Our mission is to provide cartographic and GIS support for the Northeast Region National Wildlife Refuge System.

Our customers include Fish & Wildlife Service land acquisition planners, appraisers, surveyors, and realty management specialists. We serve Regional and Refuge biologists, North American Waterfowl Management Plan biologists, the Regional Fire Management Officer, and the Regional Archaeologist in Region 5's National Wildlife Refuge System. We share data and expertise with colleagues in federal, state, local agencies as well as individuals in academia, private firms, and the public.

We maintain and distribute boundary files and maps as well as land ownership information for all National Wildlife Refuges in the Northeast Region. We generate products, including maps, graphics, statistics, and geographic analyses from digital geospatial data. We provide technical support in the areas of cartography, GIS, and GPS for our data users in the Regional Office and on the refuges.

We maintain expertise in processing U.S. Geological Survey, National Wetlands Inventory, and national refuge boundary datasets. We use ArcGIS, ArcView, and AutoCadMap software on Windows computer platforms and maintain a web server.

Refuge Boundary Project

The refuge boundary project involves digitizing all the refuge boundaries for Region 5 and registering them to the USGS 1:24,000 topo quads or larger scale digital orthophotgraphy. We have complete refuge boundary and land status data for all refuges in the Northeast Region. More detailed information is available on the Refuge Boundary Project link above.

The refuge land status and boundary maps are used by the Fish and Wildlife Service to show property that the agency owns and areas in which the agency is authorized to buy. These must be constantly updated to reflect recent purchases and changes in the status of property.