1988. Early aerial survey data digitizing. Forest Pest Management. Regional Office, Portland, Oregon.
Early aerial survey data digitizing. Forest Pest Management. Regional Office, Portland, Oregon.
Photo by and courtesy of: William M. Ciesla
Date: 1988
Credit: USDA Forest Service, Region 6, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection.
Collection: William M. Ciesla collection; Fort Collins, Colorado.
Bill Ciesla summarized his role in the introduction of GIS to Region 6 in his 2005 Founder's Award address (wfiwc.org/awards/founders-award/speech/ciesla):
"One of the technologies we began to evaluate early on at MAG was geographic information systems (GIS). The ability to integrate spatial information on insect and disease damage with land ownership, vegetation types and other thematic map layers and generate data tables using a computer was, to us in MAG, a fascinating concept. Soon terms such as "polygons, arcs, points, digitizing" and "overlay processing" became an integral part of our vocabulary. Unfortunately, there were people in the Forest Service that didn't share our enthusiasm and had some real concerns about committing to this technology. For a time, a moratorium was placed on GIS development and implementation in the Forest Service until some basic issues could be addressed. However, after we moved to Fort Collins, we developed a partnership with the Western Energy Land Use Team (WELUT) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which had an office in the same complex we were housed. This group had developed one of the first working and user friendly GIS, a system known as the Map Overlay Statistical System (MOSS). Together we conducted a number of tests and demonstrations with this system (Pence et al. 1983), organized GIS training sessions and eventually made a copy of the MOSS software available to R-6.
...
By the time I arrived in R-6, some the FPM staff was already involved in the use of the MOSS GIS, which my former unit, MAG, had made available several years earlier. With a little encouragement, in 1989, Tommy Gregg, Kathy Sheehan, Tim McConnell and several others on the FPM staff produced the first R-6 regional insect conditions map generated by a GIS. One of my proudest moments was to display this map at a meeting of the R-6 Leadership Team."
Image provided by USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection: www.fs.usda.gov/main/r6/forest-grasslandhealth
1988. Early aerial survey data digitizing. Forest Pest Management. Regional Office, Portland, Oregon.
Early aerial survey data digitizing. Forest Pest Management. Regional Office, Portland, Oregon.
Photo by and courtesy of: William M. Ciesla
Date: 1988
Credit: USDA Forest Service, Region 6, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection.
Collection: William M. Ciesla collection; Fort Collins, Colorado.
Bill Ciesla summarized his role in the introduction of GIS to Region 6 in his 2005 Founder's Award address (wfiwc.org/awards/founders-award/speech/ciesla):
"One of the technologies we began to evaluate early on at MAG was geographic information systems (GIS). The ability to integrate spatial information on insect and disease damage with land ownership, vegetation types and other thematic map layers and generate data tables using a computer was, to us in MAG, a fascinating concept. Soon terms such as "polygons, arcs, points, digitizing" and "overlay processing" became an integral part of our vocabulary. Unfortunately, there were people in the Forest Service that didn't share our enthusiasm and had some real concerns about committing to this technology. For a time, a moratorium was placed on GIS development and implementation in the Forest Service until some basic issues could be addressed. However, after we moved to Fort Collins, we developed a partnership with the Western Energy Land Use Team (WELUT) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which had an office in the same complex we were housed. This group had developed one of the first working and user friendly GIS, a system known as the Map Overlay Statistical System (MOSS). Together we conducted a number of tests and demonstrations with this system (Pence et al. 1983), organized GIS training sessions and eventually made a copy of the MOSS software available to R-6.
...
By the time I arrived in R-6, some the FPM staff was already involved in the use of the MOSS GIS, which my former unit, MAG, had made available several years earlier. With a little encouragement, in 1989, Tommy Gregg, Kathy Sheehan, Tim McConnell and several others on the FPM staff produced the first R-6 regional insect conditions map generated by a GIS. One of my proudest moments was to display this map at a meeting of the R-6 Leadership Team."
Image provided by USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection: www.fs.usda.gov/main/r6/forest-grasslandhealth