California Backyard Poultry Census

By: Myrna Cadena

Survey based and anecdotal observations demonstrate that backyard poultry ownership is increasing nationally and in California. At the same time, California's ability to provide resources to backyard poultry owners is limited. In addition, there are no effective ways to communicate with backyard poultry owners in a coordinated fashion. To address these issues, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Cooperative Extension have made a short geo-survey (~2minutes) designed for the backyard poultry community. Results will help further clarify the location and number of backyard poultry farms in California. Furthermore, email addresses and other address information will help facilitate communication between poultry experts and backyard poultry enthusiasts. An example on the value of bridging the communication gap is being able to notify backyard poultry owners of an Avian Influenza outbreak. This will be extremely helpful in preventing another large outbreak.

 With the help of ANR's GIS experts, the Cooperative Extension website now has an interactive map linked to a survey that acts as a census embedded at http://ucanr.edu/sites/poultry/California_Poultry_Census/. Shane Feirer's, Sean Hogan's, and Robert Johnson's expertise and receptiveness towards our goal have been of incalculable value to this project. It is always a pleasure working with such as hard-working team that always takes the time to answer our questions and concerns right away.

IGIS goes to the ESRI Open GeoDev Hacker Lab at the University of California Berkeley – GIF on January 15th.  ESRI came to the GIF to demonstrate their open tools and data.  We were able to create free developer accounts at http://developers.esri.com, with these accounts were able to create feature layers that could be used in webmaps, webapps, and mobile apps hosted by ESRI through ArcGIS online.  We also learned how to use these services with other open web mapping tools such as leaflet.  With a little javascript programming and patience it seems like the sky is the limit when it comes to what we could create with these tools.  In the future IGIS plans to develop a training on using the ArcGIS Online system to its fullest potential and some of the things we learned at this event will be included in the training as well.

Thank you to ESRI and the GIF for making this training opportunity possible.

Academic Coordinator III Position

The University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR), Informatics and Geographic Information Systems (IGIS) Program is seeking a Statewide Program Coordinator for both local and statewide program development and delivery. The IGIS Statewide Program seeks to provide innovation, technology, training, and data support for UC ANR’s research and extension mission through the collection, analysis and visualization of geospatial data. We are interested in developing and delivering data-driven tools, research results, and training to support UC ANR Strategic Initiatives: Endemic and invasive pests and diseases, Healthy families and communities, Sustainable food systems, Sustainable natural ecosystems, and Water quality, quantity and security.

The program coordinator will help fulfill the goals of the IGIS Program by facilitating the delivery of research, training, and data support to the UC ANR network. We are looking for a highly specialized academic who will provide vision and leadership on geospatial data resources, analysis and visualization that will serve multiple scientific constituencies at the state and national level. These data resources include: sensor networks, ecological datasets, existing statewide research databases, web-based data frameworks such as APIs, open data collections, and remote sensing collections. 

This is a unique academic position within the University of California that allows for intellectual growth, interaction with multiple scientists and academics, and the development of impactful datadriven solutions to California’s agricultural and natural resource challenges. 

If you have questions, you can email me: maggi@berkeley.edu

Website: http://ucanr.edu/Jobs/Jobs_990/?jobnum=894

Closing Date: December 31, 2015

Job Description: Download
Download Application: Word | PDF

Minimum and Required Qualifications:

• A PhD Degree in Ecology, Geography, Agriculture, Statistics, or an appropriate related field with experience in data science, geographic information sciences, remote sensing, or ecological informatics is required. 
• Experience synthesizing large ecological or socio-ecological datasets and using them in complex local and statewide research projects is required. 
• Experience developing and managing research projects including agriculture, ecology, or climate change is required. 
• Experience using GIS, remote sensing, and/or web programming software is required. 
• The ability to communicate and extend technical information in an understandable manner is required. 
• Strong leadership, administration, financial, and management skills are required. 
• Knowledge of human relations is required including the ability to work with people with a diversity of views and values, to motivate people and adapt to changing situations.

What are "Bioregions"?  Bioregions are an area bounded by natural rather than artificial borders that has characteristic flora and fauna and includes one or more ecosystems.  IGIS worked with the the California Naturalist Program to create a simple maps of the bioregion in California.  These maps contain the bioregion boundaries with some natural features such as major rivers and a small inset of all bioregions in California.  These maps will be used as the first figure in a publication series that describes each bioregion.  These maps will be used in California Naturalist courses and for general natural resource science education.

The sample map below is one of 11 maps created for this project.  It shows the Central Valley Bioregion and its surrounding area.