Detailed maps of Gallatin County available online

Detailed maps of Gallatin County that can include everything from school districts to backcountry wilderness are now available for free on the Internet.

Gallatin County has been hooked up on the "national map," a federal program to get geographic information on the Internet so people can use it. Barbara Ryan, associate director for geography at the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va., made the announcement Friday during a press conference at Montana State University.

By NICK GEVOCK Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/07/25/news/readybzbigs.txt

The maps can be custom-made to include information such as roads, fire districts or campgrounds, depending on the user’s needs, said Lance Clampitt, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey based at MSU.

"It provides the public a resource, whether they just want to go camping or look at land use," Clampitt said. "Anyone can get online and use this data."

For example, hunters can plan their fall excursions, floaters can view images of a river’s put-in points, and prospective homeowners can determine which school district a house is in.

Federal officials have been working on the national map program for years. But Gallatin and Missoula counties are the first two in Montana to get detailed local data in the system.

The program saves taxpayers money because federal officials aren’t collecting data that state and local governments already have, Ryan said.

"There is much richer data available for the state and local level," she said. "Where it used to be federal employees out gathering this data, that is not possible in this day and age."

Gallatin County’s geographic information that has been gathered by the county GIS office is among the best in the country, Clampitt said. But the county can’t afford to put the tremendous amount of data it has collected through the years on its Internet site.

The USGS, however, can take that information and post it online so people can use it.

"This is information you can go down to the courthouse and get," Clampitt said. "The national map is just making it public."

The data is stored in "layers," which can be anything from zoning districts, streams and city limits. Gallatin County has more than 50 layers available on the national map, Clampitt said.

Users can go into a map and zoom in to a particular area. Clampitt demonstrated the map by zooming in on his house, where a record listing him as the owner came up.

The federal government hired the Rand Corp. to study whether making such detailed information so easily available would help terrorists plot attacks, Ryan said. The report concluded terrorists are so well funded that they could get such information anyway.

In addition, terrorists need data even more detailed than that on the national map, such as architectural plans of buildings, so the public information should be put on line, Ryan said.

By keeping the information under wraps "You’re not aiding and abetting terrorists, you’re hindering the local officials who need this information for emergency response," Ryan said.

Gallatin County data on the national map is at http://www.nationalmap.gov.