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AGENDA

  • Tool to help with Identification
  • Site Visit
  • Creating Map
  • Uploads to EDDsMaps (Required for CDA Noxious Weed Grants)

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RESOURCES TO HELP WITH IDENTIFICATION

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  • CDA Noxious Weed Sheets –

https://ag.colorado.gov/conservation/noxious-weeds/colorado-noxious-weed-list

    • PDF Weed Fact Sheets have treatment options on 2nd page.
      • We send this link or individual sheet to the landowner with the map of their property

  • Mobile Apps
    • Picture This (Don’t Pay hit “Cancel” in top right corner
      • If out of service saves photos and can ID when back in service
  • Others?

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SITE VISIT/DATA COLLECTION

Create “Base Maps” of property prior to going to a site.

  • These can come from County assessor maps or ARC GIS if you have county parcel layer.
    • Gives basic idea of property – Does not require cell/satellite service.

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COLLECTING POINTS

  • We use a district owned Garmin.
    • Things to consider; Touch Screen loss battery quicker. To upload to Arc on federal computer need to also install “DNR GPS”

Find starting place on property then walk a sweeping/grid pattern through property.

    • On Garmin start your Track
    • Create a waypoint for each noxious weed
      • Mark with shortened weed names you will remember. You update when uploaded.
        • Canada Thistle = TH
        • Russian Knapweed = RK
        • Houndstongue = HT
        • KEEP IT CONSISTANT

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    • On Garmin end your Track

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COLLECTING POINTS FOR AREAS

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UPLOADING WAYPOINTS

DNR GPS - Uploading waypoints and tracks to comp (If you plug in the GPS before opening the app and wait for the little usb icon to show on the Gramin’s screen, you can skip steps 3&4)

1. Download DNRGPS

2. Open App

3. Plug in Garmin to comp.

4. Go to the GPS tab and “Find GPS”

5. Once found, it will be listed under the tabs

6. Lower tabs - Waypoints, Tracks, Routes, Real-Time

6A. Setting Projection (This will be different based on version of Arc)

7. Click on/open waypoint lower tab, then click waypoint on the upper tab

8. Click Download. Scroll down and select waypoints from desired dates. Ex. Waypoints_25-MAR-22.gpx)

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9. “Download complete” “Ok”. Click “ident” at the top to organize alphabetically 

10. Select (left of “type” column) waypoints in groups by species so you can save them as individuals. That way you have separate points when opening on arc pro

11. File, save to, Arcmap, File…

12. Put in the desired shared drive folder. S:, PUB. folder, Cons. Dist. folder, your name folder, create and put in clients folder, title with the species name

Create a specific “EDDMapS” folder within each client and follow the same file->save to->Arcmap-> file path and save the weeds with their Scientific name (ex Cirsium arvense for Canada Thistle).  This will save a lot of time for reporting on grants.

13. Repeat for all species

14. Repeat process for tracks -Select the lower track tab, then select the upper track tab, download, select names/dated track, select top white box left of the “type” column, (or top ctrl+shift to bottom to select all)

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ADDING POINTS TO MAP

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Adding collected points and lines

1. Stay on Map tab

2. Select “add data” 

3. Find folder with garmin saved shp files

4. “Control + shift” on keyboard to highlight all desired points/tracks… or go one by one but who has time for that? Select “OK”

Editing Symbology of added data

1. You can select points/tracks with the “select” tool in the middle of the same “map tab”

*Next* make it fancy

2. To edit symbology of points -  go to the contents pane- 

  • right click the name of desired weed/track, select symbology 
  • OR double click the given symbol below the name (that's faster :) )  specifically click the tiny symbol. Clicking next to it won’t do anything

3.  If you went the right click route - double click the given symbol on the symbology pane. Here you can change color, shape, outline, size, transparency, etc. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE

4. Back to the County Parcels - If you want to change color - Right click, symbology, click the symbol, gallery tab, black outline. Go to properties tab, dropdown for outline color, select whatever you want. You can also click dropdown again, click color properties and edit the transparency %

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EXAMPLE WITH POINTS AND TRACKS

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EXAMPLE

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CREATING POLYGON

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1. To start editing polygons (large areas of weeds) use points from the field and the “track” or walking route that you took

2. You can create the area shape with the polygon tool

3. Click the “View” tab

4. Select “Catalog Pane”

5. Select “Database” drop down arrow

6. Right click “Default.gbd.”, hover over “new”, select “feature class”

7. “Create Feature Class” pane appears

8. Enter desired name (this can be edited later by right clicking fc on contents pane, go to properties, general, name - initially you can't add spaces)

Ex. Weeds

9. Select feature class type drop down. For areas select “polygon” but you can create points (ex. Musk thistle points) and lines (ex. tracks) as well 

10. Select finish (those are the only two inputs needed, name and fc type)

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11. The created feature is now available on the contents pane

12. You can edit symbology the same way as you edit points

13. To create polygons go to the “edit” tab at the top on the app

14. select “create”

15. a “create features” pane appears to the right

16. find your desired feature (the recently created feature class) and click on it

17. select the desired tool to create your polygon/area. I tend to choose the “polygon” tool because it's freeform. But there are circles, right angles, ovals, etc. It depends on the shape you are trying to create.

18. you can begin creating your shape. Every time you click you are creating “vertices”. These can be edited, moved, removed and you can add more to the polygon once it is finished. More vertices = more shape options

19. Trace/click along your track outline, enclosing the area

20. To finish your shape, double click on your last vertice - enclosing the shape

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EXAMPLE

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CREATING LAYOUTS

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1. Go to the insert tab

2. hit the “new layout” drop down and select your desired layout. Depends on prop size. I stick to the basic letter, portrait or landscape

3. I title it (sometimes….sometimes I just leave it as a layout). Right click the layout on the contents pane, go to properties, general, name. This one will be “Example Map” 

4. still on the insert tab, select map frame drop down and select the satellite image of your map

5. click and drag on page where you want you map to be displayed

6. You can change the zoom/size of the image by staying on the layout (or whatever you titled it), and then go to the top layout tab. There is a button “Activate”. Select your drawn out map and then hit “activate”. Move/zoom in or out how you want it. Then the “X” button will be in the top right corner.

-You can press and hold the right mouse click/button and move the mouse forward and backward to fine-tune your zoom and get your parcel fitting into the map

7. on the insert tab, you can add desired north arrow, scale bar, legend, titles, logo and works cited/credits

8. you can change symbology for all of these if desired

9. to insert title and credits, go to Dynamic text drop down, Select name for title. Click  and drag. Type in desired title, Name, date (Example Map April 2022)

10. credits - same approach but select “credits”. I like to put “map created by ___”

11. for works cited (where we get the map image from and such) same drop down, scroll down, select “ service layer credits”. After drawing your space for that if you see “...” in red, the box needs to be bigger or text needs to be smaller. This takes the text off of your map and puts it in a more appealing spot :)

12. to add the logo hit the image icon under “graphics and text”.

13. Export to PDF

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EXAMPLE

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UPLOADING TO EDDMAPS

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When saving points into the EDDMapS folder, I download them from the DNRGPS right after I save all the common names. In new folder save point in scientific name.

Ie. Russian Knapweed and Russian Knapweed Area 1 points, save them all as Rhaponticum in the EDDMapS folder.

Uploading Data:

From the eddmaps.org homepage (if you are signed in) click My EDDMapS on the top right

On the left you can select Bulk Uploads

Select Upload Data

Batch name- I generally write the district and the survey date e.g. South Side 8_16_24

I also usually just drag and drop from the EDDMapS file folder and then upload it.

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FINAL TIPS & TAKEAWAYS

  • ARC GIS is temperamental so save often!
  • ESRI Canada has good videos
  • ESRI Training Catalog online has a ton of free course
  • YouTube has good “How To Videos”
    • Karen Joyce is a favorite of ours!

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