Participation Assignment #1 - “The Bureau of Land Management Uses Esri Story Maps to Encourage Public Land Exploration”

I found an interesting article through Directions Magazine.  This site provides links to GIS related information from multiple sources.  This particular article was in Esri Technology.  Titled “The Bureau of Land Management Uses Esri Story Maps to Encourage Public Land Exploration”, the article describes the recent evolution of improving information release to the public to encourage travel to our public lands.  Being a huge proponent of travel to State and Federal parks, this article caught my interest.  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has had a public awareness campaign called “My Public Lands”.  This campaign is now being enhanced using Esri Story Maps.  Bob Wick, a BLM wilderness specialist and photographer, published a series of travelogues every Tuesday last winter.  Known as the #traveltuesday campaign, this Tumblr blog extends the bureaus GIS into a public outreach tool via social media.  While an exciting step for the BLM, it is also a positive step forward for ESRI as they are beginning to see national organizations using Story Maps in new ways to engage the public.  Wick also produced a Summer Road Trip which was a photo journal through America’s forests, deserts and canyons.  This project was also based on the Esri Story Map Journal Template.  While this photo journal gave potential visitors a preview of what they could expect it did not offer quite as much as the #traveltuesday project which includes a personalized travel record including interactive maps of each of Wick’s destinations.  Wick, a 28-year veteran of the BLM is quite familiar with their GIS maps.  “ By integrating photography, multimedia and maps, the Esri Story Map journals bring America’s beautiful public landscapes to life…Our potential visitors can use the journals as real travel guides or the public can experience their lands virtually from any location.”  (Wick)  I think this travelogue is a fantastic idea.  I love the idea of having photography accompanied with GIS based maps of the site.  This article contained several links which are worth checking out if you have interest in our amazing Public Land System!  The link to the main article is:  http://www.directionsmag.com/pressreleases/the-bureau-of-land-management-uses-esri-story-maps-to-encourage-public-land/469535.  I hope you enjoy reading the article and exploring Wick’s story maps via the article’s links.