The Land-of-Sky Regional Council uses ESRI's ArcView as its GIS system. The Council's main objective for its GIS system is to create and maintain regional GIS data for Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, and Transylvania counties.
Projects that the Council has worked on include:
Land use maps for the Town of Woodfin
A map for the US Department of Agriculture Rural Development showing which areas around Asheville are eligible for Rural Development services and which areas are not eligible
A map showing the Ross Creek urban watershed area
A regional database of environmentally sensitive data funded by the Conservation Trust for North Carolina and the Community Foundation of WNC's Winterberry Fund.
Click here to see a map of the Asheville and Biltmore Forest area
The environmental database is primarily designed for use by local governments in the Land-of-Sky Region, their planning departments, and regional non-profit organizations that are involved in growth management and environmental protection. The data can be transferred to interested parties via floppy diskette, e-mail, or ZIP drive (depending on the amount of data being requested).
It includes the following data layers:
High Quality Water Areas - Watersheds of streams classified by the state as either Outstanding Resource Waters (ORW) or High Quality Waters (HQW)
Water Supply Watersheds - Drinking water watersheds classified by the state
Old Growth Forests on Federally Owned Land
Natural Areas - Boundaries of areas designated by the NC Natural Heritage Program as natural areas of ecological significance.
Other Significant Natural Areas - Boundaries of environmentally sensitive areas (e.g., wetlands, bear habitat) identified by experts from the NC Natural Heritage Program, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, Western Carolina University, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Long Branch Environmental Education Center, Mars Hill College, and NC Division of Community Assistance.
Click here to see a map of Buncombe and it's surrounding counties areas of endangered species and Natural Heritage areas
The Council is currently working on a project characterize the riparian buffer along the French Broad River, target key buffer areas for protection and restoration, and develop a voluntary program for river-bordering landowners to protect and/or restore riparian buffer areas. The project focuses on the entire length of the French Broad River from Rosman in Transylvania County, through Henderson, Buncombe, and Madison counties to the North Carolina/Tennessee state line.
The Council is looking for more projects that can benefit from GIS. Interested parties can call Charles St.Clair or Jim Stokoe at (828) 251-6622 or e-mail charlie@landofsky.org for more information.