RESEARCH in progress . . . . .
science partners:
USDA Forest
Service
Pacific Northwest
Research Station
Stewardship Mapping: geographic locations of
stewardship organizations & project locations in metro Seattle
Project Goals
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Publish stewardship map in a publicly
accessible format that allows a range of
users to view organizations’ stewardship
territory and contact information,
Add geographic tags to existing
organizational survey data,
Create a data format that makes
additional ecological or social analysis
possible, and
Reveal the impact of stewardship
organizations on people and the land.
Study Approach
Example of what a map of stewardship activity in Seattle might look like.
Content includes project territories and contact information of each host organization.
What is the issue?
Volunteer based stewardship is an action strategy for ecosystem recovery and management.
Yet we do not fully understand the scale and scope of stewardship, or its impact on both the
environment and human communities. Civic environmental stewardship is inherently tied to
place. This project will display survey data as a geospatial representation of each
Initial organizational data was prepared using
an iterative internet search. A follow up
survey expanded the known population of
organizations, providing data for a network
analysis. Geospatial representation of the
regional footprint of stewardship sites will be
the culminating effort. Collaborators:
Northern Research Station (New York and
Chicago), Baltimore Ecosystem Study.
organization’s stewardship “territory” on a publicly accessible online platform to promote
partnership opportunities. Knowledge about the entire stewardship “footprint” can support
better planning and focus of projects.
Why is this research important?
Natural systems across the entire wildland to urban landscape gradient face ongoing threats,
such as land use sprawl, air and water pollution, and climate change. Yet fiscal shortfalls in
local government and environmental resource agencies restrict their capacity to address
ecosystem needs and recovery. Civic environmental stewardship programs are one possible
solution. Better data and knowledge about stewardship activity can inform comprehensive
Research Sponsors
planning and management. By defining and analyzing stewardship within a geographic
context, hot spots and gaps can be shown and the relationship between stewardship and
other social and environmental factors can be more easily identified.
Contact:
KATHLEEN WOLF, University of Washington: email: kwolf@uw.edu
OLIVER BAZINET, University of Washington: 206-659-6662, email: obazinet@uw.edu
February 2012
Funding for this work is provided by the United States American Reinvestment and Recovery Act coordinated by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station.
In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex
(in education and training programs and activities), age, disability, or retaliation.