Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Improves Data Sharing with GIS

The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is the state’s lead natural resource and conservation agency. Virginia State Parks is responsible for the management of over 40 parks, each with unique natural and historical assets. Staff at each location experienced difficulties communicating updates to each park. The new parks director, Dr. Melissa Baker, had a goal to make more data-driven decisions. In particular, more efficient and effective collaboration between parks, the Virginia Natural Heritage Program, and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources was important.

“Virginia State Parks and the Virginia Natural Heritage Program are working together towards a robust biological field inventory of the parks, enabling spatial analysis, enterprise data sharing, and expanded collaboration,” said Jason Bulluck, director of the Virginia Natural Heritage Program at DCR. “This informs and empowers park managers to make decisions that can optimize rare species habitats and visitor experiences.”

DCR staff turned to their existing geographic information system (GIS) technology resources to implement innovations.

“We’ve had an enterprise agreement with Esri for a number of years as an agency, but for state parks staff, we really only had about six to 10 users,” said Joshua Ellington, chief of resource management for Virginia State Parks.

Maps had previously been created manually or by using legacy software, with staff keeping datasets on local hard drives, making them inaccessible to other park locations. Updating their system to ArcGIS Online, a modern web GIS technology, made the maps and data available across departments and at different locations. This enabled personnel to remain connected to enterprise data with a mobile device while on-site.
 

“My position was the first ever career GIS position for state parks,” said Peter Lostritto, Virginia State Parks GIS manager. “Before me, there was no designated GIS person, and none of our data was centralized anywhere.”

Since hiring Lostritto, Virginia State Parks has embarked on a transformative journey with their custom GIS portal, called the Virginia State Parks portal. Released in February of 2024, it serves more than 300 full-time state parks employees. The portal has standardized important datasets like park acreages and trails, bear activity, invasive species mapping, and census data at a range of 60-to-120-minute drive times from each park. It has changed how staff across the parks division access and share information with each other and other organizations.

“We wanted to understand how we would communicate with the staff, and how we were going to get people to adopt GIS,” said Ellington. To create the portal, the resource management team used ArcGIS Hub, a configurable community-engagement platform to share data and insights, and track progress at all their parks. “From his previous work experience, Peter knew that a hub product would be important to readily share information,” continued Ellington.

Staff also incorporated ArcGIS StoryMaps into the portal. This tool lets users combine maps, 3D scenes, and multimedia content into a storytelling format, making it easier to share and understand. The hub site now contains dynamic park maps, key performance indicators, programmatic tools for staff, and over 100 StoryMaps stories. Viewers can look at all the 40-plus parks, see parcel data linked to SharePoint, and view natural resource plans. Staff can also use ArcGIS Survey 123, a form-centric data collection application to request the maps they need.

Ellington explained that in the past, when staff requested a map, it would take at least a week to locate the hard drive containing the necessary dataset and complete the task. Now, with ArcGIS Online, staff in different park locations can access information on the portal from a desktop, tablet, or phone. “This hub site has allowed us to create a really easily accessible, view-only type of structure that puts a lot of data in [parks staff] hands,” he added.

Another challenge that Virginia State Parks staff faced was a set of natural resources plans overdue for updates since 1998. “We were looking at these text-heavy documents that would sit on a shelf, so at the park-level, we used Hub to lay out priorities geospatially,” explained Ellington.

Viewing points and polygons on a map, for instance, parks staff can see the types of invasive species that need treatment. “Everything in the portal means something to the parks, so if staff is tracking an agricultural lease, a bear report, prescribed burn, or community program, not only does it have a text, but it’s tied in spatially,” said Ellington.

Organizing data by location helps staff make better, faster decisions. Another example is the Resource Assessment Process for Internal Decisions (RAPID) tool. Staff use RAPID to simultaneously screen multiple datasets in the early stages of project evaluation. This allows them to identify potential issues with cultural or natural resources before proceeding to the planning phase.

The success of the Virginia State Parks portal earned the department the 2024 National Association of State Park Directors Innovation Award. The award recognizes and promotes groundbreaking projects and programs within America’s state parks. The Virginia State Parks Resource Management team was honored for their innovation in establishing best practices, displaying exceptional problem-solving skills, and enhancing outdoor recreation and cultural opportunities.
 

During a similar time frame, another division within DCR was also turning to GIS as a solution for communication. The Division of Planning and Recreation Resources is responsible for a diverse set of tasks to support recreation throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. These responsibilities range from design and construction within state parks to administering multiple recreation-oriented grant programs.

One such grant is The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which supports acquisition and/or development of public outdoor recreation areas. To maintain eligibility for federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grants, every five years, each state must create and publish a Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). This is created to guide the management and development of outdoor recreation resources.

When the Virginia DCR’s Planning and Recreation Resources Division hired Allison Tillett as land conservation assistant, she was asked about using GIS to create the SCORP. “Normally, these plans are put into thick books, with a lot of dense information in it,” said Tillett. The Virginia’s Outdoors Plan SCORP took what other organizations had accomplished with ArcGIS Hub and pushed every boundary possible to develop a product that met and exceeded expectations.

She wanted the plan to look, feel, and function a certain way, and used the available customization tools to build an easy-to-access and understandable reference to garner support for outdoor recreation and grant applications. “We are the very first state to use Hub in this way. We had to get approval from the state governor’s office to understand and trust what we were doing,” explained Tillett.

Using ArcGIS Hub for the SCORP allows planners to navigate seamlessly through section content on a StoryMaps story, see priorities in recreation for the next five years, and access survey results. ArcGIS Hub ended up being an excellent tool to successfully navigate every challenge that was presented, and the agency moved from the legacy print version to the new digital version. Frank Stovall, deputy director of operations for DCR, further explained, “The Virginia Outdoors Plan is about helping state agencies, local governments, NGOs, and the public make informed decisions about the allocation of limited resources to enhance outdoor recreation and natural and cultural resource protections in Virginia. The innovative approach our staff has taken to create not just a report, but a useful hub for information and toolkit for decision-making, will lead to better resource allocation and outdoor experiences for our residents and those who visit our state.”
 

“Hub is a wonderful opportunity for us to bring everybody in a virtual space where we can share information. Collaborate with us, [and] we can all work together,” said Tillett. “We aren’t reliant on emails anymore. We have a place where there is ongoing collaboration because gathering data is a high priority across the state. Hub is special—it’s a two-way communication platform.”

By centralizing and visualizing information using GIS technology, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation staff created tools to transform how their divisions and the public engage with recreation resources, ensuring that decisions are data-driven and impactful. Organizing data by location has sparked a new approach to problem-solving, making it clear what work needs to be done and fosters seamless collaboration across the enterprise.