• Identification Information
• Data Quality Information
• Spatial Data Organization Information
• Spatial Reference Information
• Entity and Attribute Information
• Distribution Information
• Metadata Reference Information

Identification Information:

Citation Information:

Originator: New York State Adirondack Park Agency

Publication Date: 200010

Title of Data Set: State Forest Acquisition Map

Edition:

Presentation Form: map

Publication Information:

Publication Place: Ray Brook, New York State

Publisher: Adirondack Park Agency

Online Linkage:

Description:

Abstract: This coverage contains the old growth timber areas of the Adirondack Park, New York State.

Purpose: The data was created for the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) as an historical reference. This resource may be used to determine approximate areas of old timber growth in the Adirondack Park.

Supplemental Information: The original data was collected by B. McMartin, who compiled a map of lands acquired by the State in the Adirondack Park. This information was based upon various sources, including a 1920 series of publications by the NYSDEC. Field checking by McMartin and others was also performed. The original map was a 1:250,000+ scale Great Lot map, color coded with five category types. Using a light table, this information was later transferred to a 1:250,000 scale NYSDOT base map. The areas were color-coded using four categories outlined on the McMartin map. Digital data was developed by for the area defined by the Oswegatchie/Black River watershed in by SUNY Plattsburgh under contract to the APA. Although the OB digital data created by SUNY was not incorporated into this coverage, the same attribute scheme was used.

References: McMartin, B. 1994. The great forest of the Adirondacks. North Country Books, Utica, NY. 240 pp. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 1920. State of New York list of lands in the forest preserve. Appendix to 1919 annual report. J.B. Lyon Co., Albany, NY.

Scale: 1:250000

Time Period of Content:

Time Period Information:

Beginning Date:

Ending Date: Present

Currentness Reference: ground condition 

Status:

Progress: Complete

Maintenance and Update Frequency: None Planned

Spatial Domain:

Bounding Coordinates:

West Bounding Coordinate: -75.320057

East Bounding Coordinate: -73.293965

North Bounding Coordinate: 44.877869

South Bounding Coordinate: 43.052284

Keywords:

Theme:

Theme Keyword Reference: NYS GIS Clearinghouse categories

Theme Keyword: forests

Theme:

Theme Keyword Thesaurus: None

Theme Keyword: historic

Place:

Place Keyword Thesaurus: None

Place Keyword: Adirondack Park, New York State

Access Constraints: Data is available from the Adirondack Park Agency

Use Constraints: Data is to be used at the scale intended.

Point of Contact:

Contact Information:

Contact Organization Primary:

Contact Organization: Adirondack Park Agency

Contact Person Primary:

Contact Person: John W. Barge

Contact Address:

Address Type: Mailing Address

Address: P.O. Box 99, Route 86

City: Ray Brook

State or Province: New York

Postal Code: 12977

Contact Voice Telephone: 518-891-4050

Contact Fascimile: 518-891-3938

Contact Electronic Mail Address: jwbarge@gw.dec.state.ny.us

Native Data Set Environment: Windows NT, ARC/INFO version 8.0, 313 KB

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Data Quality Information:

Attribute Accuracy Report:

Logical Consistency Report: Topologically Clean

Completeness Report: Topological and attribute accuracy were verified by visually comparing the data in checkplots to the original base map.

Positional Accuracy:

Horizontal Positional Accuracy Report:

Quantitative Horizontal Positional Accuracy Assessment:

Horizontal Positional Accuracy Value:

Horizontal Positional Accuracy Explanation:

Process Description:

Applied GIS, Inc. processing steps: The NYSDOT source map has UTM crosshairs printed at 15-minute intervals. These markings were used to create a list of registration tic marks. The tics represented the corners of 15-minute quadrangle map sections. A total of seventy tic marks were included in the file. This file was used to register the hardcopy map.

The arcs were digitized in Arc/Info into one coverage. The boundary of the Adirondack Park was copied into the coverage and arcs were digitized up to this boundary. Digitizing was performed on a Calcomp 9500 digitizing tablet. The map was digitized into one coverage during several sessions, registering the northern and southern portions of the map sheet. The RMS error for the sessions ranged from 0.002 to 0.004. The higher registration error for several map sections was due to a seam in the base map that runs east/west across the approximate middle of the Park.

Duplicate lines, intersections and dangling nodes were edited to rectify topology errors. The composite coverage was then built with the POLY option.

Label points were created with a new attribute field, "Code". Valid codes for this field included "B", "R", "Y", "X", and "C". An additional code, "U", was added to note polygons which had no color code on the original map. These areas were clearly old growth timber parcels, but had not been hand-colored. These were generally areas that were not internal polygons, i.e., they were located on the edge of other coded, old growth areas. An additional attribute field, "Description", was added containing the verbal description of the areas.

A look-up table called legend.lut was created to cross-reference to the coverage. These values for the "Description" field were derived from the SUNY Plattsburg checkplot of the Oswagatchie/Black River Basin area. The list below indicates the description associated with each code.

CODE	DESCRIPTION
X	Virgin stands; never harvested.
B	Parcels acquired in 1871 and 1877 tax sales, or owned by the State prior to 1871.
R	Parcels acquired in 1881 and 1885 tax sales.
Y	Parcels acquired in 1891 or later via tax sale or purchase.
C	Uncoded on the original map.
U	Internal polygons not coded on the original map.

The final data set was converted into an Arc/Info interchange filed named timber.e00 for easy data transfer.

Applied GIS, Inc. QA/QC analysis: Quality Assurance/Quality Control was determined by a series of tests. Early checkplots of area boundaries were produced on velum and overlayed on the source map to check for omission errors. The final coverage was visually inspected interactively through comparison to the source material (the hardcopy map). The data set was thematically mapped by codes and printed at the same scale as the source material. The printed check plot was positioned next to the source material for cross-examination. The operator checked for consistency between the source material and the final coverage in terms of coding and position of graphic objects and attributes (fields and content).

Objects with extreme area size (small or large) were identified in ArcView by sorting the attribute table by area. Small slivers and unusually large polygons were examined and rectified as needed.

The accuracy of the type of attribute fields was verified by examining the Arc/Info Items listing for the coverage. Creating a summary table in ArcView confirmed valid attribute values. Inconsistencies (e.g., missing values) were identified and rectified.

The coordinate system of the final data set was verified by examining the coverage description in Arc/Info, as well as overlaying the data over a coverage known to be in the desired projection. Consistency between the known coverage and the final old growth timber data layer was evaluated.

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Spatial Data Organization Information:

Direct Spatial Reference Method: Vector

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Spatial Reference Information:

Horizontal Coordinate System Definition:

Geographic: Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)

UTM Zone: 18

Geodetic Model:

Horizontal Datum: North American Datum of 1983

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Entity and Attribute Information: