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Get a complete picture of the Salish Sea on a detailed map

Cartographer Jeff Clark also created several popular hiking maps.

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Jeff Clark thought that existing maps of the Salish Sea did not contain enough detail. So he set out to create a more detailed map “to increase the geographic literacy of the region”.

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This meant showing not only natural features, but also man-made features. He thought it was important to include details such as coastal Indigenous traditional lands, as well as cities.

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The result is The Essential Geography of The Salish Sea, a wall-sized map that gives viewers a “big picture” of the Salish Sea biosphere, stretching from Puget Sound near Seattle to the Pantheon Mountains 300 kilometers up the coast. is. Vancouver.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a map with that kind of information in this kind of area, at this kind of scale,” said a North Vancouver resident.

“There are maps of the Salish Sea, but no geography. These are straight landscapes, not cities, to give an idea that this is a bioregion. (But) we (humans) have footprints here. is leaving

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“There’s an Indigenous theme there, but there’s a lighthouse there, there’s an airport there, you go kayaking. We also talk about landmarks, important landmarks. Washington has state parks and corresponding There are things to do, wildlife sanctuaries, state parks, and their national parks.

“We’ve also included UNESCO biosphere areas here. They’re big chunks of land, and Howe Sound just got new land.”

Map of Jeff Clarke of the Salish Sea. The Salish Sea is a biosphere that stretches from the Puget Sound in Washington State to the Pantheon Mountains, which he climbed 300 kilometers up the coast of Vancouver.
Map of Jeff Clarke of the Salish Sea. The Salish Sea is a biosphere that stretches from the Puget Sound in Washington State to the Pantheon Mountains, which he climbed 300 kilometers up the coast of Vancouver.

The One Earth website describes a biological region as “a geographic area defined by ecosystems rather than political boundaries.”

The term Salish Sea was coined in the 1980s by Dr. Bart Webber of Western Washington University in Bellingham. Webber describes the Salish Sea as “an estuary ecosystem in which freshwater from land drainage channels mixes with water in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in measurable, albeit sometimes small amounts of freshwater”.

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The name comes from the Coast Salish indigenous people who lived here long before Europeans arrived. The region includes several bodies of water, including the Strait of Georgia, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Puget Sound.

But there are boundaries to the biosphere that may surprise you. The eastern side of Vancouver Island belongs to the Salish Sea Biosphere, but the western side does not. Because the water on the west side “flows directly into the sea”.

“This area was determined by scientists and ecologists, and people much smarter than me decide what works and what doesn’t in a bioregion,” Clark explains.

Detail of Jeff Clarke's map of the Salish Sea showing the area from Vancouver to the Sunshine Coast. Note various details such as his SECHELT name in purple for lights representing the nations of the indigenous peoples who traditionally lived there, and Howe for his sound biosphere region in orange. The height of the mountain is in meters.
Detail of Jeff Clarke’s map of the Salish Sea showing the area from Vancouver to the Sunshine Coast. Note various details such as his SECHELT name in purple for lights representing the nations of the indigenous peoples who traditionally lived there, and Howe for his sound biosphere region in orange. The height of the mountain is in meters.

The map comes in three sizes and sells from $60 to $100 at Clark’s online store www.clarkgeomatics.ca/.

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The largest map is a 1m x 1.5m (3 x 5ft) giant map that helps you decipher all the subtle details. For example, indigenous historical “folk-language” lands have lilac borders with names spelled out in all caps.

For your information, this map was created digitally, not hand drawn.

“This landscape comes from an old space shuttle radar terrain they captured in the mid-’80s,” he said.

“It’s called a radar altimeter. Based on radar, they were getting the altitude of the land that was bouncing off the space shuttle onto the planet. It’s ridiculous. That data includes latitudes up to 65 degrees north and 65 degrees south. It includes the entire planet, and is still in use today.”

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Detail of Jeff Clarke's map of the Salish Sea showing the area from Puget Sound to Mount Rainier.
Detail of Jeff Clarke’s map of the Salish Sea showing the area from Puget Sound to Mount Rainier.

Clark is not a full-time cartographer, so it took him two years to make the map. His primary work is GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, which “uses location-based geography and databases” to help clients “manage information and assets.”

But the 59-year-old loves making maps.

“You can find me doing this between 11:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m.,” he said. “But I need sleep.”

Sleep or not, he has created folding maps/guides for hikers both locally (Garibaldi, Callahan Valley, Manning Park) and across Canada (Banff/Yoho/Kotenay Parks, Algonquin Park, Ontario) .

“The map of Banff was included in the design atlas of NACIS, the North American Mapping Information Society, in 2018,” he said.

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“It’s a prestigious award in the sense that there are hundreds of contributors and about 30 have been selected for Atlas.”

Mr. Clark using the computer setup used to create the map.
Mr. Clark using the computer setup used to create the map. Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG

His hiking maps are popular not only with fellow mapmakers, but also with the general public.

“We’ve sold thousands unexpectedly over the years,” he said.

“I often buy them through Mountain Equipment Co-op, online, smaller stores like Valhalla, and outdoor shops. They are the go-to maps…very popular with the hiking crowd.”

Clark was born in Saguenay, Quebec and graduated from McGill University in Montreal with a degree in geophysics.

“I’ve been in mineral exploration for about 12 years, working in the Arctic and everywhere people don’t go,” he said. “When[the infamous mining company]Bre-X went bankrupt, I got out of it.”

He went to BCIT to get an Advanced Diploma in GIS and made it his main focus. But “off the desk” he started making maps, turning his passion into a business.

jmackie@postmedia.com


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Get a complete picture of the Salish Sea on a detailed map

Source link Get a complete picture of the Salish Sea on a detailed map

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