The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the Tampa Bay Estuary Program’s Manatee Awareness Coalition (MAC) want to save manatees. But for years, no mapping company's would put the manatee and homeland security zones in Tampa Bay on the navigation maps. But now Garmin is. The information is on all new chart plotters and updated SD cards.
Kipp Frohlich, leader of the FWC’s Imperiled Species Management Section, said “This marks a breakthrough that can save a lot of manatees. We tried unsuccessfully for years to get any mapping company to put the zones in their map covers. Garmin stepped up to the plate and did it.”
This is a great story and I do appreciate that Garmin stepped up, but if we all really want to save manatees, shouldn't this data be freely available to install on any unit? Perhaps that's naive and it's not how the boating navigation GPSs/charting tools work, but I thought I'd ask.
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TCPalm
Here are a couple of ways to make your own maps for Garmins, not sure about how possible this is for other GPS receivers...
http://www.cgpsmapper.com/
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/OSM_Map_On_Garmin
Here in Indiana, the state has an endangered and threaten species data layer. Which is relatively accurate for animals and very accurate for plants. Should that data layer be freely available? It's developed and maintained by the taxpayer.
The positive, it would be usefully to determine sites to stay away from. The negative, people could use the information to harvest the plant or animal. So, which out weighs the other?
We have tried to balance this out. We provide our employees with hardcopy maps, not digital, with buffers zones. It doesn't give a specific area, but rather a general area of concern or awareness. And the information is retained inhouse, no release to the public in any form.
For example, a certain bat, we did use a mile or so buffer. Now, it's up to 5 or so miles. The buffer isn't symmetrical, hopefully enough fuzziness is built in so a specific spot can't be found.
KoS
If you mean by charge, how much the plotter, ink, paper and time. I have no clue, that is for the bean counters in admin and DC.
No regular taxpayer can order/request these maps. Only the state and Feds can use the data. Field people can request a hardcopy for their use only, either in person, phone or email.
Nothing, as of yet, viewable online, again only inhouse. Not sure the whys and what nots as to only hardcopy. Those talks and discussions were above my pay grade.
KoS
It's unfortunate really, that people even in a lesser pay-roll positions basically don't contest policies that otherwise -- when looking at most legislation -- is contradictory to the policies that should have been in place. That tends to be a systemic pattern across the US -- and much of it, in discussions I've had, is attrituted to those state and local governments charging to gain revenue, not simply for cost and time that may or may/not even be involved.
Interesting little web they all weave, isn't it though? Then again, if you were to contest anything, I'm sure you'd find yourself in an interesting position as a result as well. Thus, the catch-22 emerges in the way things are generally handled and how they play-out over time.
We don't trust our own field people with specific information either.
KoS