Problem:

The precarious balance that exists between preserving natural habit and utilizing natural resources has often resulted in bitter disputes and occasionally in violence. This issue came to a head when a small environmental organization threatened to sue a large timber company in an attempt to stop the planned harvesting of timber in an area known to contain several threatened species. In this case there was a need for compromise and in order to came up with a solution, the necessary data needed to be presented in an understandable way. Unfortunately, neither party in this dispute had taken the time to fully research the situation and the result was an apparent impasse. In truth, the timber company knew little about the plight of the species in question and the environmental organization members were not fully aware of the timber company’s plans.

Solution:

A decision making process must be built on the foundation of information, and the mechanism for conveying such information as it relates to location is a GIS. XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise offers easy-to-use tools for creating, processing, and sharing spatial data. Working together, the two parties used XMap to identify and map critical nesting sites as well as the proposed harvest area. XMap’s buffer tool was used to create a 2000ft zone around each nest site that was deemed to be off limits to any timber operations. As a result of this collaborative process, the harvest area was modified to exclude a known nest site and both parties were satisfied with the outcome.

Built With:

XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise

BaseMap:

SAT-10 (ten-meter resolution satellite imagery)

User Additions:

Openspace layers showing nest sites, buffer zone and proposed timber harvest area.