Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (St. Paul. MN), is a government agency responsible for providing the state of Minnesota with their natural resources data, maintaining geographic data for everything from their many forests and lakes to their wetlands and streams.

Minnesota is by far one of the most naturally beautiful and heavily forested regions in the Unites States. It is for this reason that many people in Minnesota take advantage of what they have and enjoy venturing into their wild and relatively unpopulated outdoors.


DNR Applications
To better serve the public, the Minnesota DNR has developed multiple web-based GIS resources that users can access on the Internet. Each application serves a different (yet equally important) use, for all Minnesotans alike. The three most popular applications are:

Recreation Compass is a dynamic map interface that the DNR has developed for locating information about their recreation areas, with parks, canoe routes, lake and river information currently made available. Links to information about State Trails, State Forests and other recreation areas is currently in development.

Deer Finder is a service provided by the DNR Divison of Fisheries and Wildlife. They presently have interactive information primarily about deer, however the DNR is planning on adding additional game species information in the future. The on-line maps currently provide access to detailed statistics at a "harvest area" level.

On-Line Example
The DNR website has one particular application that any avid fisherman (or woman) will find particularily useful and interesting.

It's an Interactive Trout Map that provides detailed information about virtually any lake within the state of Minnesota. The map below is the initial starting point for this application. The user can zoom to a lake by a typing in a specific lake name, or the user can select a general area on the map. Depending on the "Zoom Scale Factor" that the user enters, the map zooms into the reqested area.

If desired, the user can then select a specific waterbody and generate a more defined map of the area, as well as a report as shown below.

Private and public organizations alike should take notice to what the Minnesota DNR has accomplished in terms of generating public interest in web-based GIS, and learn from their extraordinary applications.

If you're interested in viewing how web-based GIS can be applied in natural resources, visit the Minnesota DNR's website at www.dnr.state.mn.us

Contact Minnesota DNR
Minnesota Information Center
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155-4040
Tel: 651-296-6157
Toll Free: 1-888-MINNDNR