The Map

I had something wise and politically astute to write, but events yesterday swept it from my mind.  So now I'm filling in today's post with a link to the NatureServe online map of ecosystems.  At first blush, it's a remarkable collection of data visualized.  But on closer examination, I'm finding oddities. 

Candelaria Nature Center and vicinity

Looking at our bosque near the Nature Center, just a mile or so to the west, one finds that most of what I consider riparian woodland is coded as pasture or hay.  True, there are some fields north and east of the Nature Center's two large ponds, but that cultivated area does not extend to the shoreline of the Rio Grande.  

I'll continue to investigate, but I haven't figured out how to place the street layer on top so I can precisely orient myself.  For now, I have to use rather crude estimates of what exact pixels I'm looking at.  

More to come...