GIS for Land Trusts

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GIS technology is well suited for helping land trusts to identify pieces of the land-acquisition puzzle: ownership, development capacity, vulnerable wildlife habitats, and highly visible areas. But the real value of GIS is being able to put the pieces together and look at the big picture. Maps that show land characteristics for an entire geographic area begin to make acquisition priorities more obvious. 

Where can new development occur? Where are the “hot spots,” or concentrations of development? How many new parcels are likely to be created? How much prime farmland or high-priority natural resources will be affected? Margo has developed models that enable her to specialize in identifying development threats in rural areas—urban mapping techniques may miss certain parcels. Gorge GIS uses development hot-spot models that are based on Geo-Spatial Statistical methods that identify “statistically significant” clusters of development. 

Gorge GIS can work with a land trust to develop a full-blown conservation plan or its individual elements, such as a jurisdiction map, a development threat map or priority habitat maps.  

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