The Montana natural resources online resource

A collection at the Montana State Library that began quietly 21 years ago mainly to serve natural resource professionals is exploding in popularity as more residents realize how much information is available on line, the director of the Natural Resource Information Service said this week.

By RON TSCHIDA Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/03/29/news/02webbzbigs.txt

Last month NRIS logged about 52,000 user sessions, each lasting an average of 13-15 minutes, said Jim Hill. That compares to about 2,000 sessions a year on the phone or in person.
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"It points out the power of the Web," Hill said. "We are potentially serving as many people each day via the Web as we are able to serve each year through direct staff assistance."

Whether one is searching for a new place to hike, hunt or fish, trying to figure out who owns a particular piece of land or researching water rights, NRIS has the answer.

Next month the library will roll out its latest interactive tool, the "Montana Fishing Guide."

Created in collaboration with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the electronic fishing guide will provide anglers information on hundreds of lakes, reservoirs and rivers, such as what fish species inhabit the water, the location of the nearest public access and local fishing regulations. It’s similar to FWP’s Hunt Planner, already available on-line.

NRIS files also hold aerial photos of the entire state, plant and animal field guides and all sorts of maps.

Besides popular topographic maps, said GIS programming analyst and electronic cartographer Duane Lund, specialized maps such as precipitation maps are on-line, many of them with interactive capabilities.

For example, Lund said, someone who wanted to hit every 10,000-foot peak in Montana could query the NRIS system to locate those mountains. Then by drawing a "data line" on the interactive map, the climber could learn the distance between each peak to help in planning trips.

The applications are endless, Hill said.

"We try not to presuppose too much because we can’t think of all the uses that the data can be put to," Hill said.

Hill said NRIS targets its collection at three user levels: professionals who work with sophisticated mapping and data software; intermediate users such as computer-savvy recreationists who are comfortable with interactive programs; and basic users who, for example, simply want to print out a map.

But each user gets to decide what level to work at, which applications to tap. All the information is public and free.

"For many years we really served a small population (of resource professionals)," Hill said. But the growth of the Internet "really opened it up for access to everyone."

The NRIS Web site is http://nris.state.mt.us

Anyone who wants personal assistance in using the site or finding specific information can call NRIS at (406) 444-5354.