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 SEAWEAD is providing GIS and data collection support for an ambitious "mega-transect" project schedule for June 2007 to March 2008: Journey on the Wild Coast . Erin McKittrick and her husband Bretwood "Hig" Higman are walking, rafting and skiing 4,000 miles from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands!
SEAWEAD naturalist Bob Christensen assembled a GIS to aid in route planning, collaborated with Erin on a simple but informative habitat description protocol and help secure GPS technologies to assist in georeferencing field notes and images collected while en route.
Bob also joined Erin and Hig for a few days of the Ketchikan to Wrangell leg of this expedition. Click here to have a closer look at this leg.
Here is a paragraph that Erin recently sent us when we asked her to summarize the conservation mission of this project:
"This four thousand mile expedition will explore the broad
environmental issues facing the northern Pacific coast - an area rich
in wildife, natural beauty, and natural resources. Large tracts of
wilderness still exist here, an increasingly rare thing in our modern
world. Issues that affect this place include logging, mining, oil
drilling, fisheries, tourism, and global warming. Our expedition will
promote conservation by raising public awareness of this place and
these issues, and creating informational resources.
Public awareness: Adventurers on an unprecedented four-thousand-mile
expedition catch the public eye. The stories and photos from our
adventures (on our website: www.groundtruthtrekking.org , in the news media, in a book, in talks, and in magazines) will draw people in, allowing us to educate them on the issues.
Informational resources: From information gathered on this trip, we
will create a number of resources, including a survey of wildlife
habitat and wildlife sightings along our route, a map-based photo
resource with photos along the entire route linked to their location,
and a website with information and links on the relevant environmental
issues. All of these materials will be freely available to the public
(via our website), and interested nonprofits."
Check out a recent news article published in the Seattle PI.
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