As I’ve said so many times, the Data Basin users and community continue to show us how this great tool can be used.

Who doesn’t like maps? Our director James Strittholt has said before that maps are a unifying object from which people can find common ground. You can take a group of people, spread out a map on the table and everyone will begin dreaming, talking and telling stories. Data Basin is not much different and, from the beginning, we have been thrilled by how much the community has taught us how it will be used. 

From childhood, we can all remember special places that played an important part in our development. Growing up in the west, one significant place for me was the Columbia River George and High Desert Basin section bordering Oregon and Washington from Portland to the Tri-Cities. I was born in Baker City and spent many years traveling either by plane, train, bus or car up and down the Columbia. A week ago, on a road trip to Coeur d'Alene.

Over my career I can’t recall how many paper napkin maps I have digitized into datasets.

In the US, we have a long history of preserving places commonly special to us through the National Park System. Recently I have been thinking about the usefulness of the designation of National Park and questioning whether it is always the best prescription.

In the entryway to the Conservation Biology Institute offices is a map we printed in 2004 of the Late Seral Forest of the Pacific Northwest, that was displayed in the American Museum of Natural History.

This past week, Conservation Biology Institute and Data Basin staff had the opportunity to attend the 2010 ESRI International Users Conference in San Diego California.  In recent years the conservation community participated in the vendor and partner exhibits but was only given sideline space that few attendees had a chance to visit.  This year was different: the Conservation Science and Climate Change Showcase was given generous central space in