Volunteer working with Westerly Land Trust to build out GIS capabilities

The Westerly Land Trust conserves open space, revitalizes culturally significant properties, enhances developed areas, and provides environmental programs, opportunities for education and recreation, and more for the enduring benefit of the town of Westerly, Rhode Island. Since being incorporated 35 years ago it has grown to manage almost 1,700 acres of land within the town.

With a multitude of properties and such a large area to manage, the Westerly Land Trust had a need for spatial tools to more effectively manage their data, as well as to show shareholders a visual representation of their properties and future plans:

A combination of ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro were the best way to achieve these goals. ArcGIS Online is a useful hub for sharing web maps with the community, managing data, and allowing volunteers to collect data in the field (along with Survey123). ArcGIS Pro is a powerful tool for additional data management and designing maps that can be used in reports or as trail maps at preserves.

Cara Wiebalk, a GISCorps volunteer and GIS Specialist in New Jersey, worked with Marc Doherty, Land Stewardship/Community Engagement Coordinator at the Westerly Land Trust, to assist the organization in a variety of ways. From creating map templates to updating and organizing data to creating reference documents and videos, with these resources the Westerly Land Trust is now prepared to tackle future projects with the benefit of GIS tools.

Project complete