Mapping on the Edge: shoreline mapping for regulation and voluntary stewardship

Nothing generates conversations between landowners and local government like a map! Shoreline mapping is a crucial decision making tool for local governments and regulators. It provides information about appropriate location of shoreline infrastructure, such as docks, and informs landowners about the location of important natural transition areas between the land and the sea. Maps can also provide information that limits the activities of private landowners and as such can cause community conflict if they are inaccurate or unclear. Because mapping can be used to inform regulation, local governments often have different needs than scientists and NGOs, but there is no reason that mapping projects cannot accommodate multiple parties. The Islands Trust and Islands Trust Fund considered accuracy, methodology and budget when mapping eelgrass and forage fish habitats for the island in the Salish Sea and elected to work in partnership with two non-profit agencies – SeaChange Marine Conservation Society and the BC Marine Conservation and Research Society – to complete habitat mapping. Each of the project partners had specific and overlapping mapping needs. Collaboration resulted in cost-savings for all organizations as well as a dataset that accommodated multiple needs. The dataset is now one of the most requested data sets Islands Trust staff has seen in recent years. The mapping has been shared with other government agencies, NGOs and private industry and is being used to record habitat locations, plan and regulate shoreline uses, inform marine conservation areas and respond to emergencies. This Salish Sea Snapshot presentation will discuss the needs of local governments when mapping habitat, the advantages and challenges of collaboration with non-profits to complete mapping and ways to meet the needs of local governments, non-profit agencies and scientists to create a useful product