GIS I Mini-Term Project--"Blanding’s Turtle Habitat in Eau Claire, Wisconsin"

Blanding’s Turtle Habitat in Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Goals and Background

            My “Mini-Term Project” will having me identifying suitable habitat for Blanding’s Turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) within Eau Claire County in the state of Wisconsin.  Eau Claire County is located in the West Central area of Wisconsin.  The city of Eau Claire has a population around 66,000 people and is located in the North West portion of the county.  Today in the City of Eau Claire, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and educational jobs are the primary employment of residents.  The remainder of the county is comprised of rural farming communities with populations less than 2000 people per village or city.  The specific objective for this project is to locate highly suitable areas where Blanding’s Turtles could thrive.  Blanding’s Turtles are on the list of Special Concern species in Wisconsin. (WI DNR)  The Blanding’s Turtle take 17 to 20 years to reach maturity. (WI DNR)  With this given information I feel that it is important to protect all the possible habitat which could contain Blanding’s turtles.  Protecting this habitat will allow the species the best chance to thrive.  My intended audience would be for the Wisconsin DNR, and Eau Claire County zoning committee.   With this information these groups of people could prevent destruction of the turtle’s habitat.  This project is important for the longevity of the turtle species, coupled with the numerous other species including other turtles which call these areas home.

Methods

            Answering my question required me to identify specific areas which the Blanding’s turtles thrive.  I used the habitat description from the Wisconsin DNR to narrow down critical habitat requirements.  Blanding’s turtles prefer to nest in sandy soil and may travel up to 900 feet from a wetland to find suitable soil.  My first step was to project all of my layers to NAD 1983 HARN WISCRS Eau Claire County Feet.  Using this projection will give me the most accurate results for the entire county.  The SSURGO data I needed was in table form.  Using the SSURGO base map file I joined the table to the base map.  I selected all the sandy soil with in the SSURGO data.  Using the selection, I created a layer with only the sandy soil.  My second requirement had me locating land area within 900 feet of water using the hydrology data from Eau Claire County.  Using the buffer tool, I created a 900 foot buffer around the water features.  I used the dissolve tool to create a simplified area with in the buffer to speed up future processing.  The buffer area extended beyond the county boundary.  To eliminate this I used the clip tool to contain the buffer within the county boundary.  The third variable I used was residential land.  I obtained land cover data from the USGS in raster form.  I used the conversion tool to covert the raster image to a vector image.  Using land cover data from the USGS I selected low, medium, and high developed land, as these areas would not be suitable locations for turtles.  Using this selection, I created a layer containing only the residential land.  I then intersected the sandy soil area and the water buffer area to locate suitable habitat.  Using the erase feature, I excluded the residential area from the intersected soil and water area.  Using the dissolve tool I eliminated all the internal boundaries.  For my final map I added a locator map with the state of Wisconsin broken down by county and highlighted Eau Claire County within that map.  I projected the state map to NAD 1983 Harn Wisconsin TM US Ft for a proper appearance.  I then added a neat line, background, title, north arrow, scale, and legend to the entire map layout using ArcMap.  For my final step I exported the map to Adobe Illustrator (AI).  In “AI” I added my sources and a picture of a Blanding’s Turtle. 

Data Flow Model

Results

Final Map Results

References

Eau Claire County GIS (From Server at UWEC)

ESRI Data and Maps [Download]. (2010) Redlands, CA: ESRI [October, 2012]

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. (2013). Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database fro Eau Claire County, Wisconsin. In. (Ed.) Fort Worth, TX: Author.  Retrieved from http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov

U.S. Geological Survey, 20140331, NLCD 2011 Land Cover (2011 Edition): U.S. Geological    Survey, Sioux Falls, SD.