GIS Service Centers for Coastal Land Trusts

Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association
Area served : Upper Mid-Coast
MCPI Investment: A grant ($22,500) was invested to advance this land trust’s existing role as a mapping resource to organizations in the mid-coast. Specifically, the grant will go to upgrade hardware and software and to expand services particularly in terms of training to area land trusts.
Contact Information: Maureen and Paul Hoffman
Phone: (207) 586-5616 , Fax: (207) 586-6442
E-mail: maureen@sheepscot.org & paul@sheepscot.org

Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
Area served : South Coast
MCPI Investment: Funding ($25,000) was targeted to advance this organization’s existing role as a mapping resource to organizations in the south-coast. Specifically, the grant supports efforts to double their GIS service staff time to 16 hours per week. The Reserve will conduct additional outreach and training to area land trusts and will work to digitize conserved lands for its region that runs from Cape Elizabeth to the NH boarder.
Contact Information: Susan Smith
Phone: (207) 646-1555, Fax: (207) 646-2930
E-mail: ssmith@wellsnerr.org

University of Maine Machias
Area served : Downeast
MCPI Investment: This funding ($21,200) will help establish a new mapping service center for Washington County in partnership with the Island Institute. The center will provide training, GIS services, and access to equipment for trained land trust staff and volunteers.
Contact Information: Tora Johnson
Phone: (207) 255-1446
E-mail: tjohnson@maine.edu

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Area served : Lower Mid-Coast
MCPI Investment: This office functions as a Service Center, although it did not apply for MCPI funding.
Contact Information: Robert Houston
Phone: (207) 781-8364 ext. 11, Fax: (207) 781-8369
E-mail: Robert_houston@fws.gov

In spring 2005, the Maine Coast Protection Initiative (MCPI), through the coordination of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, launched a grant program to address the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping needs of Maine’s coastal land trust community. The grants were awarded to create or enhance regional centers that will provide GIS mapping services to area land trusts and help to increase GIS usage. Three organizations were selected for these grants: Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, and University of Maine Machias. These three Service Centers offer to the Maine coastal conservation community several standard services:

• Provide GIS services, including, but not limited to, map production, spatial analysis, and data collection and development to Trusts in their service area on an on-call, fee basis.
• Provide training to Trusts in their area on a CDROM-based data bundle developed by MCPI that includes ESRI’s ArcExplorer software and a number of commonly used spatial data sets. This data bundle is intended to provide Trusts with little or no GIS experience the tools and data necessary to perform basic mapping tasks. Service Centers will host at least one ‘in-person’ training session to introduce Trusts to the types of data included on the CD, to demonstrate how to view and add data to ArcExplorer project files, and to provide instruction on basic map production using ArcExplorer. Service Centers will customize the data bundle at no charge to Trusts in their service area who want it. Customization of the data bundle would include the addition of local spatial data sets, and the creation of one ArcExplorer project file to display local data.
• Work with those it serves to create quality data, utilizing shared standards, developed in conjunction with the Maine Land Trust Network GIS Council to ensure uniformity and ease of data exchange between Service Centers and other conservation organizations.

In addition to this, each Service Center is tailoring their own unique set of services and trainings based on the needs of their region. For details on these and related fee lists, please contact your area Service Center directly.