Wildlife Corridors for the Scenic Rim
Wildlife corridors provide a link for animals to move between refuges (larger areas of habitat) and maintain populations that would otherwise be isolated.
The Wildlife Preservation Society Queensland (Scenic Rim Branch) is working on an audacious corridor plan to link habitats across the Scenic Rim. Their goal is to restore and enhance low-altitude forests, which currently enjoy less protection than the tall mountain forests. This involves working with local landholders, Scenic Rim Regional Council, and others, to enhance habitat for wildlife while not impacting the landowners’ lifestyles or livelihoods.
The project involves recruiting volunteers for tree planting and watering, citizen science projects such as tracking and monitoring wildlife, erecting and monitoring glider poles, and targeting those landowners that are both within suitable locations and willing to help. With so many people involved, the task of managing the project becomes very difficult.
BioGeo was initially contacted by WPSQ to generate a display map to visualise the project conceptually. However, we thought we could go a step further by generating a web mapping application that was accessible to everyone (e.g. hosted online) and where all the information could be stored and updated, visualised, and downloaded. What’s more, we also wanted it to serve as a tool to help identify those rural properties (and landowners) within or close to the proposed corridors.
The program we developed is a full-screen mobile-friendly application with a responsive navbar and modal placeholders using Bootstrap 3, Leaflet, and typeahead.js, and builds on the excellent Bootleaf code. Features include client-side multi-layer search with autocomplete and a responsive sidebar synced to the map bounds that can be sorted or filtered.
The program includes multiple layers including the Scenic Rim boundary; proposed corridor routes; property names and their boundary areas; and recorded sightings of target species (such as gliders or koalas) – all of which can be searched for in the program. There is also a range of base maps including satellite imagery, hill-shaded topographic maps (to highlight slopes and gradients), and several others. The program will be updated with additional layers added as new information becomes available - the idea being that the app will evolve with the project.
Check out the application via the following link Wildlife Corridors for the Scenic Rim. Even better, if you’re a property owner in the Scenic Rim, you can check to see where your property lies with respect to the proposed corridors. Simply search by your property name in the search box in the top right corner of the map. If it’s not included, no problem, just get in touch via the 'Contact Us' tab via the 'About the project' section in the application.
This web mapping application was developed free of charge by BioGeo in support of the wonderful work of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland.
If you think that BioGeo could help with your project, contact us at info@biogeo.com.au