Biodiversity Stewardship- Carroll County

  Dendrology Slides:

 Below are a few helpful websites to see current and past Climate and Weather Information.  Drought Information:  https://www.drought.gov/states/virginia/county/carroll   This Link I found to be very helpful especially with the current drought we have been in. It shows data on public health/air quality, water supply, agriculture, precipitation conditions and temperature conditions. Some data was shown over 7 days to 60 days. This helps people to see if there is improvement in the conditions or not.  Average Temperature and Palmer Index information: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/county/time-series/VA -035/tavg/60/7/1895-2026   This website is helpful to compare many years of climate and weather of Carroll County. For example, when you look up average temperature in July in Carroll County you can plot a graph all the way from 1895 to today. This can help show variability and help people see what the normal temperature to e...

 The Websoil survey was very interesting to work with. It took me awhile to figure out how to set the AOI(Area of Interest) without a webfile. However; once I got the Area of Interest set, it became easy to navigate and had so much information and reports to explore. I particularly enjoyed looking at the different soils throughout the county under the soil map tab. I found this helpful, as we do a lot of soil samples through my office, and so it was interesting seeing the different types of soils in the county. Also, once I started looking up a few specific addresses I found that it could be a helpful place to start for many homeowners that might be curious of their type of soil for home gardens, farms and more. It of course can not say all the nutrient levels of a specific fields like a soil test can, but for those that are just interested in their soil type without knowing specific nutrient levels this will be a great tool. 

This is a rough map of Carroll County, Virginia. The map was created using Google MyMaps. To create this map I tried to create a rough draft of the County outline by looking at it on Google Maps. I did this by using the draw a line tool in Google MyMaps. Then I went about finding the different parks, and significant habitats such as the larger rivers and creeks within the county and placing markers at the ones I found. Overall the tools on Google MyMaps were easy to navigate. The only thing I wish was easier to understand is, it would have been nice to be able to upload the county outline from Google Maps instead of having to try and create the line myself using the tools. But overall it was pretty simple to create the different marks and draw outlines. I also liked that I could set a default view to just the county in particular I am mapping. I found this tool interesting and fun to play around with, since you can see a lot of information potentially from one map.