General Conservation Page 15

(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)

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 email: 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 email info@tetonscience.org) "Teton Science School is an independent, nonprofit 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 nonprofit 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 email wild@wildernesswatch.org) "Wilderness Watch is a national, nonprofit 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."

The Wildlands Project e95 c97. (2655 Portage Bay East, Suite 5 Davis, California 95616.) "The Wildlands Project is a nonprofit publicly supported organization based in Tucson, Arizona. The Project is a group of conservation biologists and citizen conservationists from across the continent devoted to forming a North American Wilderness Recovery Strategy." MAPPING AND GIS: "As research is compiled, we piece together the continental vision. Maps are created through workshops, meetings and discussion that brings together regional activists, conservation biologists and other scientists, and representatives of private groups and government agencies. The final versions of maps are distributed through a variety of channels - from conservation publications including the Wild Earth Journal, to popular press articles. Posters, books and videos may be developed to further spread the message to a wider audience. As proposals are drafted, the results are published as research papers, in Wild Earth, and in other conservation publications to reach a wide audience." GIS STATUS: "GIS work for the Sonoran Desert Protection Plan was to assemble existing data layers from the county to generate maps of conceptual core areas (based on topography, riparian area presence, and important plant communities). We also identified corridors or landscape linkages. The corridor and linkage proposals were used to help organize a coalition of over 30 environmental and neighborhood associations to promote the regional conservation plan. Pima county is now fully committed to this planning process. The coalition was and still is the critical force that brought science to bear on this effort and develops map proposals to gain attention and increase credibility." Dont miss their new " REWILDING and DIVERSITY paper. See the California projects under "California Wilderness Coalition" in the Calif section.

The Wildlands Project California. (See under California Wilderness Coalition, 2655 Portage Bay East, Suite 5 Davis, California 95616, ECP California listings)

Wildlands Project Utah, Ut c97. (165 South Main, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 tel:(801) 328-3550 GIS contact: James Catlin, jcatlin@worldnet.att.net, also called Wild Utah) "The Wildland Project's Utah office provides GIS services to the Utah Wilderness Coalition in an accelerated program to update their wilderness proposal. Wild Utah Project staff supplied joint leadership with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Wasatch Mountain Club, and the Sierra Club to field check BLM roadless lands in Utah. Thanks to volunteer and staff efforts, the Utah Wilderness Coalition has checked the human impacts in about two thirds of the roadless BLM lands in Utah at this time. The Wild Utah Project provides updated maps of the citizen's red rock wilderness proposal. The GIS services that our office provides, the Wild Utah Project, aid Utah's conservation community to design conservation reserves for Utah's BLM and National Forest lands. The time is ripe to integrate the concept of conservation reserves into ongoing land use plans. BLM is designing a land use plan for our newest national monument, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Each of Utah's six national forests will revise their forest plan in the next four years. GIS STATUS: The Wild Utah Project puts conservation biology into the practice of managing Utah's wild lands. The Wildlands Project established an office in Utah in the fall of 1996 to aid environmental groups in their efforts initially to protect BLM wildlands and to collectively develop a system of conservation reserves in Utah. In the past, Utah's conservation community has responded with articulate, technically accurate proposals to protect wild Utah. The book, Wilderness at the Edge, is an example of such a response. This publication describes the Utah Wilderness Coalition's proposal for wilderness for millions of acres of Utah BLM land. Jim Catlin was one of the major contributors in creating Wilderness at the Edge, and the Wild Utah Project will be using this experience as it designs its products. The Wild Utah Project works very closely with the 142 member Utah Wilderness Coalition on Utah's public lands issues. The Utah Wilderness Coalition, which includes The Wildlands Project, has as members the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Sierra Club, the Wasatch Mountain Club, The Wilderness Society, and many more organizations. The issues that the Wild Utah Project currently address include identifying the remaining roadless lands on BLM public lands, national forests, as well as adjoining lands. Knowledge of which lands are roadless is critical in shaping wilderness legislation, designing conservation reserves through BLM and national forest planning, and resolving the RS2477 controversy. In the upcoming years, the Wild Utah Project will provide scientific assistance and GIS services as local organizations become involved in forest plans and BLM resource management plans. Example citizen proposals based on the best available biological science will act as models to help activists influence these upcoming land use plans. The Wild Utah Project's goal is to shift land management toward a more ecological basis through well supported citizens' proposals."