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General Conservation Page 14
(ECP and CTSP grantees, reports, and other sites of interest for conservation
geography, mapping and GIS. Grantees are coded by program and year of
grant at the end of their name/state, i.e. e91 means ECP grant in 1991.
c=cstp, cm=ctsp-mac, cs=ctsp-software)
South Carolina Forest Watch, Sc c98. (113 Retreat Street, PO Box 657,
Westminster, SC 29693 telephone: 864-647-8804 Fax: 864-647-0403
email: 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 email: srep@indra.com GIS contact: Bill Martin: email: 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 nonprofit,
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 email: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 email: 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."
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