1. WisFIRS Wisconsin Forest Inventory & Reporting System
An Overview of the
WisFIRS Application
June 6, 2014
Ann Schachte
GIS Coordinator
Division of Forestry
Wisconsin DNR 1

2. WisFIRS…. Why are we building it? How did we integrate GIS?
What’s next?
Demonstration
Questions

3. WisFIRS: Integration Overview
GIS Integration

4. WisFIRS mapping needs
Identify the “chunk of dirt” we manage on State, County and Private (Forest Tax Law) lands
Spatially enable the “business data” for public and private forest land management.

5. Forest Ownership in Wisconsin
Non Industrial Private Landowners = 57%
Industrial Landowners = 11%
Private Corps. = 4%
Public Ownership = 30%
Private Ownership = 70%

6. Lands Managed in WisFIRS
 Land by management group
Total Acres
Managed Forest Lands (MFL) – private
2,990,994
Forest Crop Lands (FCL) - private
244,404
County Forests (29 counties) – public
2,351,599
State Forests - public
553,736
Other DNR Managed Land (Parks, Wildlife Areas, etc.) - public
984,157
Total
7,124,890
Figures are from 2007
MFL acreage has increased since then
7.3 million acres

7. Lands Managed by WisFIRS

8. Our user community…
WisFIRS Public Lands users are located in various offices around the state:
DNR foresters (Internal to DNR network)
County foresters (external to DNR network)
WisFIRS Private Lands users – 170 independent consulting foresters (external to DNR network)

9. WisFIRS: Project Summary
WisFIRS will enable foresters to:
Store data collected in the field
Use a Template for Management Plans
Plan & Track practices and treatments
e.g. Mandatory Practices, Rx burning
Report accomplishments
Renew Cooperating Forester status
Administer MFL program
Calculate payments to municipalities…
… and much more!

10. WisFIRS Releases…. past, present and future
R1: Public lands management (6/07)
Tru64: Reports & processes (1/09)
Timber Sales lite: (5/09)
Timber Sales Product codes: (11/09)
R2: Public GIS integration: (6/11)
R3: Private lands management (6/2012 to 1/2015)
Multiple releases
R4: Public financials, timber sale, stumpage (TBD)*
R5: Private GIS (TBD)
R6: Private financials, harvest (TBD)*
R7: Stew plans, field data capture (TBD)
* May swap order of releases

11. WisFIRS GIS: Solution Scenarios
ArcGIS Server – RECOMMENDED
Centralized system
Reduce management overhead
Improve disaster recovery
Reduce licensing costs
Positioned well for field data capture
Consistent with ESRI’s long term strategy
Note: Includes Desktop Solution Support for “Power Users”

12. Core Technologies
Oracle 11g R2 database (ver ) – for storage of tabular application and GIS application data.
ESRI ArcGIS Server 10.1 – for geo-processing of GIS application.
ESRI ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 – for offline editing of shapes, and uploading them to the server.
Microsoft Internet Information Server 7.5 – runs the tabular web application.
Microsoft Internet Information Server 7.5 – runs the GIS web application.

13. Core Technologies cont.
Python – used for geo-processing scripts.
jQuery – used in client side GIS application code.
Javascript – used in client side tabular and GIS application code.
Visual Basic.NET – used in server side code for tabular application.
C#.NET – used in server side code for GIS application.
SSRS 2008 – used for generating and managing reports that are integrated with the tabular application.

14. What’s next? Private Lands GIS
Beginning to digitize existing open MFL lands
Working with SCO to obtain parcel data
Long term maintenance of MFL lands will be through WisFIRS GIS

15. Demo