New State map takes shape in Madison

MADISON - An effort is underway to update the land cover map for the State of Wisconsin.The Department of Natural Resources and cartographers at UW-Madison are teaming up to create the new map.Another goal is to help create better management of the deer population throughout the state.At the Science Hall on the UW-Madison campus, students and staff are working to build a better map."Land cover simply describes the physical status of what's on the land, whether it's a forest, or water, wetland, etc. What we're doing is, we're using satellite data to convert observations made from space into categories of land cover and land use," said Mutlu Ozdogan, UW-Madison Associate Professor.NASA's Landsat 8 circles the globe 430 miles up in space. It takes 16 days for the satellite to cover the entire Earth. That information is converted to pixels. 160 million of them detail the entire state of Wisconsin. Ozdogan compared a 1988 satellite snapshot of the Green Bay area, with an image captured just last week."This map shows the outdated land cover data set that we're planning on updating," said Bob Nack, DNR Big Game Section Chief.Nack says the current map and its information are more than 20 years old."Land use changes over time, as properties change hands between landowners, somebody has a different idea what they want to do with the land," said Nack.The land cover initiative is part of a recommendation from Dr. James Kroll's Deer Trustee Report a couple of years ago. So how does this high-tech map help the hunter in the field?Nack says land owners and county-based deer committees can use the new information."Potential hot spots for deer, and help them attempt to balance the deer herd in their counties. But even more importantly, looking at deer range away from their properties and try to help them determine how their property fits in the big picture of things as deer see it on the landscape," said Nack.Scientists say the new map is a work in progress."The map will be what we call circa 2011, or 2012. The input data that goes into that map will come from a number of years. Probably spanning about three years," said Ozdogan.The new map is scheduled to be complete in June of 2016.It will be available mainly to D.N.R. staff. The cost of the project is about a $500,000 with the money coming from The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act.