00:01Quick show of hands.

00:02Who's got an account on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter?

00:06I know I'm connected to a few of you.

00:10Well, for better, for worse, my father would say it's worse.

00:14These are not social networking tools.

00:16There's nothing social about them.

00:18He does not understand technology.

00:21He does not understand ones and zeros and bits and bytes and, and now terabytes of information and...

00:29...online mapping tools and what it does.

00:32However, because of these tools, people are beginning to distribute ideas, share their values, communicate to each other...

00:45...talk more often, whether that's digitally or forcing people to read something, a report, a paper, something like that...

00:56...but it's really...those tools are allowing information to be distributed much faster, much quicker, be consumed.

01:06And to me, when we start talking about geodesign and what it means, I think the power and the future of Geodesign is not just about...

01:18...how I'm going to use it as a landscape architect or a planner, but how Geodesign can be consumed at an individual level, at a private level.

01:31And sort of taking it away from the, the design industry and pushing it out to the...pushing it out to the masses.

01:39Why?

01:41Because public land protection is not enough.

01:45It's taken 150 years to conserve and protect 10 percent of the terrestrial land mass, and we do not have 150 years to save the next 10 percent.

01:58It comes down to how can we engage the private landowners?

02:02What are the tools we can give to these people so that they can begin to make better decisions on their own...

02:09...without having to, you know, hire myself and my firm to come in and do it for them...

02:16...because they have their own values, they have their own ideas.

02:20You know, we were talking about processes of...a design process.

02:24Well, how can we as geodesigners implement some of these processes and put them in...in a consumable format...

02:33...so that people can be using this information and making decisions faster and smarter.

02:41Like I said, there's a growing number of, of private property landowners that want to do their part to save landscapes.

02:48By identifying potential pathways, and this is one of the, the tools that, that we've realized after working with several of these large private landowners.

02:59They want to connect...they, they want to connect their property to their neighbors' properties because geospatial data...

03:08...their landscapes are contiguous.

03:12They want to get...they want to get linked in together, and...

03:17So how can private landowners and the neighbors work together to establish what I would call a social stewardship network...

03:23...or a private conservation network?

03:29What we're...what I'm going to talk about is a little pri...a pilot process that began by picking two pieces of land...

03:37...separated by approximately 8 miles and 2,500 feet in elevation.

03:43One parcel is in the Okanogan Highlands, the other in the valley near the Okanogan River in north central Washington.

03:50The goal is to create an informal path or walking route between these two properties, linking these people, these neighbors as conservation partners...

04:00...creating a route that through the most interesting parts of the landscape, the parts of the landscape that have most value to...to these two neighbors...

04:08...and utilizing where possible public land or land with conservation easements can be integrated into this...this process.

04:18And for those of you who are unfamiliar with Washington state and the Okanogan Valley, this is a map of the State of Washington...

04:24...divided into hydrologic basins.

04:27The pilot process is, is part of the upper...the upper Columbia region or the upper...upper Columbia basin...

04:37...and the Okanogan subbasin high...is highlighted...is located in the, like I said, in the upper Columbia basin.

04:46This subbasin contains five different watersheds.

04:48The two committed landowners are located in the upper Okanogan watershed and the highlights the two little dots.

04:56Well if you begin to sort of zoom in, it's further divided into eight subwatersheds.

05:06Now what we did, through the power of geodesign and specifically ModelBuilder, we created a pr...a private conservation path...

05:15...and network model that utilized the extensive local knowledge of staff members from the Okanogan Valley Land Council...

05:26...used it to assess or develop in...a regional landscape inventory and GIS modeling.

05:33There's four steps to the model, the contributing inputs, the walkable landscape suitability, submodel potential path routes...

05:41...and cons...and finally the conservation networks.

05:46The first step with...with the model is not to, again, we're talking about private landowners...

05:56...but we...what we want to do is begin to get people to realize that they're part of, of an overall connected landscape.

06:03So the first thing we do is develop a spatial framework and understand how the landscape is shaped by hydrology or water.

06:11So utilizing a tool Arc Hydro, we're able to take some of these subwatersheds, look, look at the DM...

06:18...the topography and begin to create smaller and smaller units.

06:23And so, you know, which...we're talking about HUC levels, the hydrologic unit code levels.

06:30And in this case, you know, we developed the, the mainstem upper Okanogan, the Whiskey Cache Creek, and the lower Antwine Creek subwatershed.

06:42And then they're further broken down into community units, community watershed units.

06:48Further down into subcommunity units, and lastly into what we call steward units.

06:56Now we can begin to see the complexity of the landscape between these two landowners through these catchments...

07:01...the valleys, the ridges, and the boundaries of the catchments are used later in the model to locate potential ridgelines...

07:06...and sections of potential path locations in between these two owners.

07:13The second contributing input is to identify the signature landscape features.

07:18What are the features?

07:19How do...basically how does the landscape express itself?

07:26So by using viewshed modeling, we identified the locations within this...this region that had the highest view potential.

07:38And using the viewshed contribution and input from the conservation, from our conservation partners...

07:43...we were able to develop a palette of signature landscape features.

07:46These include the home places of...of these conservation partners, the signature landscapes to experience along the way...

07:53...the peaks, observation points, even potential trailheads.

08:02And then these signature landscape features will be used later in the model to help determine potential path opportunities.

08:09And the reason why I like signature landscape features, why we call them signatures, is because when people begin to talk about a landscape...

08:19...they talk about it as views of a certain wetland, a...a...even a certain tree.

08:28When we've gone into public meetings and we've asked those people, it's a very simple question, bring us your favorite places.

08:34What are these places that you love about the landscape?

08:37And...and the results have always been incredibly surprising and equally powerful which has proved to be, in some cases,

08:48...a challenge with GIS because, you know, for example when...on...on one project, we asked this person...

08:59...you know, what is it you love about this place?

09:01...what's the signature of this place that...that really...that makes you want to stay here?

09:06And his response was like, well, I don't know.

09:09You know, my house is over there and, you know, and I work over here.

09:14And I was like, well, how do you get to work?

09:17Well, I drive along this one road.

09:18Okay.

09:20When you drive along that one road and you're driving through that landscape...

09:23...what are the memory experiences that are triggered as you move through that?

09:26And he's like, oh yeah, oh yeah, that's a...you know, the...farmer Brown's meadow is fantastic.

09:33I...whenever I drive by it, it's...I can't help but think that was the last place where I landed when I was a smoke jumper.

09:42Yeah, and I can't...and I can't...I cannot forget about that.

09:49I always...I see that meadow and it reminds me of it, you know.

09:52And to me, this is part of that signature of the landscape, how people are connected to it, how they valued it.

09:57Unfortunately, a lot of people don't convey these stories and experiences back and forth to each other, so they don't know it.

10:04And...and to me, part of this model is trying to connect those stories together, getting...getting people talking about these special places...

10:13...because once they understand that this place is also important to somebody else...

10:19...then that can have a stronger decision on the planners and folks like myself about what to do with those landscapes.

10:29So the next contributing input is the parcel contribution which determines a parcel's potential use in this network.

10:39Well there are a large number of parcels of different sizes that exist between the two property owners.

10:44What we have to do is determine which of these parcels is suitable and not suitable for use in th...in this network.

10:52And the Okanogan Valley also has an existing patchwork of public land owned by BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, the state DNR, etc.

11:03Wh...and the...these need to get factored into this network as...as well.

11:07And this is really the beginning of...of the conservation network.

11:13And to fill the gaps between these public lands, we need to look at the privately owned parcels.

11:19The first step is to identify the exist...if there's any existing conservation easements and then begin to look at the parcels given their size.

11:31And the model can be adjusted to select parcels above a determined size with, within this, this network.

11:37But it's basically if you got...if it's a large private landowner, well, I mean, if...if you got two owners...

11:45...and there's a ton of private parcels in between the two, and let's say, you know, 75 percent of them are 10 acres and under...

11:54...and the rest are large 40-acre tracts and above, well, if you're trying to get these people to talk to each other...

12:02...instead of...of...of trying to get a hundred different people talking to each other at once, you know...

12:09...the...the less number of people initially to get this network going is, is the best, because given time and resources.

12:21Well the private-own, owned parcels, and this is part of the input that we...we receive by talking to these...these two landowners and the...the local...

12:30...land trust, is to also rate what we call a neighbor relationship potential.

12:35And these range from yes, probably yes, maybe not, probably not, and these are really judgments based on your neighbors...

12:43...and it...and what this means is, would this person, based on what they know about them, their relationship with them...

12:50...what their known values are, are...would they be interested in trying to participate in this network?

12:59Again, this is about trying to focus and I...and make sure that the efforts are, are well spent.

13:07You know, rather...if I've got a neighbor who's completely in favor of doing something like this and taking down the fences...

13:15...and...and doing...but even potentially doing a conservation ease...easement that bridges both of our properties...

13:21...if I know that person is interested in that and I know the other neighbor is not...

13:26...well I'm going...initially I'm going to focus a lot of my time on the one who's in favor of doing this.

13:33Lastly, all these contributing features are compiled to create what we call the parcel contribution.

13:39This parcel contribution shows the parcels that can and cannot be used in the private conservation network model.

13:46These par...the parcels that can be used are all the public lands, the easements, neighbor relations, with the values of yes, probably yes...

13:54...maybe, and that are also greater than 10 acres in size.

13:59Parcels that are removed from the model are all neighbor relations with a value of probably not, maybe not, maybes, and less than 10 acres.

14:10The last con...input to the model is the what we call the landscape walkable contribution.

14:18And this is developed using five different submodels, terrain capability, linear potential preference, and also what we call...

14:27...dodges, fractures, and route potential.

14:31Terrain capability analysis is the landscape slope and aspect.

14:35Very general GIS analysis.

14:40Aspect resiliency is determined by north and...north- and south-facing aspects, given that north-facing slopes receive less direct sun exposure...

14:49...providing them with soils and vegetation that are potentially more resilient to use.

14:54South-facing slopes receive more direct sunlight and will potentially require more care and adaptability to use and, therefore...

15:01...should be...potentially be avoided when north-facing alternatives are available.

15:08Side slope steepness gives values to different levels of slope, steepness in relation to its side slope walkability specifically...

15:16...and these steep slopes should be avoided when less steep slopes are available.

15:24The linear potential preference identifies landscape features that people prefer to use for walking, two common features...

15:32...and two good examples are, you know, a lot of trails are located right along ridgelines or just off the, the peak of a ridgeline.

15:41Or they like to walk...walk around or next to water bodies.

15:48And what we have identified...here we have identified the water adjacency which is a buffer zone around the lakes, rivers, streams...

15:55...in the riparian zones.

15:58Second is along the ridgelines.

16:00The ridgelines were determined using the stewardship...the steward catchment boundaries, the, using the Arc Hydro boundaries.

16:07And here we have identified the types of ridgeline prox...here we have identified the ridgetops and side ridges just below the, the ridgetop.

16:22The ridgeline proximity and water adjacency are then combined to create the linear potential preference.

16:28So you're, you're beginning to see this...this network of potential corridors derived from the ridgelines and buffers around the water features.

16:41The dodges are features in the landscape that we were trying to avoid unless there is no available alternative.

16:48There are many roads that crisscross the landscape.

16:51They range from asphalt highways to four-wheel drive, you know, off-r...off-road vehicle roads.

16:57For now in the model, we are identifying all roads as part the...as part of this road buffer.

17:02There's...There are some roads that may be acceptable for walking on, and that is addressed in a couple more steps which I'll get to.

17:10Well then altho...although people prefer to walk next to lakes and rivers...

17:13...is it important to protect sensitive riparian zones with a riparian buffer?

17:19It's also important to recognize the privacy and views of the people who live in the valley.

17:24Here's a 500-foot viewshed of the landscape without tree canopy cover.

17:31This...this has been identified from known residential locations to create what we call a home viewshed buffer.

17:39Well the...one of the other inputs is what we call fractures...

17:42...and these are places that have been determined as unwalkable with, with absolutely no exceptions.

17:48I mean, for example, a cliff.

17:53Much like and...by looking at and do...doing a topographic analysis, areas of steep slope are identified as cliff fractures.

18:04Water body fractures, you can't walk across a lake or across a river without building something.

18:11There...these are also identified as being fractures and unwalkable.

18:17The home buffer fractions are homes that are not identified as conservation partners and given a...given a privacy buffer.

18:26These buffers does not include the existing roads.

18:30But if a person's home is within 250 feet of a public road.

18:34That road can still potentially be used as a route.

18:40The route contribution submodel looks at proposed routes, existing trails, the walkable roads.

18:49The proposed routes are routes that have been walked and surveyed by the...the landowners.

18:54This is...the two landowners would periodically get together and begin to explore the landscape.

19:01And this is part of their...their...their own internal face-to-face socialization between each other but also...

19:09...identifying what it is they loved about the landscape and what they wanted to protect.

19:16Walkable roads are existing roads with minimal traffic and that have a dirt or gravel surface.

19:22Existing trails would also be identified as potential routes.

19:26However, given the amount of private property in this, this land, there is not...there aren't any existing trails in this part of the valley.

19:38So these five submodels, terrain capability, linear potential, dodges, fractures...

19:42...and r...route contribution are com...then combined to create a walkable contribution.

19:50So this shows us the landscape that are...that is best suitable for paths and less suitable for paths.

19:56So the areas in green have a high walkable contribution.

20:00The reds are the fractures, and the yellows have a, have a low score on walkable contribution.

20:08So the next step is to determine walkable suitability.

20:13This involves adding the con...parcel contribution and the walkable contribution together.

20:20The walkable suita...suitability submodel shows the available landscape and its walkable value.

20:26High values are, are more desirable.

20:30Now that the landscape's walkable suitability has been defined...

20:33...the next step is to determine potential path routes through the landscape using the cost-path tool.

20:39The first step is to determine the main stem path that will connect several different signature landscape features...

20:46...that these two landowners have identified together.

20:52The signature landscape features were selected for use with...with the cost-path too...tool based on their location within these...

21:00...within the steward catchment spatial framework and the publ...and public lands to create what we call path runs.

21:08And so the first path run begins at the landowner in the valley near the Okanogan River and connects to a signature landscape feature...

21:17...that both neighbors refer to as Thompson Rocks.

21:23Thompson Rocks is not on any map, but according to these two landowners...

21:28...it's a very important defining signature of that landscape that they're, that they're part of.

21:36And the second run connects Thompson Rocks to Oberg Lake trailhead.

21:42The next run navigates the Whiskey Cache Creek watershed and connects the Oberg Lake trailhead to isky...to east Whiskey Cache Ridge.

21:53The path then continues on to the end of a proposed route at the base of Antwine Peak.

22:01And from here the path follows the proposed route, rerouting itself where it has encountered fractures and parcel...and parcel contributions that are not usable.

22:12However, there are many signature landscape features and two other conservation partners that the mainstem path does not connect with.

22:19The next step is to use the cost-path tool again to identify potential paths to connect these features to that mainstem path.

22:28Think about the, you know, you got the mainstem of a river and this, what we're trying to do now is...

22:32...like well where are the tributaries for this mainstem path.

22:35We have limited the distance of these tributary paths to features that are within 1.5 miles of a mainstem path.

22:45But now that we, we have created a mainstem path and trib...and these tributary paths...

22:48...the next step is to identify the parcels that will make up this private conservation network.

22:56Here are the mainstem paths and...and tributary paths are shown with the parcel framework.

23:01First the mainstem path in...intersects with several public land parcels.

23:07And next we cou...we can see which privately owned parcels are needed to create a private conserva...private conservation network...

23:14...and complete this path between these...these two neighbors.

23:20And...and then also to identify the privately owned parcels needed to, to include those tributary paths.

23:32So these analysis and maps provide an important tool for vis...for visual communication to these private landowners and helps to...

23:40...to foster this discussion connecting these individual property owners with...

23:46...together as conservation partners and with land trust and other people working within that area.

23:52These are forming linkages, new social networks, between these private...these private lands...

24:00...and fostering a co...conservation community of neighbors.

24:06And over time, those that live along this path will become more knowledgeable and engaged in land conservation.

24:11It's already beginning to happen there, where neighbor so and so, what are you guys doing?

24:18Can I join you on your walk?

24:22Oh, this is fantastic.

24:23Yeah, I want to be part of this.

24:25And much like on Facebook, you know, you connect to a friend and they have friends and so on and so on and so on.

24:34This can actually begin to build a...a tremendous amount in a very short period of time of protected lands...

24:44...that these private landowners have agreed to protect on their own.

24:48And all by using tools like ModelBuilder, Arc Hydro that we as geodesigners can...we can build these tools, we can build these models...

25:00...in such a way so that they can be easily consumable and so, therefore, used by these people to make a difference.

25:09Like I said, we don't have 150 years to protect another 10 percent of the world.

25:19And so, you know, and the...and the other thing that's coming out of this, specifically between these two homeowners...

25:29...is that they are taking down these fences.

25:31They're taking down these barriers that have also been barriers to wildlife migration.

25:38They're out walking along the way.

25:39They're identifying in...invasive species.

25:42They're taking care of this landscape all by talking...