NatureMapping

**The NatureMapping Program**

Workshop Descriptions

The goals of The NatureMapping Program workshops are:

Building skills in mapping, wildlife and habitat identification

Providing resources for networking within communities and with local agencies

Education through outdoor awareness

Curriculum integration to meet state education standards

Data gathering to build wildlife/habitat inventories

Public participation in resource issues at a local level

Biodiversity research utilizing GIS technologies

Level 1 – Data Collection and Monitoring

	The history of NatureMapping and why citizen data are important
	How to complete the data collection form on paper and into the NatureMapping spreadsheet
	Finding a “sit spot”
	How to locate yourself on a map using different coordinate systems
	How to classify habitats and learn the coding system
	Learning terminology used by natural resource professionals
	Understanding binoculars
	Utilizing field guides
	Developing a search image
	Outdoor fieldwork collecting and preparing data for submission
	Using soot trays, fluorescent powder, silhouettes, and track stencils to aid in finding and identifying wildlife

Level 2 – Project Design

Apply what was learned in the Level 1 workshop

How to design a project based on participants’ scientific questions

Different data collection strategies that can be used for the project

Habitat mapping

Technology that can be used for your project

	CybterTracker (field notebook on a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)
	GPS (Global Positioning System)
	Maptech mapping software

Outdoor fieldwork using CyberTracker and GPS units

Level 3+ – Data Analysis

	How to use the NatureMapping data collection spreadsheet for personal analyses
	CyberTracker data analyses, exporting to spreadsheets and to GIS
	Maptech data export to spreadsheets and to GIS
	Overview of GIS

**The NatureMapping Program**

Syllabus for April 7-9, 2006

Day 1 – Mapping, habitats and preparing for and compiling of data collection, conducting fieldwork

9:00 – 9:15 Introductions

9:15 – 9:45 Overview of the NatureMapping Program

9:45 – 10:15 How to NatureMap

10:15 – 10:30 Break

10:30 – 11:00 Mapping – manual, TRS, lat/long, GPS, projections

11:00 – 12:00 Mapping Stations – in teams

12:00 – 12:30 Lunch

12:30 – 1:00 Sit spot – journal observations and describe habitat

1:15 – 1:45 Name that Habitat - How to assign habitat codes-very general codes

1:45 – 2:15 Show how to break habitats into detail using Guidelines

2:15 – 2:30 Break

2:30 – 3:30 Field guides, binoculars, and species codes using Guidelines

3:30 – 4:00 Overview for Day 2

Day 2 - Data collection and entry, animal signs, search image, community projects

9:00 – 9:05 Sign in and go to sit spot

9:05 – 9:30 Collect data at sit spot

9:30 – 10:30 Spreadsheet overview and add sightings

10:30 – 10:45 Break

10:45 – 11:45 Animal signs, search images, tracking, silhouettes, stencils, fluorescent powder, soot tray – tools
and awareness skills for the field

11:45 – 12:30 How animal signs explain behaviors

12:30 – 1:00 Lunch

1:30 – 2:00 GPS

2:00 – 3:00 CyberTracker training

3:00 – 3:15 Break

3:15 – 4:00 Citizen science projects, Sierra Foothill Conservancy / Sierra Nevada Alliance projects, Overview of
Day 3

4:00 - 4:30 Set up participants computers with CyberTracker software

Day 3 - CyberTracking field work

9:00 – 9:30 Divide into teams, field instructions

9:30 – 12:00 Field work

12:00 – 12:30 Lunch

12:30 – 1:30 Data download, display of maps and data

1:30 – 2:30 Data querying, making your own tables

2:30 – 3:30 Setting up a long-term sampling strategy

3:30 – 4:00 Closing discussions

02/15/06