Continental Divide National Scenic Trail GIS Program

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1 CDNST Vision Statement: Provide the most accurate geospatial locational information of the Continental Divide Trail and nearby resources to the public as well as help provide internal management information to the responsible land agency managers. To establish and nurture collaboration between Non- Governmental Organizations and responsible land management agencies to update their specific geographic information systems as needed as well as provide products as requested related to the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. Background Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST) Geographic Information System (GIS) Program has been actively engaged in the management of the CDNST geospatial location data since The has cataloged new proposed routes, planned routes and their NEPA process across agencies, as well as newly constructed routes that are now open to the public for use. The CDNST supports the USFS Region 2 Office as well as Continental Divide Trail Coalition and has become the lead data steward for GIS information for many federal agencies and private groups along the CDNST. Accomplishments Mapping Project ( ) In 2009, the Continental Divide Trail Alliance, with support of the Forest Service, initiated an on-the-ground mapping grade Global Positioning System (GPS) survey to document the baseline data for the centerline of the CDNST. This project was completed in 2011 and has been continuously updated on an annual basis by the same person since Cataloging where Trail route changes occur and getting accurate centerline data has been standardized due to the CDNST and the successful Mapping Project efforts. CDNST GIS Data Standard completed and implementing on collected data from Mapping Project. Cartography Products 20 Best Hikes of the CDT in Colorado by CDTC (2015) The helped provide the cartography for the maps that went into the first ever Colorado CDNST 20 Best Hikes publication. A volunteer was recruited and was able to provide all maps shown in the publication. Married to the Trail: Hiking the Continental Divide Trail by Mary Moynihan (2016) The helped provide the cartography for the maps that went into the publication. A volunteer was recruited and was able to provide all maps shown in the publication Next generation of a CDT full trail map Produced by a volunteer and won a map contest. Conferences and Webinars: Presenting about the CDT data management o Utah Geographic Information Society Conference (2015) o GECO in the Rockies Conference (2014) o National Trail System GIS Group webinar (2014) GIS Information Available to Public The CDNST line data for each state data has been converted to Google Earth file format for the public to download from the CDTC website but has been removed from the website during the latest website update (2015?). This needs to get back on the website for download.

2 A CDNST web map hosted by ESRI ArcGIS Online (AGOL) for public and internal interactive viewing of the trail and other data such as registration locations, past and current project locations, current wind patterns, current fire locations, and more. The AGOL public facing map has over 157, 200 views since The AGOL mobile app shows the public facing CDT map on mobile devices as well as your GPS location at the same time. The mobile app is free. The National Park Service is currently hosting an online source of the CDT trail line that can be accessed in ESRI ArcGIS Online or imported to a working map document using ESRI ArcMap. o This NPS hosted CDT data service is the current public facing data authoritative available CDNST Maintain CDT geospatial database as data steward for CDTC and FS as well as nationally for all agencies and public requests. Interagency Agreement to Cooperatively Manage the GIS data of the CDNST (2015-current) Region 2 Forest Service and the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service hold an agreement for the following: o Part Time NPS GIS Specialist Intern This position has been filled through the FS/NPS Interagency Agreement. NPS holds a contract with University of Colorado Denver to obtain interns to work in the NPS office. The FS funding provides time for this intern to help with CDT GIS task. The intern is managed and trained by the CDTC Manager/NPS GIS Specialist. o Part Time NPS GIS Specialist (also the CDTC Manager) Manage the intern tasks and quality control of final products. Complete tasks as asked by the FS or other CDT GIS request. o Automatic backups of CDT data by the FS and NPS. o See Appendix. National Trail System GIS Network meet once a month, presentation, learning, and brainstorming forum about National Trails. o Working with National Trails System GIS network on a public National Scenic Trail interactive web map where all National Scenic Trails will be housed. Future Goals Continue quality assurance and quality control of the Mapping Project line data as well as any newly GPS d CDNST line segments by communicating with FS Districts using an online platform for visual sharing of data to compare. Project Proposal of Trail Completion Costs and Locations linked to GIS o Started in 2012 o Needs to be updated to current Project Proposal spreadsheet. GPS newly constructed trail locations and reroutes once completed and open to the public annually o Trail locations that are newly constructed & open to the public that need to be professionally GPS d using CDNST standardized attribute fields and methods (formerly done by Bear Creek Survey) o We ve been collecting the new trail locations since o 2015 was not collected. Revised 9/

3 o The longer we wait the more behind in updating the GIS trail line locations. o Needs to be a single person or crew to continue to be consistent in data collection ensuring the quality of the data remains. o Cannot leave it up to the agencies because the data will not be provided in a timely manner and it is more difficult to manage data from many sources rather than from a single source. Agency personnel do not have time to do this type of extra work and will not do it often enough to remain skilled in collecting the data. There is no guarantee of the quality of data that ll receive. Production of the CDT Mapbooks in the future o Process of production has been researched and drafted by a CDTC GIS volunteer using ESRI ArcMap Data Driven Pages and should be able to handle this production. o Automatic update of pages when line is updated. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for CDNST GIS Data Management drafted, needs to be finalized Program Needs Assessment o GIS Software and computer hardware currently provided by Federal Agencies (FS/NPS) CDTC data storage is currently insufficient to properly run a program that relies on large data storage. It is pertinent that CDTC acquires GIS server cloud technology to support and effectively manage the CDNST GIS data. Technology is still fundamentally lacking to support the housing of data and to support the functionality of simple GIS such as being able to have multiple users for data sharing or to be able to transfer large data files to the public with an ftp. o Data collection needs assessments Question/Answer session from those directly involved with data needs of the organization Strategy to obtain/collect the information needed Do we already have it? What are our standards for collection? What are our standards for maintaining the GIS database Forest Service Federal Register Publication In October of 2009, the CDNST Comprehensive Plan was amended. Along with the Comprehensive Plan, the Federal Register was also updated. The CDTA GIS program has been working closely to help identify the current location of the Trail in each state utilizing the currently acquired GPS data as well as sections planned in the future that have had National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) approved. The Trail location data will be available to agency personnel in order to verify their portion of Trail prior to publishing the state CDNST maps in the Federal Register. These Trail locations will be used in the Federal Register to describe the current CDNST location and to determine the CDNST corridor for future protection of the Trail Road Verification With the most accurate current trail location provided by the GPS Mapping Project, the process for figuring out current where the CDNST exist on road should be simplified enabling the 1978 historic road route identification to be accomplished. Historic travel plan maps along the CDT have been gathered from different sources. Using the historic maps, it can be verified if current roads existed when the CDNST was established in 1978 and therefore grandfathered into the existing Trail. If the road did not exist at that time period, the Trail cannot legally be located on the current road. Revised 9/

4 CDNST Manager Background Kerry Shakarjian started managing the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST) geographic information system (GIS) data in 2006 when initially hired as a GIS Technician by the Continental Divide Trail Association (CDTA). Since 2006, she has maintained consistency in the work flow processes for the CDNST GIS data by volunteering in 2012 for USFS Region 2 Intermountain Resource Information group as well as a GIS volunteer and founding board member for the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, the national non-profit USFS partner, after CDTA closed. Kerry continues to manage and update the CDNST geospatial information which includes thousands of point locations along the Trail as well as the full 3,100 mile trail line located on roads and on official Trail, which are managed separately. Official updates have been provided by Bear Creek Survey, who has GPS s the newly built sections of trail on an annual basis utilizing the GPS data dictionary created by Kerry in 2008 to match Forest Service standards as well as interagency standards. These annual updates include newly built sections of trail as well as individual point locations that show the ground location of water sources, trail junctions, trail heads, parking, bridges, sign locations and types, and much more. The point locations have photos associated with each of them as well. These updates are incorporated on an annual basis. The geospatial information also keeps track of planned and proposed routes as well as the NEPA process included with these internal only (non-public) potential routes. Additionally, Kerry monitors private land changes along the Trail, monitors the Trail corridor for changes, and provides the USFS Region 2 office with the most current updated CDNST GIS dataset. Assistance is provided to any agency personnel responsible for a portion of the Continental Divide Trail with project needs when requested. The same is also true if the Continental Divide Trail Coalition has any mapping requests for grants, or maps to take to Hike the Hill in D.C., or for updating any existing data layers such as Gateway Communities, or annual project locations, and so on. Over the years, Kerry has progressed into the role of the CDNST geospatial data steward at a national level. Revised 9/

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