Using GIS to promote Skyline Wilderness Park in Rapid City, SD

Skyline Drive Wilderness Park is a 150-acre open space in Rapid City, South Dakota. The Wilderness Park is located along a sandstone ridge or hogback, which bisects the urban sprawl. Skyline Drive Wilderness Park is a natural meeting place of the Ponderosa Pine forests of the Black Hills and the mixed-grass prairie of western South Dakota. A campaign to save Skyline Drive Wilderness Park began in 1994, when members of the Skyline Drive Preservation Committee grew concerned about the number of new homes being built on Skyline Drive. There are concerns about the long-term ecologic sustainability of Skyline Drive Wilderness Park, which is why this and other monitoring projects are proposed for 2005 and 2006. Development of a GIS database will allow us to collect and analyze data in a meaningful way. This GIS database is needed to begin a series of interrelated research projects, proposed for 2005-2006 that will address questions about the ecologic changes resulting from the urbanization of Skyline Drive. These projects include: a 1: 1,000 topographic survey of the Wilderness Park to identify microhabitat features, creation and maintenance of a herbarium, a breeding bird fidelity study, and establishment of bat-habitat through the installation of bat-houses.