Aliens In Your Neighborhood: Oregon NatureMapping

Invasive Species and the National Parks

Oregon NatureMapping - Where Am I?

Introduction Where Am I? Data Collection Mapping Appendix

At last, you've arrived! But where exactly are you? Determining your physical location is critical to Oregon Nature-Mapping. It gives important information about the location of the species you see. Should your data eventually be included in a statewide database, it is important that you record your location by coordinates and not by name only. Below is a discussion of the tools and methods to help you determine your site location.

Location Tools. NatureMappers can use any of three tools to determine site location:

Maps. Maps are the least expensive means for determining your location. For approximately $4.00, you can purchase maps at your local bookstore, outdoor store, or local Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management office. You can also order them directly from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

We recommend you use maps at a scale of 1:24,000 (these are also known as “7.5- minute quadrangle maps”). This means that every one inch on the map represents 24,000 inches (or 2,000 feet) in nature.

If you use the mapping option, you'll need to know how to read its coordinates accurately to report your location correctly. This is discussed in greater detail on the following pages.

Maps are also available from a number of websites where you can print out landform or topographic maps for your area of interest. For an example of these websites see TerraServer USA.

Global Positioning System Receiver. One of the most accurate methods for determining site location is a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. This handy device picks up signals from satellites orbiting the Earth and instantly displays the latitude and longitude (and altitude, if desired) of your location. To work properly, GPS receivers must be able to "see" the sky in order to locate the satellites. A cliff, canyon, or even a dense forest can all interfere with your ability to get a good read-out. A read-out from a GPS receiver looks like this:

GPS units can also provide locations in UTM coordinates (explained below) and would appear as:

Hand-held models are available through the links provided in the NatureMapping Appendix, along with hand-held computers for downloading coordinates and recording field observations.

Location Methods Oregon NatureMapping uses three methods for determining site location: Town-ship, range and section (TRS), latitude and longitude (lat/long), or the UTM System (Universal Transverse Mercator). The former can best be determined by using maps; the latter by all three location tools (maps, GPS receivers, or web-based map servers). The following pages discuss how to use TRS and the UTM system.

Township, Range, and Section. In 1879, Congress established the U.S. Geological Survey to topographically map public lands. The agency’s emphasis was on mapping western public lands, which at the time, were largely unsettled and relatively unknown.

Armies of surveyors fanned out across the West, risking life and limb and to survey the often hostile landscape. By modern standards, their methods were not terribly sophisticated or accurate, but they nevertheless provided important information. For mapping purposes, western lands were carved into blocks, or townships, of 36 square miles each. Each township was further divided into 36 sections, each a square mile in area.

The system is far from perfect. Nevertheless, it is a system that is very much in use today. If you own a home, you’ll notice that your deed describes the location of your house by township, range, and section. The system is equally adequate for NatureMapping purposes.

In the upper right hand corner of the Badlands Coordinates Map you can see the designation “T18S” for Township 18 South. Each township has 36 sections, each section is one mile square. The red lines on the map indicate the borders between the mile wide sections, and the horizontal line in this example is the line separating T18S and T19S below it. The range is not shown on this small example but the margin of the map would show it is R14E. The section numbers are always in red.

Determining Township: A township is 36 square miles. Township numbers are printed in the margins on the extreme right and left sides of maps (in the example, only a portion of the map is shown). Townships are centered between two horizontal lines, which on real maps, are always red and thick. In this example, only one light red horizontal line is seen, separating sections .

The Badlands are located partially in Township 18 South, written as T 18 S.

Determining Range: Range numbers are printed in the margins at the top and bottom of maps. Ranges are centered between two vertical lines, which on real maps, are always red and thick. In this example, the two vertical lines are not as dark and thick as the lines that would separate ranges.

Determining Section: A section is one square mile. There are 36 sections in each township. On most maps, only the four corner section numbers (1, 6, 31, 36) are printed within each township. Sections are delineated by red lines not quite as thick as those used for township and range, and their identifying numbers are always printed in red.

The first row of section numbers (1-6) reads from right to left, the second row (7-12) reads from left to right, and so forth to section 36. Look at the red sections numbers in this sample of the Badlands and refer to the Township Template below to help you imagine the sections in the unseen portions.

6 5 4 3 2 1
7 8 9 10 11 12
18 17 16 15 14 13
19 20 21 22 23 24
30 29 28 27 26 25
31 32 33 34 35 36

For Oregon NatureMapping purposes, accuracy to within a quarter of a quarter mile is optimal (although accuracy to within just a quarter of a mile is sufficient). What do we mean by "a quarter of a quarter mile"? Since a section is one square mile, divide the section into four equal quadrants (NE, SE, NW, SW) to get your location down to a quarter of a mile. Then, to get it even smaller to a quarter of a quarter mile, divide the quadrant containing your site into four again. Thus, where the highway crosses the bottom left portion of Sec. 33, your first siting of invasive plants might be in the SE quarter of the SE quarter of Section 33.

Putting It All Together. Standard recording procedure requires that the final location recording begin with the smallest area and work backwards: Thus, your final site identification for a cheatgrass invasion in the Badlands parking area should read:

This is the order you write the information in the section "Information About Your Location" on your Oregon NatureMapping data collection form.

1. UTM stands for Universal Transverse Mercator. It is one way to pinpoint a location on a map.

2. UTM numbers are in Kilometers. Add three zeros and you have converted them to Meters.

Example 1: 400 kilometers is equal in distance to 400,000 meters.
Example 2: 200,000 meters is equal in distance to 200 kilometers.

3. The UTM numbers coincide with a light blue tick mark along the edges of the 7.5' USGS Quadrangle. Some 7.5' Quadrangles don't have the blue ticks, but instead have a fine black UTM grid laid out over the entire map, similar to the grid shown in the graphic. In the Badlands Coordinates Map the UTM lines are indicated as blue lines.

4. What about UTM numbers? Why do they look funny? UTM numbers are numbers that are printed along the left, right, top, and bottom of the 7.5' Quadrangle Map. The individual digits are printed in two different sizes. This DOES NOT indicate where a comma or decimal goes. Apparently, the different sized digits help the reader distinguish the UTM numbers from the myriad of other numbers printed along the sides. Some of the other numbers represent Latitude and Longitude coordinates and Township and Range numbers.

5. The UTM system is laid out in a grid pattern. Think of finding a UTM coordinate like finding an (x) and (y) point in Algebra. In Algebra, it is called the Cartesian coordinate system.

6. There are two numbers to be found in a UTM coordinate. The first number coincides with an East direction (or "Easting"). This is (x). These numbers can be found along the top and bottom of the Quadrangle. The second number coincides with a North direction (or "Northing"). This is (y). These numbers can be found along the left and right sides of the Quadrangle.

7. Always "read RIGHT, UP" - find the distance to the EAST, then the distance to the NORTH.

8. 1 Kilometer = 1000 Meters. Each UTM grid square is 1-kilometer in length on each side, or 1000 meters on each side.

9. UTM coordinates can be found accurately to the nearest 25 meters using a
7.5' Quadrangle Map and an appropriate scale bar. For NatureMapping, finding the UTM coordinates to the nearest 100 meters is accurate enough.

10. Each set of UTM coordinates correspond to a given zone. Remember, most of the Pacific Northwest is located in Zones 10 and 11. On the bottom left corner of the Badlands map, the UTM coordinate is read as 646,400.0 m E x 4,864,000.0m N., Zone 10, or in other words, the point on the ground is 646,400 meters east of the Zone 10 line (which lies off the coast of Oregon) and 4,864,000 meters north of the equator. Remember to always include the Zone in your UTM reading. The UTM numbers are exclusive to just one spot in each zone, however, the same set of coordinates are used over again in every other zone.

11. To find out which Zone you are in, look in the lower left corner of a 7.5' Quadrangle map.

12. This UTM coordinate will coincide with one 100-meter x 100-meter area, or plot (usually the coordinate represents a point in the center of the area). This 1-hectare area is large enough for you to determine the dominant habitat type for the area you are monitoring. You may have a monitoring site larger than 1 hectare. In that case, you have two options: (1) locate and use different sets of UTM coordinates for any additional 100m x 100m areas, or plots, or (2) determine a unique area larger than 1-hectare for each UTM coordinate. In the first option, you may want to do this if you are monitoring consecutive 1-hectare areas, along a hiking trail for example. This would be considered a type of point count, where you monitor at regular time intervals at each site, and perhaps return regularly to those points. In the case of the second option, the UTM coordinate may coincide with an area larger than 1-hectare, such as a large forest or other contiguous habitat that varies little in vegetation cover. This is considered a more casual observation technique, such as when we go on a bird hike and record every bird species we see, without placing each individual species at a particular coordinate. When recording what you see using the second option, it is important for the UTM coordinate be in the dominant habitat type you describe for the larger area.

13. An advantage to using UTM coordinates is that they are increasingly becoming the convention in other monitoring programs. The UTM is also one of many coordinate systems included on hand GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) units.

14. The advantage of using UTMs is that they are precise points based entirely on actual distance. If you do not have a GPS device for determining the UTM points you can still do it "by hand with a map." On a map, distance and area are important. When laying out your monitoring site for NatureMapping, you can use a UTM grid scale on a 7.5' Quadrangle (or whatever scaled map you are using) to measure out the area. Lay a transparency sheet over your map and trace the outline of the blue UTM grid lines in the area of your survey. The grids are 1 kilometer sq., or 1000 meters across. Using a ruler, divide the squares into units of 10, creating a 10 x 10 grid with 100 meter square plots.

15. The data collection forms include a space for the UTM coordinates of the species you find.

Whew, that was a lot, but mapping an invasion is a critical component to understanding whether or not an invasive species is spreading, and providing this information to scientists enable them to monitor that species, and hence, make decisions about the management of invasive species.