I T ' S M O R E T H A N J U S T M A K I N G M A P S

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

In This Tutorial

�  What is GIS?

�  Why is it an important tool for Joint Ventures?

�  How does PLJV use GIS to efficiently target habitat?

What Is GIS?

"A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a collection of computer hardware, software, and data designed to analyze and represent spatial information." Most importantly, GIS is more than making maps. Though maps are often the final product, the real power of GIS lies in the ability to analyze spatial data.

GIS Is Important

For Joint Ventures, habitat conservation is essentially a "where" question. Since we cannot conserve all habitat, we must decide which habitat to protect. GIS allows us to make this decision strategically by maximizing the benefit to birds given a limited set of resources.

GIS Helps Expand Habitat

To help expand Lesser Prairie-Chicken habitat, PLJV and its partners used a GIS decision support tool to target land for enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) through the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) program. The GIS tool targeted land based on habitat quality, proximity to existing Lesser Prairie-Chicken habitat, and the amount of CRP contracts expiring in the near future.

Those areas with a high % of expiring CRP

Areas within 2 miles of large habitat patches

Identifying core habitat

GIS Helps Us Be Efficient

By using GIS to target these SAFE acres strategically, CRP enrollment can provide habitat for the same number of birds with half the acres compared to non-targeted CRP enrollment.

Targeted enrollment with 250,000 acres CRP

3,125 birds in

both cases

Non-targeted enrollment with 500,000 acres CRP

Finding Patterns

In this case, GIS helps to find patterns across space and time:

¡  The county to the south has most of its CRP land expiring in the next two years.

¡  The county to the north has most of its CRP land expiring more than two years from now. CRP expiring more than 2 years from now

CRP expiring within the next 2 years

Using GIS to Target Outreach

As part of our agreement with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, PLJV worked with the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative to design a targeting tool that would identify highly erodible lands for a recently launched continuous CRP signup initiative. Using the SSURGO soils database and Common Land Unit boundaries, we calculated the erodibility index of individual fields to identify those likely to qualify for the initiative.

Maximizing Benefits

Identifying individual fields that are likely to qualify for the Highly Erodible Lands Initiative can help conservationists reach out to landowners. However, like the SAFE program, there are a limited number of acres available. To maximize the benefits, GIS can be used to further target the outreach by incorporating data from the Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT) for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

Fields with EI > 20 CHAT categories EI > 20 fields, prioritized by CHAT

GIS Resources

We maintain a collection of spatial data including our regional 30 meter landcover, probable playas, wildlife habitat models, and more. Our signed memoranda of agreements with the Farm Service Agency allow us to use their Common Land Unit and CRP data in our analyses.

Developing New GIS Projects

In addition to providing our existing data and tools, we invite new ideas for GIS projects. It is through collaboration with our partners that we've developed many successful GIS projects that help inform policy, science, and conservation delivery. Our continued success depends on an engaged partnership to help stimulate innovative conservation GIS.

What You (May Have) Learned

�  GIS is more than making maps. Though maps are often the final product, the real power of GIS lies in its ability to analyze spatial data.

�  For Joint Ventures, this allows us to address the critical question of where to conduct conservation actions.

�  Given the limits of our conservation resources, GIS is one of the best tools to maximize efforts.

�  PLJV invites new ideas for innovative GIS projects that promote habitat conservation.