Weed_Mapping_using_R3MA-Quick_Start.pdf

Mapping Weed Occurrences, Treatments, and Search Areas using R3 Management Actions

Quick Start Guide

Rob Taylor Dan Craver

US Fish and Wildlife Service Columbia-PNW Region (IR9) Pacific Islands Region (IR12)

Last updated on 31 August 21 1

Prepared for users in Legacy Region 1

Contents

• Prerequisites

• Definitions

• Map a chemical weed treatment

• Map a mechanical weed treatment

• Map a weed search area

• Map weed occurrences in the field

• Map “offline” (when cellular coverage is not available)

• Viewing and editing weed occurrence, treatment, and search area data

• Tips and tricks

• Resources

• Support

Prerequisites

• A USFWS ArcGIS Online account

• Non-FWS staff will need to obtain a collaborator account which can be requested by FWS staff (the “sponsor”)

• A smartphone or tablet with GPS capability o if your phone/tablet doesn’t have an internal GPS, an external

GPS can be used

• ArcGIS Collector installed on your smartphone/tablet and signed in with your FWS ArcGIS Online account

• Basic knowledge of the ArcGIS Collector app o New to Collector? Take Esri’s Try Collector tutorial (see the Resources section later in this document for a link).

• Become a member of the R3 Management Actions ArcGIS Online Group o You can become a member by requesting membership on the ArcGIS Online website or by sending an email to robert_taylor@fws.gov

Before getting out in the field and mapping, you will need the following:

Definitions

• ArcGIS Online – a cloud-based geographical information system (GIS) o often abbreviated as AGOL

• Weed occurrence – location of an untreated weed or patch of weeds o An occurrence is also sometimes called an “observation”

• Weed treatment – management action done to control/suppress weeds (e.g., spray, pull) o An herbicide treatment is called a “chemical treatments” o Pulling or mowing weeds are types of “mechanical treatments”

• Search area – area or line where one or more weed species were searched for

• Mapping – documentation of an occurrence, treatment, or search area by drawing a point, line, or area (i.e., polygon) on a map

R3 Management Actions

• ArcGIS Online-based

• Collection of tools, including o Chemical Action (Treatment) o Mechanical Action (Treatment) o Observations (aka Occurrences) o Search Areas

• Maps designed for use in ArcGIS Collector

• Edit vs Publication layers

• Dashboards

Mapping a Chemical Treatment

• Open ArcGIS Collector on your smartphone/tablet

• Go to Groups

• Select the R3 Management Actions Group

• Open the Chemical Plant Map for Plants & Algae

• Add a new feature (point, line, or polygon)

Mapping a Chemical Treatment

• Map out the area that was treated either by using your current location (points), sketching the area on the map (lines and polygons) or by using the streaming feature (lines and polygons)

• Fill out the form being sure to enter all required information (e.g., name, date, primary target species) and any other information mandated for your specific refuge or project*

• Add a photo or other attachment (optional)

• Submit

• If multiple species were treated, select the point/line/polygon and add the additional target species to the Plant Target Species table

* If you are not sure what info is mandated, ask your team leader. 7

Chemical Treatments – Overview

• Feature types: Points, Lines, Areas

• Required fields Operator name Operator type Start date

• Optional fields End date PUP number Application method Application equipment Total person-hours Treatment area width (line only) Area treated (point only) % area infested (area, line only) % area treated (area, line only) Chemical concentration (number, units) Quantity applied (number, units) Growth stage of target

Air temperature % cloud cover Wind direction Est. wind speed % chance rain next 72 hr % humidity Fire funded treatment (Y/N) Funding source (non-fire) General notes/comments

Chemical trade name Primary target species Record status

ATTENTION

Your project or team lead will specify what optional fields should be considered mandatory for your team

Point, Line, or Area?

Things to consider:

• Size of patch

• Clear boundary

• Accessibility

• Time

Point – small (<100 sq ft) or don’t have time or ability to map

Line – road, ditch, or other linear feature (often used with “stream location” function)

Area – large (>100 sq ft), non-linear, discrete, accessible

Estimating Percent Area Infested Accurately estimating the cover of a weed within an area is challenging and requires practice. Cover is best thought of as the total area that would be shaded by the stems, leaves, and flowering parts of the plant when the sun is directly overhead. The guide below can be helpful when estimating cover.

Mapping a Mechanical Treatment

• Go to Groups

• Select the R3 Management Actions Group

• Open the Mechanical Map

• Add a new feature (point, line, or polygon)

Mapping a Mechanical Treatment

• Map out the area that was treated either by using your current location (points), sketching the area on the map (lines and polygons) or by using the streaming feature (lines and polygons)

• Fill out the form being sure to enter all required information (e.g., name, date, primary target species) and any other information mandated for your specific refuge or project*

Note that unlike Chemical treatments, Mechanical treatments do not allow for multiple target species.

• Add a photo or other attachment (optional)

• Submit

* If you are not sure what info is mandated, ask your team leader. 12

Mechanical Treatments – Overview

ATTENTION

Your project or team lead will specify what optional fields should be considered mandatory for your team

• Feature types: Points, Lines, Areas

• Required fields Operator name Operator type Start date Action type Implement Record status

• Optional fields End date Target species Implement details Fire funded treatment Funding source (non-fire) Treatment area (point only) Treatment width (line only) General notes/comments

Mapping a Weed Occurrence

• Go to Groups

• Select the R3 Management Actions Group

• Open the Invasive and Weed Observations Map

• Add a new feature (point, line, or polygon)*

Occurrences

* Note that this map is used for both search areas and occurrences

Mapping a Weed Occurrence

• Map out the area representing this occurrence either by using your current location (points), sketching the area on the map (lines and polygons) or by using the streaming feature (lines and polygons)

• Fill out the form being sure to enter all required information (e.g., name, date, species) and any other information mandated for your specific refuge or project*

• Add a photo or other attachment (optional)

• Submit

* If you are not sure what info is mandated, ask your team leader. 15

Weed Occurrences – Overview

ATTENTION

Your project or team lead will specify what optional fields should be considered mandatory for your team

• Feature types: Points, Lines, Areas

• Required fields Observer name First observation date Species Record status

• Optional fields Growth stage % area covered (area only) Size of patch (point only) % infestation under control Funding source

Mapping a Search Area

• Go to Groups

• Select the R3 Management Actions Group

• Open the Invasive and Weed Observations Map

• Add a new feature (line or polygon)*

Search Areas

* Note that this map is used for both search areas and occurrences

• Map out the area in which the search was conducted by sketching the area on the map or by using the streaming feature (line or polygon)

• Fill out the form being sure to enter all required information (e.g., names, date, primary target species, search intensity)

• Add a photo or other attachment (optional)

• Submit

Mapping a Search Area

Search Areas - Overview

• Feature types: Lines, Areas

• Required fields Participant names Search date Target species Search method Relative search intensity Record status

• Optional fields Growth stage Search width (line only) % infestation under control Fire-funded treatment Funding source (non-fire)

Working Offline If you plan on mapping occurrences, treatments, or search areas in a location where cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity is not available, you will need to take some extra steps before and after heading out into the field in order to work offline.

Before going offline

• Open ArcGIS Collector on your smartphone/tablet and find the map* you will be using

* If you will be using multiple maps, you’ll need to do this for each map 20

• Click on the three dots to the right of the map and then select “Add Offline Area”

• Pan and zoom into the area that you will be working in

• If the bounding box is too small, decrease the level of detail (Room is the finest, World is the coarsest)

• Once you’ve got the area you want and your desired level of detail, download the area

• Wait while the download processes

Area 1

• When the download completes, you will see that you now have “Offline areas”.

• Repeat the previous steps if you need to download more than one offline area of if you need offline areas for another map

• Put your device on airplane mode and test to see if you can open your map with your offline area

• Now you are ready to go into the field and map!

After you return from the field

• Take your device out of airplane mode and connect to Wi-Fi if necessary

• Open ArcGIS Collector and select the map you collected data in to view your offline area

• Click on the three dots to the right of the area and then choose “Sync”

• Your data should be uploaded to the cloud

• If you worked with multiple offline areas or multiple maps, repeat the previous steps

Viewing and editing weed occurrence, treatment, and search area data

After data have been collected, you may want to view your data. For chemical or mechanical treatments, you can use one of the pre-configured dashboards

Chemical Treatments https://fws.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/979c113bd30641a1b6e9c48419010326 https://fws.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/979c113bd30641a1b6e9c48419010326

Mechanical Treatments https://fws.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/fd8e6e8acb66411db7096dd1a5b3f3ec

Use the filters on the right hand side of the dashboard to select the complex, refuge you want to view data for. You can also filter based on the target species, chemical, mechanical action type, date, etc. Note that dashboards do not allow you to edit data. 27 https://fws.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/fd8e6e8acb66411db7096dd1a5b3f3ec

You can also view and edit data:

• within the ArcGIS Collector app on your phone/tablet or Windows PC using the same webmap you used to collect data

• on ArcGIS Online using the same webmap you used to collect data

• using ArcGIS Desktop (ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap) by adding the relevant data layer to a map project

What can you edit?

• The location of a point; the location and shape of a line or polygon

• Any of the user-supplied fields

What about deleting invalid data?

• You cannot delete a treatment, occurrence or search area record

• However, you can mark a record for deletion by editing the Record Status field and changing it from “Valid” to “Delete record”. The record will be eventually be deleted by one of the R3 Management Actions data manager.

Tips and Tricks ArcGIS Collector settings

• Be sure to check your settings in ArcGIS Collector by clicking on the icon on the upper right of the screen on the main menu o Accuracy should be set to ≤ 30 ft

Which map do I use for what?

Working without a cellular or WiFi connection

• Create several smaller offline areas rather than one large area

• Rename your offline areas from Area1, Area2, etc to meaningful names to avoid confusion.

Reminder: All iPhones and cellular-enabled iPads have a built-in GPS which works the same whether or not you have cellular or WiFi access but may be affected by local topography, tree-canopy, or other factors which limit your view of the sky. In these challenging environments, or when using a WiFi-only iPad, an external blue tooth GNSS receiver (e.g., Garmin GLO, Bad Elf, EOS Arrow) may be necessary.

Efficiency

• Save time by using the Copy function in ArcGIS Collector to create multiple points/polygons having the same attribute information. Do this by clicking on an existing feature and then pressing the copy icon.

• Use the voice to text feature of your phone or tablet to enter General Notes or Comments.

Map a chemical treatment R3 Management Actions Chemical Plant Map Map a mechanical treatment R3 Management Actions Mechanical Map Map a weed occurrence R3 Invasive and Weed Observations Map Map a search area R3 Invasive and Weed Observations Map

Tips and Tricks Treating or surveying for more than one target species

• After entering your Primary Target Species and submitting your form, click on the feature again, scroll to bottom of form, and add additional species in the Table – Plant Target Species.

What if my species or chemical is not in the dropdown?

• Enter “Other” and then specify the name in the General Notes and Comments field.

Do I need to enter data in the optional fields?

• Even though a field is considered optional, your team leader or supervisor may need that data; be sure you understand the minimum data requirements before heading out to the field.

Data Management

• Team leaders should ensure that all data collected are regularly checked for accuracy. Records with issues should be marked Flagged for Review until those issues are resolved.

• Data should be archived to your network drive or ServCat on a regular basis.

• Install ArcGIS Collector on your Windows 10 desktop or laptop to make reviewing and editing records easier.

• For more complicated editing needs, consider using ArcGIS Pro, however you must ensure that you do not accidentally edit records from other refuges!

Resources In the table you’ll find some of the many online resources that provide useful information about ArcGIS online, ArcGIS Collector, and the R3 Management Actions tools.

Try ArcGIS Collector https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/collector/field-mobility/try-collector/

Using Collector Offline https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/collector/field-mobility/collect-data-offline/

Quick Reference for ArcGIS Collector iPhone https://doc.arcgis.com/en/collector/iphone/help/quick-reference.htm iPad https://doc.arcgis.com/en/collector/ipad/help/quick-reference.htm

R3 Management Actions https://doimspp.sharepoint.com/sites/fws-FF03D00000-management-action

National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) https://doimspp.sharepoint.com/sites/fws-gis/SitePages/FWS-National-GIS-Training.aspx

Of note, the CSP 7302 “Field Data Collection” class teaches everything you need to build the Geodatabases and WebMaps in ArcGIS Online to be used in Collector.

GPS Best Practices By Bad Elf, but applicable to all GPS devices including iPads and iPhones with integrated GNSS receivers https://bad-elf.com/pages/field-data-collection-best-practices

Connecting an external blue-tooth GNSS receiver https://doc.arcgis.com/en/collector-classic/ios/collect-data/high-accuracy-gps.htm

Support For help with R3 Management Actions

For help with ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Collector If you are having trouble with ArcGIS online or Collector, post your question or issue to the FWS Geospatial Services Information Teams page in the “Ask a GIS Question” Channel.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3aa0bd32057d7141b29f2f882ccf7993d7%40thread.skype/ conversations?groupId=4e261c58-a8dc-4267-a8fe-7a56f3e22e51&tenantId=0693b5ba-4b18-4d7b- 9341-f32f400a5494

1st Tier Support for DOI Regions 9 and 12 Rob Taylor (robert_taylor@fws.gov)

2nd Tier Support Dan Craver (dan_craver@fws.gov)

Gabe D’Alessio (gabriel_dalessio@fws.gov) or Andy Allstadt (andrew_allstadt@fws.gov) https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3aa0bd32057d7141b29f2f882ccf7993d7%40thread.skype/conversations?groupId=4e261c58-a8dc-4267-a8fe-7a56f3e22e51&tenantId=0693b5ba-4b18-4d7b-9341-f32f400a5494