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Conservation
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have long been an important tool for conservationists. Ken Bunzel has an educational background in Conservation Biology
and experience developing GIS software applications for the natural sciences.
GIS consulting and support, Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute
The watershed restoration program of this non profit group manages spatial data using ArcGIS. Kingbird Software has been volunteering to provide GIS consulting and support services.
CalVeg GEOBOOK, Pacific Meridian Resources
This project involved creating a GEOBOOK for the Remote Sensing Lab of the USFS in Sacramento, California to inform on ecological zones, and vegetation types within those zones. Ken Bunzel wrote the GEOBOOK while employed by Pacific Meridian Resources using Visual Basic and MapObjects software. The application has the look and feel of a guidebook with tabs, and includes text, pictures, and interactive maps. One map in the book displays CalVeg layers of vegetation derived from remote sensing data. The user can click on the map to display the vegetation type along with a photo and a text description of that type. The original CalVeg GEOBOOK was later modified for use with the GEOBOOK Author, allowing more advanced functionality and easier modification.
Russian River Watershed salmonid habitat inventories/restoration, California Department of Fish and Game
Ken Bunzel has worked as a Research Associate for the Russian River Basin salmonid habitat inventory and restoration program. In this position, he has managed a variety of databases and developed numerous software applications for statistical analysis and conversion of data into a GIS. He also provided applications training and support for personnel.
Mr. Bunzel designed and developed an ArcView application for viewing and analyzing the department’s salmonid stream habitat inventory data in a GIS. Through dynamic segmentation, stream lines in an existing GIS layer are segmented according to the length of “habitat units.” Numerous themes can be created to display stream inventory data in a variety of ways useful for analyzing salmonid habitat conditions. This application has made existing stream habitat inventory data more useful for stream restoration planning purposes.
By working with state and federal agency personnel Mr. Bunzel has compiled a library of GIS layers clipped to the Russian River Basin. These layers have been used to create a variety of maps useful for basin-wide planning purposes.
Mr. Bunzel has compiled data from several databases to create one database for hatchery plants and transfers in the Russian River Basin. An application was then developed to query the data and display the results in tables. In addition, Mr. Bunzel has created an interface for hatchery personnel to efficiently enter new data, and automatically summarize the data. This summarized data is then converted for a GIS that displays streams color coded based on hatchery plant and transfer attributes.
Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Alamo, TX, 1988
Ken Bunzel completed a Student Conservation Association Internship with the Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo Texas. This internship involved conducting various wildlife and vegetation inventories and maintaining related databases. Ken also produced a dBASE program for managing seed collection records, collected seed, and propagated native plants in a greenhouse.
Bureau of Land Management, Fisheries, Eugene, OR, 1988
Under a Student Conservation Association Internship, Ken Bunzel provided program testing, data entry, analysis, and report production for salmonid habitat/population studies. Ken also conducted juvenile/adult salmonid surveys and habitat inventories.
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