In 1993, the
ALSC and the NYS Adirondack Park Agency (APA) Natural Resources
Unit initiated a digital mapping effort in cooperation with the
SUNY Plattsburgh Remote Sensing Laboratory. It was funded by the
USEPA State Wetlands Protection Program to create Geographic Information
System (GIS) maps of large landscapes focusing on land cover, wetlands,
and lake watersheds. It was designed to relate the water quality
of lakes and wetlands to their surrounding watersheds. The Park
Agency was interested in cumulative impacts to sensitive wetlands
from watershed development and the ALSC needed a geographically
referenced watershed coverage to relate lake acidification chemistry
to watershed characteristics such as wetlands.
The first of
these mapping projects was the 400,000 hectare (ha) Oswegatchie-Black
River watershed project. This project defined the mapping protocol
(Roy et al.1996, Roy et al.1997). The second project covered the
700,000 ha Greater Upper Hudson watershed. The Greater Upper Hudson
includes portions of the Sagandaga and Mid-Hudson River watersheds
(Primack et al. 2000). Finally, the 140,000 ha St. Lawrence River
watershed was delineated (Halasz et al. 2000, Karasin et al. 2002).
Together, these watersheds comprise 52% of the Adirondack Park.
Work continues on the remaining portions of the Park. |
