2025 WA GIS Conference

I am currently serving a one-year internship for the Cultural Resources Division of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. With no permanent GIS staff member in the division, my goal has been to establish data management and best practices for GIS data.

The Cultural Affairs Division monitors agency projects for possible impacts to archeologically significant areas and artifacts. When a project is first proposed, division archeologists determine the likelihood of disturbance to cultural sites and whether surveys have been performed, or a site survey is needed. Much of the data is Category 3 and needs to be handled securely. We work closely with tribal governments and Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. My job is to manage geographic data for these projects.

After coming on board, my first task was to find out where and how the geographic data was being stored. I found that the data was spread out over several folders on servers (in various formats), and as zipped shapefiles attached to project tickets. There was no central, searchable location for the data.

To begin the process of organizing the data, I turned to ArcGIS Online for its versatility. I was able quickly add geodata to create a master map of Cultural Affairs projects accessible to team members.

Now I am taking data management for the division to the next level by creating a geodatabase, with customized fields and domains, to house our data. The database will reside on our SQL server and will be highly searchable.

This position has provided me with a great opportunity to build a GIS operation from the ground up. At times it has challenging, but I have enjoyed the process. My goal is to create a GIS that works for everyone in the division who needs it to do their job