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Mapping Fish & Wildlife with Fulcrum

October 16, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, Bryan and I were out in Flagstaff, Arizona for the annual meeting of OFWIM, the Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers. Over the last several months, we’ve been doing a webinar series for OFWIM’s membership; a group which consists of technical staff, researchers, and GIS analysts working at federal, state, and local levels on issues related to fish and wildlife mapping and data management.

Sunset Crater National Monument

Data collection is a major concern in the environmental mapping space. Wildlife management organizations are responsible for information that runs the gamut of species monitoring for conservation, research on migration patterns, habitat protection, law enforcement (particularly for hunting and fishing), and even facilities management for parks and park infrastructure.

We conducted an extended workshop during the event on advanced techniques using Fulcrum for field data collection. We covered usage of Fulcrum data shares for easy distribution of data, mapping data using QGIS, and how to use Fulcrum’s various API libraries. During the conversation, the interest in SpatialVideo was high, with our workshop attendees brainstorming ways they could capture GPS-based video data for monitoring and rapid observations while in the field. Additionally, the Record History and advanced changeset tracking features of Fulcrum were highly regarded among this group of data managers.

Collecting data for OpenTrails

During the week, we also took a field trip to Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument. We collected a lot of good data including some video, wildlife sightings, and lots of trail data (using the OpenTrails Spec!). We had a great time working with folks from across the country, and look forward to future participation in the wildlife community.