Project Summary:

The Pathfinder Wind Community Ranches located in Natrona and Carbon counties Wyoming have embarked on a five year planning process to locate appropriate wind development and wind development mitigation sites on the partner ranches. Pathfinder has formed a Conservation Team to collect a baseline database of ranch wide resources including wildlife, vegetation, and cultural. The Conservation Team is further tasked to design and implement monitoring protocols for these resources. WyGISC as a Conservation Team member has developed a GIS database to assist in monitoring and baseline data collection. Further, WyGISC will create a Pathfinder Wind Community wide Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) map. The LULC mapping will use extensive field survey to provide appropriate sampling of identified cover types. Field samples will then be used to generate a statistical model and GIS map of the model from remotely sensed imagery. Data collected by the Conservation Team will be used to perform wind energy development siting and mitigation suitability analyses.