REIMAGINING LAND MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE IN TEXAS

Transcript

1. REIMAGINING LAND MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE IN TEXAS TRANSFORMING TPWD’S MANAGED LANDS DEER PROGRAM WITH GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY
2. Today’s Discussion 1. What is MLDP, how does it fit TPWD’s mission? 2. What is the problem being addressed? 3. Recognizing an opportunity 4. The data 5. The solution 6. Results Hint, it involves GIS:
3. TPWD’s Mission To manage and conserve the natural and cultural resources of Texas and to provide hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.
4. What is MLDP? • Texas is approximately 95% privately owned, so…. • The Managed Lands Deer Program (MLDP) is designed to foster and support sound management and stewardship of native wildlife and wildlife habitats on private lands in Texas.
5. What is MLDP? • Deer harvest is an important aspect of habitat management and conservation. Reading rec.: Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac • Landowners enrolled in MLDP are able to take advantage of extended season lengths and liberalized harvest opportunities.
6. The Problem (it’s a good one to have) Program Popularity 813 sites 10,350 sites
7. Recognizing an Opportunity • MLDP was managed through the Texas Wildlife Information Management Services (TWIMS) online application for ~10 years • TWIMS served TPWD well and clearly demonstrated the ability to stretch our resources further and improve data management, but lacked a geospatial component
8. Recognizing an Opportunity • Staff recognized a potential opportunity to produce automated harvest recommendations, which could lead to a ‘do-it-yourself’ tag issuance option • Two independent datasets were available, which together could be used to determine an estimated population of deer on a given property • With the development a third dataset, a harvest recommendation could be generated
9. The Data Statewide white-tailed deer density data, updated annually by TPWD Biologists
10. The Data A superb statewide vegetation dataset (check out the Texas Ecosystem Analytical Mapper): https://tpwd.texas.gov/gis/team/
11. The Data Statewide deer density survey data collected by TPWD Biologists, associated with vegetation types and DMU veg_id commonname dmu acre_per_deer 1207 Edwards Plateau: Semi-arid Grassland 1 50 1215 Edwards Plateau: Juniper Semi-arid Shrubland 1 50 1216 Edwards Plateau: Deciduous Semi-arid Shrubland 1 50 1235 Edwards Plateau: Juniper Semi-arid Slope Shrubland 1 50 1236 Edwards Plateau: Deciduous Semi-arid Slope Shrubland 1 50 1507 Edwards Plateau: Playa 1 50 2100 Rolling Plains: Breaks Canyon 1 50 2105 Rolling Plains: Breaks Evergreen Shrubland 1 50 2106 Rolling Plains: Breaks Deciduous Shrubland 1 50
12. The Data Statewide herd composition and harvest recommendations from TPWD Biologists, associated with each DMU Harvest Option Harvest Rate Bucks Harvest Rate Does DMU Sex Ratio Fawn Crop Low Fence High Fence % of Buck tags Allocated to Unbranched Antler Bucks (low fence) % of Buck tags Allocated to Unbranched Antler Bucks (high fence) Low Fence High Fence 1 2.0 50% 15% 50% 0% 0% 20% 50% 2 2.0 50% 15% 50% 0% 0% 20% 50% 3 2.0 50% 15% 50% 0% 0% 20% 50% 4 1.9 40% 25% 50% 30% 0% 25% 40% 5 2.0 50% 25% 60% 40% 0% 25% 50% 6 2.9 54% 20% 50% 25% 0% 30% 50% 7 North 2.0 50% 25% 50% 10% 0% 30% 50% 7 South 2.0 30% 20% 50% 40% 0% 20% 40% 28 1.95 54% 30% 50% 30% 0% 35% 54% 8 East 2.8 35% 20% 40% 0% 0% 30% 60% 8 West 2.0 30% 20% 40% 0% 0% 30% 60%
13. The Data
14. What - • Servers, Databases & Storage • Email Services • Authentication & Sync Services Why – • Enterprise speed, scale and security • Increased Uptime • Low cost What - • Spatial Data – Property boundaries & Vegetation Layer • Deer Density and Harvest Rate Tables Why – • PostGIS processing, Location queries in SQL What - • Map & Drawing Controls Why – • Open Source • Mobile Friendly • Well Documented API
15. The Solution A web based, geospatially enabled, Google Cloud hosted application to help administer a self-serve MLDP option
16. The Solution: Mapping Properties Sites can be mapped using web-based drawing tools: • Leaflet drawing tools + Turf.js enable on-the-fly topology • Draw external fence-lines and clip adjacent polygons
17. The Solution: Automated Tag Estimates Calculates tags by connecting DMU data to site location Rate Data Deer Density and Harvest Rate Data Site Map Veg Layer
18. The Solution The Land Management Assistance web application:
19. The Solution: Keeping Data Current Annual data updates and maintenance: • TPWD biologists need to update the harvest and density data annually • Easily done in Carto • Data updated without lag time Upload to Carto Rename Table Update Table Data Locally
20. The Solution The Land Management Assistance (LMA) application went live summer 2017 and is now in its 2nd hunting season
21. The Results...so far
22. Thank you to the many folks who have contributed to this project, especially: Alan Cain Cristy Burch Amie Treuer-Kuehn Mike Sawyer TPWD Wildlife Biologists Statewide