Timber harvest alternatives are presented in terms of productive acres of old growth that will remain after harvest, but there has been little acknowledgement of the wide range of habitats found within that grouping, and the impact of timber harvest on high quality habitat. Thus, I hoped to document the limitations of this data set for habitat modeling. ....As we wrestled with the best way to document these datasets, and make them more accessible to the public, we came to the conclusion that formal FGDC-compliant metadata was not helpful. We thought more in terms of developing user introductions to the datasets. It seemed helpful to provide background information on management issues, because you cant understand a dataset without understanding the analysis goals for which the data were developed. I came to the conclusion that this information could best be presented in hypertext markup language (html). This enables the reader to have the option of accessing background information as needed. Throughout the project, I published the information in draft form on our webpage. I decided that tutorials on using the data were one of the best ways to help people understand the datasets. I began to form a goal of developing our website as a teaching medium focusing on local GIS datasets, how they are used in resource management, and background information on conservation biology and landscape ecology....Communication with the public, especially in the political advocacy arena, often requires short and simple messages. GIS has strength in making complexity more comprehensible. Yet to truly understand ecosystems one must understand complexity. I see a tendency in the people requesting maps from me to ask for simplicity. I worry that this minimizes the capacity of our GIS system. If GIS is only used for graphic persuasion, other less costly programs could be used. In order to ask for my boards support in performing complex analyses, which take much longer to produce visible products, I must be clear on how those analyses will serve our goals, how long they will take, or why it is worthwhile for me to be trained in these analytical techniques. "

1997: We Received a grant for cooperative data sharing and resource analysis with the Sitka Ranger District, U.S.F.S. The Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP), clean up of the Sitka Pulp mill, and an economic and resource analysis of the Sitka area were also important focuses of the GIS work. Threatened Places maps were prepared, showing the areas allocated to timber harvest around communities under the new TLMP. The maps were disseminated by publishing them on our Internet site, by distribution to local groups, and published in a regional conservation newsletter, which goes to over 2000 members. The maps were kept deliberately simple, and without color to make them easily reproducible.... 1998: The major focus of the year was the data-sharing grant with the USFS. The material was published on CD-ROM with local use area data sets, maps, and teaching documents. The SCS website was developed as a teaching facility using the data sharing work. Work was begun preparing maps and analyses for goshawk litigation. An educational outreach program was developed, offering independent study classes to two students from local educational institutions. "

Skagit Conservation Database Consortium, Wa c99 . (c/o Skagit Land Trust 520 S. First St., Mount Vernon, WA. 98273 . GIS Contact: Martha Bray tel:360-428-7878 fax:360-428-7878 email:marthab@fidalgo.net ) "The Skagit Land Trust was organized in March 1992 with 31 Charter Members, as a way to help conserve a balance of natural resources in Skagit County for future generations. As of December 31, 1998, the Trust held 18 conservation easements protecting 560 acres of land, and owned, in fee, 11 important parcels totaling 190 acres, for a total of 750 acres of protected and/or owned land in Skagit County....The 8 million square kilometer Skagit river watershed is located equidistant between Seattle and Vancouver B.C. metropolitan regions, and there is increasing pressures on the natural resources found in the valley...In order to create a unified database and provide conservation organizations access to a Geographic Information System the Skagit Conservation Database Consortium (SCDC) was started in January of 1998. The SCDC collects and analyzes environmental data for the conservation of natural resources within the Skagit river watershed. This data comes from the conservation and natural resource management organizations in the area, and assembled together facilitates the organizations in their conservation activities. Any organization involved in conservation activities in the Skagit valley is able to be a part of the consortium by signing the memorandum of understanding. "

Skagit Watershed Council Wa e98 . (SWC) ( 407 Main Street, Suite 205, Mount Vernon, WA 98273 tel:360-419-9326 mailto:skagitws@sos.net GIS Contact: Ben Perkowski, Technical Coordinator) "comprises 33 member organizations, including tribes and other governmental entities, conservation organizations, business and industry groups"...GIS Program: Maps and Data Site: "We believe ArcView and Spatial Analyst will be critical in supporting our screening of potential habitat enhancement projects in the Basin consistent with our scientifically-based restoration and protection strategy, which has been developed over the past two years. We plan to use available GIS coverages from organizations such as the Skagit System Cooperative, Skagit County, the state Department of Natural Resources, the US Forest Service, USGS, the University of Washington, etc. to develop ArcView projects to help determine potential restoration areas and areas that are high priority for protection. Through our Restoration Strategy, we have already identified methods to screen potential projects through the Habitat Protection and Restoration Strategy that will require the capabilities of ArcView and Spatial Analyst to manipulate and map large spatial data layers such as land use, vegetation, elevation, habitat types, parcel ownership, etc. We hope and plan to use these ESRI products to produce maps that can be used at public meetings and workshops to help the community understand and participate in the prioritization and implementation of restoration and protection activities in the Basin. Our technical coordinator has experience with ArcView from a previous job and will be the primary user of the software at the council's office in Mount Vernon, Washington. His work plan for the coming months specifically includes considerable time to work with ArcView and develop various GIS projects. "

Sky Island Alliance, NM e97 . (1315 Coal Ave. SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106 USA tel:505-243-5319 fax:505-243-3477 email:skisland@swcp.com GIS Contact: David Coblentz ) "Sky Island Alliance is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of native biological diversity in the sky islands of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. These mountain islands are among the most diverse ecosystems in North America due to their great topographic complexity and unique location at the meeting point of several major desert and forest biological provinces. We conduct scientific research to provide a better basis for management and disseminate this information through environmental education programs that foster an appreciation for the sky islands and biological diversity in general. .....The Sky Island Alliance received an ESRI Conservation Program grant for the following books and software: 1 ArcView 3.0 for Windows with Spatial Analyst 1 book "Getting to know ArcView GIS" Our Program Coordinator (Jack Humphrey) is using this software to display map coverages of the Sky Island/Greater Gila reserve design for fund raising and organizing fieldwork and ecological reviews.

Smartwood Program (see under Rainforest Alliance)

South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, Sc, e98 . (456 King Street, P.O. Box 1765, Charleston, SC 29402 tel:(843) 723-8035 email:scccl@charleston.net GIS Contact: Dr. Craig E. Campbell phantom@clemson.campuscwix.net) . "The Conservation League is presently initiating one GIS-intensive project tentatively entitled "The Greenbelt Project: Keeping the Country in the Lowcountry." In the Charleston area, as in every metropolitan region in the country, suburban development is consuming rural lands at an alarming rate. One study has shown that while the population of the metropolitan area has grown 41 percent from 1973 to 1994, the urbanized area has grown by 255 percent. This low-density urban and suburban development pattern, known as "sprawl," has numerous negative consequences, including unnecessary conversion of farm and timber land, loss and fragmentation of important habitats, excessive infrastructure development costs resulting in a waste of taxpayer money, increased dependence on the personal automobile and subsequent rise in air pollution, increased water pollution levels, and loss of historic and cultural resources. Other development practices are known to be both more attractive and more economical to the community as a whole. Any redirection away from public policies and practices that currently favor sprawl toward a more positive development approach will rely on solid information and public education. The Greenbelt Project is a partnership of many groups, including historic preservationists, industry and commerce, rural community associations, farmers, timber companies, hunters, and fishers. These partners tend to focus on specific places or resources within the region, and this GIS mapping project will help them to understand the regional context and thus develop a regional vision. For the most part, these groups do not have the interest or capacity to do their own GIS work. SCCCL will develop the GIS products in collaboration with our partners and the material will be distributed through all of the normal channels of communication -- the best way to communicate with the engaged public. The first step of the Greenbelt Project will be to develop a predictive model for urban development in the region over the next thirty years, based on current trends and data from the 1970's through the 1990's. Resources of importance to various constituency groups (including cultural, historic, ecological, agricultural, fisheries, and others) will then be identified and mapped. This information will then be combined to reveal "lands at risk." Proposed map products will make a good faith effort at answering the question: "What will happen if we don't do anything differently?" If a significant segment of the population finds the answer unacceptable, it will become easier for the community to take the next logical step: to explore how local policies might be changed to yield a different outcome thirty years hence. " Don't miss their Interactive Projects Map . . . For a look at their GIS modeling methodology, see the paper: "Modeling and Predicting Future Urban Growth in the Charleston Area" (by Jeffery Allen, South Carolina Water Resources Center, Strom Thurmond Institute, Clemson University . and Kang Shou Lu, Strom Thurmond Institute, Clemson University ) "For the prediction of urban transition probabilities, four techniques including statistical modeling, rule-based modeling, focus group mapping, and integrated GIS modeling were used in the project. "

South Carolina Forest Watch, Sc c98 . (113 Retreat Street, PO Box 657, Westminster, SC 29693 telephone: 864-647-8804 Fax: 864-647-0403 e-mail: watchdog@carol.net ) . " SC Forest Watch is a grassroots conservation advocacy group, 10 years old, based on the Blue Ridge Escarpment in the southern Appalachians. We engage the USFS at both the plan revision and forest project levels on the Sumter National Forest. Good ground-truthed maps are critical to this endeavor; indeed much of our ability to influence the agency toward an true ecosystems approach to public lands management revolves around our ability to show spatial relationships. We have learned that we can not rely on the agency for mapping that incorporates landscape scale planning, nor can we expect them to show any initiative toward conservation biology. We have to do this: we need GIS capability to do it best. However much this is true for federal level planning, it is doubly so for state-level planning, which tends in South Carolina to be somewhat archaic compared to federal lands planning."

Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, Knoxville, TN c95 . ( P.O. Box 2059 Asheville, NC 28802 (704) 252-9223 fax: (704) 252-9075 email: safc@safc.org ) . Working to Promote the Sound Stewardship of Public Forest Lands, Reform Public Land Management and Preserve Native Biodiversity. Conservation Planning "The Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition (SAFC) is developing conservation plans centered on public lands in the Southern Appalachians. A crucial part of this process involves local groups and citizens in identifying conservation and heritage resources, setting conservation priorities, and placing local conservation prospects within a landscape perspective. SAFC has created new GIS resources to facilitate work with grassroots groups and communities. Conservation areas have been identified throughout the region, showing conservation opportunities and issues in and around these areas. Conservation area designs are being integrated using GIS into a proposal for a network of conservation areas throughout the region."see their Example Roadless Maps . see also: CTSP GIS Report : "We have effectively participated in the Forest Service plan revision process with high impact maps, booklets, and presentations advocating conservation protection. We played a major role in the national effort to get the Administration to protect roadless areas. We have helped to identify high priority tracts for public acquisition. We have created effective partnerships with local, regional, and national groups to highlight and protect specific portions of the Southern Appalachians' biological and cultural heritage. All of these separate projects converge in our goal of developing and promoting a comprehensive conservation vision for the Southern Appalachian region. Many of these projects are now maturing. Several major public products are included in this report. Several others are in process and will be out soon. We plan to unveil the completed conservation vision later this year. In the course of developing these individual projects we have sought to give life and energy to local initiatives that are seeking to protect their special areas while providing a regional context to these efforts. We have helped groups without GIS capabilities develop GIS products that support our mutual conservation goals. We have also provided groups with some GIS capabilities data and support to generate their own products. " (see also listings for Southern Environmental Law Center Inc.Va c98 under ECP environmental justice)

Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project c96 . (Ros McClelland, PO Box 1182, 1567 Twin Sisters Rd., Nederland, CO 80466 (303)447-9409 . general phone: (303) 258-0433 MAILTO:srep@indra.com GIS contact: Bill Martin: mailto:wwmartin@indra.com) "The Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project (SREP) seeks to identify, protect and restore areas critical to the maintenance of biological diversity and ecological richness in the Southern Rockies bioregion. SREP is a non-profit, grassroots organization established in 1992 which joins the science of conservation biology with citizen activism to develop ecosystem protection plans in the Southern Rockies..Mapping and GIS includes a long list of area analyses and maps: "Since 1996, SREP has been working on projects involving mapping and GIS analysis of the Southern Rockies ecosystem. One of our primary goals is to serve as a clearinghouse for data to support environmental preservation in the region. " see also Conservation Priority Areas: The Watershed Assessment Component of the Southern Rocky Mountains Reserve Design for a great collection of conservation analyses and maps. GIS STATUS: "The Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project (SREP) and Colorado Environmental Coalition (CEC) were awarded a desktop GIS system by CTSP in 1996. The primary goal of SREP and CEC is to protect the biodiversity of Colorado and the Southern Rockies bioregion. Our main strategies are: 1) to advocate for biologically based public land management through biodiversity proposals; 2) to counter threats to public lands; 3) to create a wildlands reserve system based on the core/buffer/corridor design promoted by the Wildlands Project, and 4) to develop legislation for ecosystem protection. In the past year, tremendous progress has been made in establishing a functional GIS capacity, acquiring data, and producing a series of products for proposals to land management agencies and to fight incremental destruction of valuable public lands. Some highlights include: . -The equipment has been fully functional since its installation in July under the guidance of SREP's full-time GIS mapping coordinator. . . -At least 17 major data sets have been acquired, ranging from Land Use/Land Cover for the Southern Rockies to 11 subsets for the San Juan National Forest. . . -Three local mapping groups have acquired full or partial GIS capacity. . . -Extensive comments were prepared for three National Forest plan revisions using science advisors, staff and volunteers. . . -Draft core reserve areas for Central Colorado, Black Ridge Canyons/Unaweep and the Uncompahgre Plateau are completed." Case Study: Rio Grande Forest Plan: "We were only partially successful in shifting the preferred plans toward good protection. The Rio Grande Forest final plan illustrates this best. SREP and CEC, in consultation with local environmental groups, did extensive analysis and comments on both of the scientific basis and regulatory framework of the agency's draft plan. SREP/CEC recruited a number of scientists and hired a biologist to assess the plan, and Biodiversity Legal Foundation and Land and Water Fund of the Rockies provided additional input and legal services. These comments, along with those of many other conservationists, resulted in the final plan reducing motorized trails from 970 miles to 380 miles, a very strong position in light of the demand for back country motorized access in that forest. On the other hand, proposed motorized trails through Pole Creek roadless area are located in riparian areas and fragment a prime connector between several Wilderness areas. (See accompanying map and page 13 of Core Connections.) The Rio Grande plan is under appeal by environmental groups because of inadequate biological analysis, poor criteria for old growth, intrusion of roads into roadless areas and no recommended Wilderness. We clearly have the capacity to design and submit biologically oriented proposals to the agencies; it is not clear that we have the political influence to significantly alter the ongoing planing processes toward more sound ecological protection. "

Southern Tier West Regional Planning & Development Board, Ny e98 . (465 Broad Street, Salamanca, NY 14779 Telephone: (716) 945-5301 Fax: (716) 945-5550 E-mail:stwrpdb@eznet.net or bridges@popmail.eznet.net GIS contact: Brian Schrantz ) "Southern Tier West serves three counties which include 130 Towns and Villages, 4 Cities, and 3 Native American Indian Reservations...Recently Southern Tier West began to offer GIS and data services to its constituents." . Homepage GIS project: "This homepage is currently under construction. Since this data is not currently in a native ArcView format, the Data Automation Kit would be used to transform it into a workable database. The kit would also be used to disseminate the data to others in a format suitable for them. Southern Tier West would use the Spatial Analyst to perform contour mapping of well production, age, depth, and size. The Spatial Analyst will allow us to analyze trends in the well data, thereby helping to develop comprehensive plans for the future of gas and oil mining in the region. Southern Tier West would then use the Internet Map Server to produce a final report with maps accessible through our web page. "

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) UT c97..(1471 South 1100 East Salt Lake City, UT 84105-2423, (801) 486-3161, suwa@suwa.org ) "The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is the voice of one of America's most threatened landscapes -- the wild and unspoiled Colorado Plateau. Twenty-five thousand concerned citizens from across the nation have joined SUWA's hard-hitting, grassroots commitment to save the magnificent canyon country of Southern Utah. " see: Utah photo index maps . See OVERIDING UTAH'S WILDERNESS The Search for Balance and Quiet in Utah's Wilderness: "It's one thing to drive an ORV on designated routes where proactive management minimizes environmental damage. It is something else again to tear across proposed wilderness areas, endangered plant and animal habitat, archaeological sites, or streams and streamside vegetation, where damage cannot be avoided and often cannot be repaired. At times, even human safety is at risk when ORVs tear across the landscape." Don't miss: Fruition of the New Citizens' Inventory of Utah Wilderness "In 1996, the Utah Wilderness Coalition (UWC) decided it was time to get its 12-year-old wilderness inventory ready for the 21st century. We set out to revise and document our boundaries on an unprecedented scale..For about as long as our wilderness proposal has been around, wilderness opponents have attacked its credibility by claiming that we have included roads, power lines, mines, even towns, and other human impacts inside our proposal. We've always responded that we were very careful in drawing our boundaries, but if they showed us any errors we would adjust the boundaries accordingly. No one ever came forward with any examples, but we decided we would make sure ourselves by re-evaluating every inch of our proposal...It is probably the most thoroughly documented wilderness inventory ever assembled: 50,000 photographs were taken by hundreds of volunteers and staff, who spent tens of thousand of hours covering around 20,000 miles of boundary, all of it closely reviewed for consistency by a technical review committee. ". . Utah Citizen's Wilderness Proposal includes an extensive collection of wilderness analyses and maps associated with the new wilderness research effort..SUWA also contribute to the The Wild Utah Project to provide GIS support to other wilderness NGO's in Utah.

Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, c98 . (see under Center for Biological Diversity)

Southwest Forest Alliance (P.O Box 1948 Flagstaff AZ 86002 520.774.6514 mailto:swfa@swfa.org.org) ."a coalition of more than 50 environmental groups in Arizona and New Mexico dedicated to charting a new course for the Southwest's eleven national forests....Citizens are taking the lead to restore and protect our public forests. The Southwest Forest Alliance is mapping vital resources and developing management plans to protect sensitive areas such as wetlands, cold water fisheries, ancient forests, and recreation areas. We want to be sure that local economies are healthy and sustainable, and protected from cut-and-run timber companies. "

Superior Wilderness Action Network, Oshkosh WI . (2052 Carroll Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104, Ph: 651-646-6277 FAX: 651-647-4400 email:SWAN@superiorwild.org also contact Mr. Bill Willers email:willers@vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu ) . GIS MAPPING PROGRAM: "The mission of the Superior Wilderness Action Network (SWAN) is the production of a scientifically-guided proposal for a biodiversity reserve system across the Midwest North Woods (i.e., northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan). To this end, SWAN has provided a research grant to the Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to carry out the scientific analysis necessary. ...NOTICE: You will see that the before-and-after maps (of vegetation cover in the Midwest North Woods) referred to in SWAN's March, 1997, Occasional Paper have been removed from the web page. The public agencies, including the United States Forest Service, that assembled the underlying data have not completed an assessment or description of the accuracy or reliability of these data. We are assured that this is a temporary situation and that the maps will be made available on their server within a couple of weeks."

Sustainable Seattle, Wa c99 . (514 Minor Avenue, Seattle, WA 98109 phone: 206/622-3522 fax: 206/622-3611 email: sustsea@halcyon.com GIS Contact: Barbara A. Freeman, bafreeman@worldnet.att.net) "Sustainable Seattle's mission is to protect and improve our area's long-term health and vitality by applying sustainability to the links between economic prosperity, environmental vitality, and social equity. ....Sustainable Seattle's mission involves providing information in the form of indicators that provide citizens with useful feedback about our progress towards sustainability. It has become evident over the 8 years of our existence that GIS technology and methodologies could provide better indicators and more easily understood presentations of complex sustainability information. The point is to be able to bring this information into focus so that informed dialog and decision-making can occur. Our first project is designed to demonstrate this by applying GIS to one of our existing indicators, Pedestrian and Bicycle Friendly Streets. This indicator was first proposed by Barbara Freeman, while a graduate student in Landscape Architecture and urban Design at the University of Washington....Sustainable Seattle has a history of working with experts in data collection. We worked with over 50 different agencies and institutions in developing our indicators. We have a good reputation with experts in data gathering and analysis. Presently our Open Space Near Urban Villages indicator uses GIS map information and a simple distance averaging analysis to show areas where people had limited park access. "

Telluride Institute InfoZone, Telluride CO c97 . (P.O. Box 1770, 283 S. Fir St., Telluride, CO 81435 Vox: 970-728-6960 or 0472; Fax: 970-728-4638 Richard Lowenberg, Program Director E-mail: rl@infozone.org ) . The 'Zone is a virtual community, linked to a real physical place and people, evolving amidst the turbulant emergence of a tele-mediated information society. The InfoZone is a program of the Telluride Institute, a not-for-profit research, education and cultural organization. The InfoZone is a site-specific, pragmatic response to this regional community's needs and desires; and an intelligently creative model for broad spectrum community development and education in rural areas, using information and telecommunications technologies. The InfoZone Program is a living laboratory for the technical, cultural, political and economic impacts and implications of the tele-mediation of our communities. The InfoZone intends, by example, to promote "an ecology of the Information Society.".Regional GIS Development, Distribution Access & Education: InfoZone is the recipient of implementation funding from the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, through CATI, to partner with the Southwestern Colorado Data Center, (see under ECP data sources) in Ridgway, in developing and providing GIS/Internet resources, access and training in San Miguel and Ouray Counties. This is one of the first national demonstration project of its kind, and is expected to grow in scope and accomplishments. This project is also an important compliment to the GIS mapping and modeling objectives of Telluride Institute's San Miguel River Basin Project.

Teton Science School, Kelly WY cm97 . (P.O. Box 68, Kelly, WY 83011 307-733-4765 Fax 307-739-9388 E-mail info@tetonscience.org) "Teton Science School is an independent, non-profit center, whose mission is to teach experiential natural science in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to people of all ages. We serve over 5,000 individuals each year. Teton Science School has been in operation since 1967 and is located in Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Yellowstone National Park, Bridger-Teton National Forest and the National Elk Refuge provide abundant wild lands for our studies. The secluded campus was once a dude ranch and retains much of its Western charm. It is surrounded by grand mountain views, peaceful aspen forests and open grasslands. Wildlife is plentiful and frequently sighted near campus." . see: " The Use Of Field Research In Environmental Education " .

Texas Center for Policy Studies, Austin TX c97 . (PO Box 220 S-300, Austin, TX 78767, (512)479-6669 , webweaver@tec.org) . The Texas Environmental Center (TEC) is a non-profit organization extending environmental information through modern technologies. TEC has been a pioneer in the use of the Internet since 1991, when we developed one of the first electronic environmental libraries in the nation in a partnership with Rice University. TEC now maintains several Web-based projects. The Texas Environmental Almanac Map Section provides access to dozens of MAPS and current and historical facts, figures, and legislative information on the current condition of Texas water, land, and air. Barton Springs Interactive is a multimedia CD introduced by Bill Moyers. Also see their online map: Bioregions of Texas . GIS STATUS: "Incorporating GIS technology into a variety of reports, presentations, workshops and in the development of our web page -- which went on-line only last year -- has been instrumental in making better maps and perhaps more importantly, analyzing information with a geographic component. In addition, our GIS project director, Cyrus Reed, enrolled in two graduate-level GIS classes at the University of Texas' Community and Regional Planning Program which enhanced his abilities and accessibility to GIS information...Finally, the GIS software will be used in the near future to produce graphics for the updated version of the Texas Environmental Almanac. The Texas Environmental Almanac is a 350-page resource describing the state of the state's environment which was published by TCPS in 1995."

Upper Arkansas and South Platte Project, Co c99 (1308 St. Paul St. Denver CO 80206 USA tel:303-388-3378 fax:303-388-3378(call first) GIS Contact: Jean C. Smith, jeancsmith@earthlink.net ) "Upper Arkansas and South Platte Project (UASPP) does ecosystem mapping and habitat protection in collaboration with other local and regional conservation groups. We use the science of conservation biology in our designs and management recommendations. UASPP is affiliated with the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project which coordinates mapping efforts across the region. We established a GIS program in September, 1997 to more effectively accomplish its mission of preserving and restoring native biodiversity. The Arkansas/Platte core reserve design is part of the rewilding of North America promoted by the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project (SREP) and The Wildlands Project. UASPP is one of SREP's regional affiliates, and SREP is the organization's fiscal sponsor. Our plans are to produce an initial science-based core reserve design for the two watersheds, initiate a Citizens' Management Alternative (CMA) for the Pike and San Isabel forest plan revision, provide local conservation organizations with GIS data and maps and continue to support the Colorado Wilderness Campaign. The maps and supporting analyses will require increasingly complex ArcView projects and data sets."

Wilderness Watch, Missoula MT . (Wilderness Watch P.O. Box 9175 Missoula, Montana 59807 (406)-542-2048 Fax (406)-542-7714 E-mail wild@wildernesswatch.org) "Wilderness Watch is a national, non-profit citizens' organization dedicated solely to the protection and proper stewardship of the lands and rivers designated as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System and the Wild and Scenic Rivers System. "

Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, NY c96 (Wildlife Conservation Society Membership Office Bronx, NY 10460 , FAX (718) 367-1657, SRC Director Fred Koontz email : fwkoontz@wcs.org. ) . Headquartered at New York City's Bronx Zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) works to save wildlife and wild lands throughout the world. For more than a century, WCS has inspired care for nature, pioneered environmental education programs, and helped sustain biological diversity....The Society's Science Resource Center helps researchers assess data through computer mapping, ecological analysis and cutting-edge molecular genetics (Tracking Wildlife By Satellite). The Science Resource Center (SRC) was established in March 1994 as an information and scientific learning hub for the Wildlife Conservation Society. The SRC’s mission is to provide technical resources to WCS staff so that they can fully integrate cutting-edge information, science and technology in their work saving wildlife. GIS REPORT: "Over the past ten years GIS use among conservation groups and in the conservation biology community has grown dramatically. Today GIS often is an integral part of conservation work. It is used to analyze relationships among social, economic, physical and biological information for large or small geographic units, to help make predictions about specific species, and to create maps which communicate important conservation and scientific messages to policy makers and the general public. Improvements in GIS software for Windows-based computers, decreasing costs for computers and software, and vendor donations of hardware, software and training, have made GIS more accessible for organizations. Moreover, the development of GIS applications in academia and expanding use among various conservation organizations, have resulted in a heightened interest in the use of GIS and related technologies on the part of conservationists worldwide. Picking up on these trends, in recent years WCS's International Field Programs have begun using GIS in their work, and exploring new methods for using GIS...Two companies helped WCS launch GIS at WCS's Bronx Zoo headquarters - Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) and Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI)...Most WCS field projects using GIS have received software donations directly from vendors. ESRI has donated PC ArcInfo and ArcView through the ESRI Conservation Program to the following projects: ADMADE, Zambia; African Conservation Centre, Nairobi; Masaola National Park Management Plan, Madagascar; and to Indochina Tiger Coordinator Tony Lynam... SPECIFIC GIS PROJECTS: A Framework for Identifying High-Priority Areas for the Conservation of Tigers in the Wild. This joint project with WWF's Conservation Science Program (CSP), headed by Eric Dinerstein, used GIS to compare and analyze a variety of landscape features and other factors which may cause the decline of tiger populations in the wild....Patagonia Coastal Zone Management Plan. This project is the first GEF/UNDP project to be completed. It began in July 1993 to address the need for basic scientificinformationn about the region's wildlife and assess regional economic activities."...A good sampling of their recent GIS projects can be seen in North America Projects and Africa Projects . Also see: Setting Conservation Priorities for Tigers in the Wild .

Wolf Education and Research Center Ketchum, ID c96 . (P.O. Box 1808, Boise, ID 83701-1808 (208)343-2248 or WERC Visitor Center, P.O. Box 217, Winchester, ID 83555. tel:208-924-6960 contact Gina Patton: mailto:wolfcenter@rmci.net) . "The Wolf Education & Research Center (WERC) has been involved in public education and awareness efforts since 1988. To date, WERC programs and materials reach 110,000 people annually. WERC, in partnership with the Nez Perce tribe, is developing an environmental and cultural education facility in Idaho which includes a socialized, captive wolf pack on a 20 acre enclosure....GIS STATUS: "In April 1996, WERC was awarded a prestigious Geographic Information System (GIS) grant from the Conservation Technology Support Program, (CTSP)...This GIS grant allows us to collect, access and utilize accurate information relevant to the management of public lands and the restoration of wolves to the Rocky Mountains. We have started a long term monitoring project in the Bear Valley region of Central Idaho, in the heart of historic wolf habitat where cattle grazing and hunting are primary uses of this public land. We map wolf movements, grazing allotments and wildlife activity in this valley using vegetation as the basis of the ecosystem. We hope to learn over time, what factors influence the movements and interactions of animals dependent upon this area....We are working with engineers to design and develop a new type of radio collar for wolves that relies upon Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Locational information will be transmitted to a satellite, where researchers can download data, which is safer and more accessible than current technology.. We are also providing information on wolf vocalizations to help design a radio collar that "turns on" when a wolf vocalizes, which can be used to determine not only the location of animals, but behaviors and possibly even prey types. "

Woods Hole Research Center, Ma e94 . (see under ECP Feature Stories) (The Woods Hole Research Center, P.O. Box 296, Woods Hole, MA 02543-0296 tel:(508) 540-9900 fax:(508) 540-9700 email: info@whrc.org GIS contact: Peter Schlesinger, Michael Ernst) "Our purpose is discovery and management, formulating principles of ecology that govern nature and helping people to live within the limits of nature. Our tools are research and education, and our object is better management of the common resources of life, air, water, and land....The Woods Hole Research Center uses remote sensing and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to study the major forested regions of the world - the tropics of South America and the boreal forests of the former Soviet Union. One of our long-term goals is the production of a Global Forest Inventory - a measure of current global forest extent and composition and global terrestrial carbon sequestration - that will help us monitor future changes in the world's valuable forest resources. An early step toward this goal is our recently completed (Aug., 1997) Spatially Explicit Map of Forest Stand Carbon for Russia. " Don't miss their Electronic Atlas of Cape Cod : "The Electronic Atlas of the Cape Cod Environment is not only a collection of maps, but also a compilation of imagery and photos that illustrate some important characteristics of the Cape Cod environment. "

(Legend: ESRI User Conference Papers list the title, then in parentheses "paper" or "abstract" plus the year. Other web-located papers list title, author if known, and excerpt.)

Analysis of Road Densities in Selected Grizzly Bear Management Units in the Northern Rockies (1996 ESRI Conf. Abstract, Timothy Bechtold, David Havlick and Keith Stockman Contact: Tim Bechtold, The Ecology Center, 801 Sherwood Street, Suite B Missoula, MT 59802 phone: 406-728-5733 fax: 406-728-9432, email: ecocenter@wildrockies.org)..."This analysis, known as the "Roads Scholar Project" combined aerial photo and map inventories with field surveys and GIS analyses to identify, assess, analyze, and display the current conditions of roaded wildlife habitat in selected management units in Montana, northern Idaho, eastern Washington, and northwestern Wyoming. In each instance, the US Forest Service's management of its roads system has been found to be inadequate, either due to unidentified travelways that exist on the ground but not in agency inventories, ineffective road closures, or both"

Beyond the Big Outside (by Michael Biltonen, Exec. Dir., MERP, P.O. Box 293, Red Wing, MN 55066. email: merp@redwing.net ) . "If rehabilitated and protected, areas identified in the MRLIA would represent the largest statewide wildlands reserve system in the lower 48 United States and allow the natural recovery of the Gray Wolf, Wolverine, Canada Lynx, Cougar, Woodland Caribou and other species sensitive to human activities. Although not necessary for all wildlands proposals, we've chosen to utilize Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in our mapping. GIS provides the accuracy and precision needed for mapping a scientifically defensible proposal. "

Beyond Mapping: Using GIS for Natural Resource Assessment and Analysis (1996 Paper, Edith Read and Jenny Gough)...We present three diverse examples which show how GIS can be applied to relationships between hydrological and biological resources. In the first example, we show cation-anion characteristics of spring water in the San Bernardino Mountains of California. Plots of the data in the form of Stiff diagrams clearly illustrate differences between calcareous, hydrothermal waters along a fault line and artesian waters that typify most of the sample sites....In the second example, we show application of GIS to vegetation transect and hydrological data obtained as part of a long-term riparian monitoring program in the Sierra Nevada of California. Box-and-whisker plots of the data using S-Plus (StatSci Division, Mathsoft, Inc., Seattle, Washington, USA prove especially useful in showing the distribution of wetland indicators in relation to distance from stream. The third example shows habitat analysis for the Santa Ana River woolly star, an endangered plant species whose life cycle is linked to flooding frequency and diversity insuccessionl stage of alluvial terraces within the floodplain

 Conservation Development: A View from the Central Hardwoods.: (1997 ESRI Conf. Paper, Kevin Miller, Heartwood, 8801 N Bottom Road, Ellettsville, IN 47429, Telephone: (812) 337-8898, email: inform@heartwood.org or Telephone: 317-233-5298 Fax: 317-232-3403 E-mail: kmill@opndem.state.in.us) "Development of natural resources needs to be tempered between the conservation of our natural heritage, the spatial distribution of this heritage, and industrial development of these resources. Business, government, and the public need to be made aware that development and conservation can be a symbiotic, rather than a confrontational relationship."

Drawing Lines on the Map Conservation Biology and Land Use Planning (1995 ESRI Conf. Abstract, Alisya Galo) ...Initially developed as AML scripts, the presentations explain the conservation biology principles of avoiding habitat fragmentation, maintaining landscape heterogeneity, and connectance.

Effects of Livestock Grazing on Stand Dynamics and Soils in Upland Forests of the Interior West . (Conservation Biology Volume 11, No. 3, April 1997 . A. JOY BELSKY AND DANA M. BLUMENTHAL Oregon Natural Desert Association. 732 SW 3rd Ave., Suite 407, Portland, OR 97204, USA jbelsky@onda.org, 503-228-99720 ) "...Disturbances such as periodic high- and low-intensity fires, insects, and disease have long been natural parts of western forest ecosystems (Wickman 1992; Hessburg et al. 1994; DellaSala et al. 1995). But these forests appear less able to tolerate human disturbances such as livestock grazing, logging, and fire exclusion. The studies we have discussed here suggest that livestock have actively participated in the destabilization of ponderosa pine and mixed coniferous forests. The hot fires that swept through forests of central and eastern Washington and Oregon during the summers of 1994 and 1996 may have been, partially, a result of a century of livestock grazing."

Enhanced Wetland Mapping on the Loomis State Forest: A report to Northwest Ecosystem Alliance (George Wooten, Peter Morrison and Sarah Masco, Pacific Biodiversity Institute, August 1998 ) "Wetland extent in an upper montane area of Washington state was assessed through a variety of techniques yielding an estimate of National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) mapping accuracy. Through a combination of field sampling, photo-interpretation, and geographic information system (GIS) analysis, the actual extent of wetlands was measured to be 535% higher than on NWI maps. "

Mapping Endangered Diversity (GIS World Article on Conservation International's GIS, Vol. 9 No. 3, March 1996. By Jeff Specht Associate Editor 155 E. Boardwalk Drive Suite 250 Fort Collins, CO 80525 E-Mail: jeff@gisworld.com ) "...Conservation International promotes conservation and sustainable growth in many of those countries by building local technical capacity with GIS. ..."

Minnesota Biosphere Recovery Strategy, A Preliminary Proposal (1997 MERP Report, Mike Biltonen, Minnesota Ecosystems Recovery Project) . "The Minnesota Roadless Lands Inventory produced some surprising results. For example, it revealed over 2 million ha of roadless lands / complexes in the state, including 0.52 million ha in the Boundary Waters region and others in some counties we did not expect. Roadless land complexes were identified in 13 counties. Six of these are cornerstones of the MBRS. The remaining seven make significant contributions to their regions and can be linked to the Superior Wildlands by broad corridors and protected by buffer zones. "

National Stewardship Initiatives: Conservation Strategies for U.S. Land Owners (April 1998) (by Sara Vickerman, Defenders of Wildlife-West Coast Office 1637 Laurel St. Lake Oswego, OR 97034 (503) 697-3222, defender@teleport.com) "This report is an outgrowth of similar reports focused on the State of Oregon. The first one, Stewardship Incentives: Conservation Strategies for Oregon's Working Landscape, and a companion document, Oregon s Living Landscape: Strategies and Opportunities to Conserve Biodiversity, were written as part of the Oregon Biodiversity Project. The project is one of the first attempts to look holistically at natural resources on a statewide basis to begin developing a long-term conservation strategy. Although the initial focus was on the identification of habitats poorly represented in the existing mix of conservation lands, it became obvious early on that a strategy which relies only on establishing additional reserves cannot protect the full range of natural communities. Since many elements of our biological heritage exist in the managed landscape, lands used primarily for farming, timber production, housing, and recreation will play an increasing role in maintaining biodiversity and supporting a high quality of life."

Stream Crossing Density as a Predictor of Watershed Impacts (1997 ESRI Conf Paper by William Haskins and David Mayhood. Cite: Haskins, W., and D. Mayhood. 1997. Stream crossing density as a predictor of watershed impacts. Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual ESRI User Conference Paper 457.)

Wildlands recovery in a human-dominated landscape: foundations of a Central Appalachian restoration strategy (Mountain Forum: a presentation of the Appalachian Restoration Campaign, a project of Heartwood by Nathaniel P. Hitt and Thomas P. Rooney, POB 5541 * Athens, OH * 45701 (614) 592-3968 http://www.bloomington.in.us/heartwood/ARC/ ) "The Central Appalachian Bioregion and other human-dominated landscapes contain both challenges and opportunities for restoration. Having presented ecologically-based restoration goals in this paper, we now need to move forward to determine specific opportunities of public lands to serve these goals, and target regions where protecting private lands is critical to our overall goals. We will maintain our long-term vision of reinventing our cultures and economies to abide by bioregionally-imposed ecological limits. The restoration goals we have outlined provide a point of departure from which we can refine and implement ecological recovery in Appalachia. "

The Wild Path Forward: Left Biocentrism, First Nations, Park Issues and Forestry - A Canadian View (by David Orton, Sponsored by the American Indian Heritage Foundation Washington, D.C. Headquarters 6051 Arlington Boulevard, Falls Church, VA 22044 tel: 202-INDIANS or 703/237-7500 fax: 703/532-1921 aihf@dgsys.com www.indians.org) "North American Wilderness Recovery Strategy proponents must address First Nations issues, because such issues, at least in Canada, will affect the successfulness of any emerging Strategy. It has become necessary to have views on aboriginal issues - including aboriginal rights and treaty rights, native sovereignty, and land ownership, - and be prepared to express them and defend them. A Wilderness Recovery Strategy entails building alliances...."

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All text by the respective organizations, January 2, 1997

Compilation & web design: Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation April 2, 1996