NEWS

Kathy Allen 12/1/16 Kathy Allen 12/1/16

Alaska GeoSpatial Council

In December 2016, Andy Robertson of GeoSpatial Services was selected as co-chair of the Alaska Wetlands Technical Working Group. This working group, approved by the Alaska governor in November 2016, is part of the Alaska GeoSpatial Council (AGC). The AGC, led by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, seeks to

improve geospatial activity in the state by modernizing Alaska's geospatial holdings and infrastructure;
eliminate redundent expenditures and unnecessary staff activity across all business units;
foster data sharing while making geospatial data broadly available to all stakeholders through eliminated data acquisition and distribution policy

Andy will be traveling to Anchorage in February 2017 to present at the Alaska Survey and Mapping Conference.

Kathy Allen 9/15/16 Kathy Allen 9/15/16

Bureau of Land Management

GSS began a new project in collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring group (BLM-AIM) to help develop and pilot a consistent mapping methodology for wetlands and riparian areas of BLM lands in the Western United States.

On December 14th, 2016, GSS staff (Andy Robertson, Hannah Hutchins, and Kevin Stark) met with BLM-AIM for an initial scoping meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Kathy Allen 4/28/16 Kathy Allen 4/28/16

Up-coming Wetland Mapping Fieldwork

Over the next two months, GeoSpatial Services staff will conduct wetlands and hydrology field work for projects in New Mexico and South Central Alaska. Data collected during these field trips will be used to support the digital wetland mapping efforts of student interns and GSS staff during the next year. GSS has recently hired several new student workers to support these projects.

The work in New Mexico is in partnership with the New Mexico Environment Department, Surface Water Quality Bureau, while the project on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula represents a partnership with the non-profit Kenai Watershed Forum. Once mapping is completed by student interns over the next year, it will be uploaded to the National Map and be used to support Google Maps and other online mapping applications.