Something spatially exciting is happening on the Mississippi River! Researchers and managers are getting together with "GIS-ers" to develop an accessible desktop spatial data base containing Mississippi River bird and habitat data.
The project is called the Management Information System (MIS) and is a product of the Management Strategy for Migratory Birds on the Upper Mississippi River Corridor(Strategy). The Strategy was developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division in a cooperative effort with many state and federal offices. From the beginning, GIS technology has been recognized as the key toward achieving the Strategy's goal: To ensure that habitat quality and availability are sufficient to support and enhance optimum populations of migratory birds in the Upper Mississippi River corridor. For a more complete description of the Strategy and a thorough list of the cooperators see the attached brochure "The Great River Flyway."
The MIS uses ArcView3, a relatively easy to learn, Windows based GIS on a standard Pentium computer. It provides a systematic approach for assessing ecosystem status through the use of species information, habitat definitions, and multi-scale digital land cover data. Here's how it works:.
Strategy researchers and managers collect data, prepare metadata and submit it for incorporation into an ArcView3 project
Demonstrate project to river managers for feedback and suggestions.
Write CD-ROM containing project and all data and distribute to river managers.
Serve all data on the internet. Update and add data as it becomes available.
Managers use MIS to query available data spatially to assist with management decisions.
Managers and researchers use MIS to determine where data gaps exist and collect more data.
Managers submit new data and metadata to MIS internet server.
Managers download new data from the internet to add to MIS.
The project is currently in the data collection, demonstration, and feedback steps of the process. The plan is to write a CD for distribution by the end of 1997. Two potential uses follow.
The graphic above demonstrates a hypothetical management question and how it might be
queried in the MIS. The question: Are Prothonotary Warblers nesting in the Root River area
of Pool 8, and what is the dominant tree species? The query builder selects all point
counts containing one or more Prothonotaries and shades them yellow. The table also shows
the data for selected points in yellow, allowing the user to analyze forest composition.
The graphic below helps to answer the management question: Are the Closed Area and Voluntary Waterfowl Avoidance Area correctly placed to provide good diving duck habitat? The yellow-orange polygons represent the number of times waterfowl were surveyed in the area. The black dots represent invertebrate sampling points. The table shows the numbers of invertebrates sampled.
GIS can be a very valuable tool to resource managers. This spatial approach used by the
MIS can be adapted for many other areas and management situations. Hopefully the MIS will
help to accelerate the usability of GIS for managers in the field.
If you would like more information on the Strategy or the MIS contact:
Lara Hill - Wildlife Biologist
Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge - La Crosse District
555 Lester Ave. Onalaska, WI 64650
(608)783-8406 lara_hill@fws.gov
Deb Southworth Green, FWS National GIS Coordinator, maintains a listserver and a homepage for sharing GIS & GPS information. Visit the GIS Homepage at
Http://www.fws.gov/data/gishome.html
or join in on the discussions on the GIS listserver.*
*To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@www.fws.gov using the internet
gateway (9DE~INTR). Leave the subject line empty but put "subscribe fws-gis" in
the body of the message.
The focus of this year's Workshop is how the Service uses or could use GIS tools to address conservation issues. The Workshop objectives include:
Two mini-courses, GIS Design for Regional Conservation Planning and GIS Design for Refuge Management, will be offered. By attending both sessions, participants will get a good feel for the range of applications available with a GIS.
"Birds of a feather" breakout sessions will also be conducted throughout the course of Workshop. Each session will be initiated with the presentation of a GIS application illustrating the breakout session topic. Break-out session topics include but are not limited to:
The registration deadline of May 12th is fast approaching so get your
training form in soon. To apply, fax a completed FWS NCTC/NETC Application Form to the
Registrar at 304/725-0664.
An Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract for the procurement of Precision Lightweight GPS Receivers (PLGR's) from Rockwell, International is still available. For those thinking about purchasing a GPS unit for field work, the PLGR+96 should be given serious consideration.
The PLGR's Wide Area GPS Enhancement (WAGE) reduces system errors to achieve less than 4 meters horizontal positioning. WAGE provides position error estimates to indicate the quality of the position data. The typical 4 meters is obtained autonomously in real-time without the need for broadcast correctables or post-processing. Horizontal positioning can be enhanced to 1-2 meters with the use of a Coast Guard Beacon radio receiver or a radio receiver and an annual service charge from a private vendor.
Documentation that accompanies the PLGR is difficult to follow and resulted in
complaints about ease of use when compared with other GPS products. However, this problem
has been remedied with the development of the NCTC video "Introduction to the
PLGR+96 for Natural Resource Applications. A followup video covering more advanced
topics, like collecting polygon information and using the unit with a lazer range finder,
is due out this summer.
The PLGR Kit and DOS Mission Planning Software cost $2237 and includes all you need to get in the field and start collecting data.
PLGR Tips: Make sure to periodically check the primary AA batteries. Keeping fresh AA batteries in your unit will help maintain the life of your memory battery.
It is recommended you send in your PLGR to the FWS GPS-PPS Coordinator, Pat Carroll,
annually to reset the encryption. At this time, an upgrade to the encryption software will
also be loaded which will increase the efficiency of satellite acquisition times.
USGS is proceeding very quickly on developing the digital raster graphics (DRG's) for 7.5' USGS quadrangle maps. The DRG is a scanned image of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) standard series topographic map, including all map collar information. The map image is georeferenced and its horizontal positional accuracy and datum matches that of the source map.
Most of Region 3 has been completed and is available from USGS by degree blocks. Each degree block contains 64 7.5' quadrangle files. These maps make an excellent backdrop for on-screen digitizing or can be used to add symbology to your vector files.
For more information on DRG's and other products from USGS, visit their Web site at http://nsdi.usgs.gov/nsdi/.
If you plan to buy ArcView 3.0 for your station, check out the Team Cordant
CAD2 Contract. Priced at $743.00, this contract offers a substantially reduced
price for ArcView 3.0 when compared to purchasing through an ESRI dealer. The contract
also covers a number of other ESRI products. For more information, contact Deana
Camp, Cordant CAD/GIS Division, 800-244-2232 or visit their Web site at http://www.cordant.com/cad2.
Are you looking for ways to unleash more of the power of ArcView 3.0 but don't have time to learn how to write customized scripts with Avenue? ESRI as well as users of their software are constantly developing scripts and extensions that are being made available through ESRI's web page (http://www.esri.com). Features like buffering, calculcating area and clipping can be incorporated into your default project file or accessed as an extension. Another source of customized scripts & extensions is provided by an ArcView developer at http://www.primenet.com/~piersen.
If you are looking for a more interractive setting or need an answer to a specific application problem, you may wish to subscribe to ESRI's ArcView list server. This list is intended to be a trouble shooting aid for those who use ArcView. Its primary purpose is to provide the subscriber with a source for quick and accurate information about ArcView, Avenue and related GIS procedures and practices. To subscribe, put the following information in the subject line: subscribe <your name(John_Smith)@fws.gov> and send via cc:mail to arcview-l-request@esri.com.
If you don't want to overwhelm your electronic mail with list server traffic (and the
ArcView list server is very active), you can still benefit from this list server by
accessing ESRI's Knowledge Base. This database contains an archive of all
problem solutions that have been resolved through the ArcView list server. The database is
accessible through a browser which allows you to select by subject heading or conduct an
all-text search. The ESRI ArcView Knowledge Base is accessible at: http://www.gfi-gis.com/en/support/avkb.
Want to protect your computer from havoc rendered by lightning strikes and other forms of surge-ical disturbance? The word is that computer hardware protected by Transtector Surge Suppression devices have fared much better than equipment using other types of surge protection or without surge suppression during lightning strikes. In one instance, one of two PCs sitting side by side was fried by lightning even though it was protected by another surge suppression device while the neighboring PC, protected by Transtector's surge suppression, had no damage at all.
With storm season upon us, you may want to buy now. Transtector products are available
on GSA schedule. Contact George Peterson at (800)882-9110 or (208) 762-6124.
Transtector also has a web site at http://www.transtector.com and they
offer a 2% discount if you make your purchase with a credit card.
My name is Mary S. Mitchell and I am the new Region3 GIS Coordinator. I have taken over the duties of coordinating GIS efforts in Region 3 from Deb Southworth Green, who moved to Denver to become the National FWS GIS Coordinator last summer.
I have been involved with GIS applications for about 12 years. I began working with GIS while serving as the Wildlife Biologist for Minnesota Valley NWR. I used GIS regularly throughout my 10 years at the refuge in biological studies and refuge management situations. I learned GIS "on the job" and so am aware of the time commitments and learning curve issues involved in applying GIS.
As a result of my career background, I feel I possess the tools and understanding particularly helpful in assisting newcomers to the technology and those with limited time resources. Please contact me with any GIS questions you may have.
Do you have a GIS idea, solution or information source you would like to share with
others in Region 3? Or do you have a GIS related topic you would like more information on
but don't have time to research. Please contact me, your Region 3 GIS Coordinator, and I
will share your ideas or address your concerns in the next issue of Region 3 GIS
Notes.
Sharing GIS ideas, solutions and information and training sources
Illustrate the power of GIS in representing spatial ideas
Cultivating new applications through graphically illustrating existing projects.
For additional information regarding this Web page, contact Mary Mitchell, REgion 3, Division of Refuges, at Mary_S_Mitchell@fws.gov
Return to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service GIS Home Page
Visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Home Page
Keywords=GIS,regions
Last Modified April 05, 2000 07:54 AM