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Maps & Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) uses GIS to understand and support the natural and cultural resources of the Park.

GIS at the Adirondack Park Agency

The APA has several GIS CD-ROM's Available containing data and analytical reports.

MAP ROOM

Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan Map and State Land Map
2009 Facsimilie of the official zoning map showing private and state land classifications. Also includes the Adirondack portion of the NYS Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System. See 2009 Park Land Use Classification acreage statistics below. view map (Adobe Flash required)
Park Population Estimate of Towns from 2000 Census
2000 Census Population of Towns Within the Adirondack Park With Estimates for Census Blocks Straddling the Park Boundary. Additional estimates of seasonal population and county and park population is also available. view map (pdf 136kb)
Population within a Days Drive
The question was raised,"how many people live within a days drive of the Adirondack Park?" This map and the GIS analysis behind it uses census data from the US and Canada clipped with a 350 mile buffer around the Adirondack Park. Our guess of a days car drive was derived from a 7 hour travel day with an average speed of 50 miles per hour. So how many people are only a day away? There are around 84 Million people including about 18,000,000 Canadians and 66,000,000 Americans.	view map (pdf 640kb)
Easements
Adirondack Forest Easements map - A generalized map of Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan private land classifications under DEC easements. (Some easements include public access rights, others do not. Don't trespass. Contact DEC for information about the location of protected lands with public recreation rights.) view map (pdf 450kb)
Historic Forest Preserve
New York State Adirondack Park Forest Preserve Lands 1892 and 2002 view map
Land Cover
Adirondack Park Land Cover from USGS National Land Cover Data An interpretation by the USGS of general forest covertypes in the United States. view map (pdf 966kb)
Schools
Adirondack Park School Districts map view map
Towers
Adirondack Park Cellular Towers Map New and existing structures for which the APA has permitted cellular service use (1993 through 2009). view map (pdf 364kb) updated 12/31/09
Interstate 87 "Northway" Cellular Towers Map New and existing structures for which the APA has permitted cellular service use (1993 through 2009). view map (pdf 257kb) updated 12/31/09
Viewshed Protection
Town of Day Viewshed Protection Area view map (pdf 2.9MB)
Zip Codes
Adirondack Park Zip Code Areas map view map (pdf 585kb)
Lakes and Ponds Entirely Surrounded by Forest Preserve
Lakes and ponds entirely surrounded by the Forest Preserve provide users with a wide spectrum of experiences. Using the APA's enhanced land classification GIS data, this map inventories lakes and ponds entirely surrounded by the Forest Preserve view map (pdf 1.2 MB) Water Body Statistics view bar chart view pie chart view list of lakes greater than 250 acres view points in Google Maps for lakes greater than or equal to 25 acres
Historic Snowmobile Use on Forest Preserve
The State Land Master Plan (SLMP) outlines a "mileage cap" of snowmobile trails at the time of its adoption in 1972. However, the exact location of those trails was not included. This begs the questions “Where were those trails?” This map is a re-creation of the DEC 1972 snowmobile trail brochure entitled: Snowmobile Trails in New York State (10/1972) view map (pdf 1 MB)
Military Training Routes
A map of New York's Air National Guard Adirondack Military Training Routes, or MTRs. view map (pdf 603kb)

The "Cart Room"

In the basement of the APA headquarters there's a room called the "Cart Room." Cart is short for Cartography. Over the years this room has been filled with drafting tables, boxes stuffed with oversized rolled maps and flat files holding nearly 200 drawers of "quad" maps. Drafting pens and mylar began to give way in 1981 to our first computer affectionately but cautiously called "HAL." This was before the days of DOS when "digitizing" was an unknown concept to most of us.

Hal was replaced by a mini-computer then by UNIX, then by Windows. When these computers were still in the minority, they were named Colvin, Marcy and Hudson. Printers and plotters were named Winslow, Homer, and Tait after Adirondack painters. Now PC's are on every desktop - too many to name.

The Adirondacks were once "lands unknown." Explorer/cartographers like Verplanck Colvin and Seneca Ray Stoddard began charting the wilderness, providing a reference for us to follow. In the 1980's and '90's, digital maps of the Adirondacks by the APA brought these lands to the forefront of modern mapping in the state and perhaps the country.

Fast Facts

A look at the APA "Lookup System". Describes how GIS is used at the APA headquarters to locate projects in relation to the resources of the Park. The Lookup System is not an on-line GIS application.

Adirondack Park Land Classification Map

The Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan Map and State Land Master Plan Map reduced facsimile can be viewed online here...

Adirondack GIS CD

Order a Shared Adirondack GIS CD-ROM for the Adirondack Park containing over 50 data layers.
more...

Shared Adirondack Park GIS CD-ROM Update

Help assemble the new version...

Download APA GIS data from ...

NYS GIS Clearinghouse


Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository (CUGIR)

New York Ocean & Great Lakes Atlas: Data Portal - enter search word 'adirondack' to retrieve information on 24 data layers most of which are from the Shared Adirondack GIS CD. Data can be downloaded in ESRI, Mapinfo and KML formats. Metadata is available. Data can be viewed through the online Data Viewer. Layers such as Adirondack Park Land Class, Wetlands, and Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers may not be the most current versions and are not intended for legal jurisdictional determinations. Many other statewide layers are also available for download and viewing.

External Links:

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Mapping Gateway