Washington County: Afton Natural Resources Inventory and Stewardship Plan

Hand-drawn and GIS-based approaches can be combined to meet the needs and capabilities of your community. As you begin the process of assessing your NRI, the community may come to the realization that more detail is needed to answer critical questions. Don't let this derail your process.

Historical or previously hand-drawn NRI's can possess a wealth of knowledge that will add value to your GIS. Often times, this hand-drawn information can be imported into your new GIS. This information can either be scanned as an image and overlayed with other existing data (like an aerial photograph) or digitized using a digitizing tablet or table to create spatially accurate GIS data layers of this older information.

If more detail is needed to answer critical questions, you can still continue to move forward with the planning process or with incorporating older information into your GIS while finding funding and/or partners to conduct a more detailed inventory.

Goodhue County: Red Wing Comprehensive Planning to Protect Natural Areas

Below is an example of a portion of a Combination Hand-Drawn/GIS NRI near Elba Minnesota in Winona County. Originally, mapped by hand over 7.5 minute USGS quarter quads, the Minnesota DNR County Bioligical Survey (CBS) for Natural Communities and Rare Species was later digitized for incorporation into GIS. Although not originally designed for GIS use, the CBS maps represented a wealth of information which could add much value to GIS applications.

Click to Expand Hand-Drawn NRI before conversion to GIS.

Click to Expand Hand-Drawn NRI after incorporation into GIS.

Procedures:

1. Existing data about rare species occurrences and natural communities in Winona County were drawn onto 7.5 minute United States Geological Survey (USGS) quarter quad sheets (quad maps).
2. Other available ecological information was assembled, including geologic maps, soil maps, National Wetland Inventory data, and historical descriptions of vegetation and natural features.
3. Recent color infrared aerial photography of the county was obtained. Using a stereoscope, stereo pairs (magnified and three-dimensional) of the entire county were scanned into a digital format. All vegetation that appeared to have the characteristics of natural communities were delineated on the 7.5 minute quad maps and given a tentative natural community code. The other assembled ecological information were used to help interpret the aerial photos. Notes about apparent disturbances and other observations were also made on the quads.
4. When this process was complete, the areas delineated as potential natural communities and/or rare species occurrences were made into Minnesota County Biological Survey (MCBS) sites for data management purposes. Each site was delineated by hand and given a name and number.
5. Field visits were made to most sites, and the natural community designations were checked and corrected. Natural community quality was ranked, and vegetation plots, species lists, and/or notes were recorded from each site. Additional rare plant occurrences were documented. Corrections were made on the quad maps.
6. The natural community and MCBS site boundaries were digitized directly from the quad maps for incorporation into GIS. USGS quad maps are ideal for this process because they possess geographically referenced control points on each quarter quad sheet. The result is a GIS ready digital representation of natural communities which is geographically referenced.