Page 157 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

fully functional application. With a two-decade-long career in enterprise GIS for nonprofit organizations and conservation initiatives, Bailey said that Bird Migration Explorer is the largest project he's worked on. More than 100 people were involved in the development stage alone. Explorer launched in September, but Smith, Bailey, and the rest of the Audubon team know their work isn't finished. "This is an ongoing project that will continue to live," Bailey said. "We're looking forward to building out more capabilities and processes for long-term maintenance, because this is intended to be a living, breathing, interactive atlas and repository where all of this migration information can come together in one place." GIS technology is integral to conservation initiatives because it allows scientists to make informed decisions that will affect biodiversity and the planet. "Each of the datasets provides a different knowledge system," Smith said. "By combining them, it doesn't necessarily mean we have all the answers, but it does mean we have the most complete picture, and we will use that to inform smart conservation." Smith is quick to note that the 458 species included in Bird Migration Explorer account for less than 5 percent of all bird species in the world. In the future, she looks forward to adding datasets and more species. A simplified experience for mobile users is in the works as well. The mobile version of Explorer will join other portable birding resources, such as Audubon's Bird Guide app—which contains the organization's complete Field Guide to Birds— and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird app. These in-the-field resources give naturalists, birders, and first-time explorers access to authoritative data that makes the birding experience more rewarding and enlightening. Even though Explorer is just one piece of Audubon's conservation strategy, Smith and Bailey anticipate finding more ways to use a geographic approach in their work. "GIS allows us to visualize and understand problems we face from a geographic perspective," Bailey said. "That's important because we need to be able to understand our landscape in order to actually make changes that benefit humans, biodiversity, and birds." The whooping crane is one of the rarest North American birds and one of the largest. The whooping crane was brought to the brink of extinction in the 1940s, but strict protection has brought the wild population back to well over 100. 156 Biodiversity