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Track: Natural Resources and Conservation
William Bushing
Santa Catalina Island Conservancy
PO BOX 2739
Avalon, CA 90704
Telephone: 310-510-2595 x105
Fax: 310510-2594
E-mail: seer@catalinas.net
Janet Takara, Herman Saldana
Integration of GPS Locational Data in a GIS To Manage Native and Control Non-native Invasive Plants on Santa Catalina Island
Defining Issue: The Santa Catalina Island Conservancy is responsible for the ecological management of more than 42,000 acres of high-relief landscape. Identifying the ecologically significant factors determining native plant species distributions, and controlling the spread of invasive non-native plants, over such a large area is a difficult task. GIS provides the island-wide perspective necessary to address these important ecological issues. GIS Solution: The Conservancy has initiated a long-term program to map native and non-native plant species distributions in the field. The data is then imported into an established enterprise GIS where the distributions may be visualized and statistically analyzed. Appropriate ecological management strategies are determined based in part on this information. Methodology: Handheld GPS receivers taken into the field by Conservancy staff and volunteers are used to record the desired species distributions in selected locations. The data are imported into a GIS where
they can be viewed along with data acquired from previous acquisitions to detect spatial patterns. Due to the varied topography and microclimates of the island, these plant distributions cover a wide range of environmental conditions. The distributions are analyzed for potential correlations with environmental data in the GIS for a better understanding of each species' ecological requirements and ecological management or restoration strategies. The spatial relationships between non-native plant populations across this large landscape must be evaluated to determine the dynamics of infections and to identify appropriate control strategies. Software: This project utilizes PC ARC/INFO, ArcView and Spatial Analyst. The purpose of this paper is to discuss issues related to the acquisition and integration of field-derived GPS locational data and its subsequent analysis in a GIS.
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