Gliding quietly in a canoe, you look up in awe at walls of ancient basalt towering over the river. Soon, the canyon opens into a wide valley carved by ancient glaciers. As you paddle, your gaze follows a great blue heron as it rises from the shoreline toward a bald eagle that dips and soars on the currents. This is the kind of view you would fi nd during a visit to St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and its sister unit, the Lower St. Croix National Scenic River-way, in Wisconsin and Minnesota. But idyllic scenes like this are facing the kind of develop-ment pressures that threaten many national parks today. These pressures take the form of new housing, gravel pits, commercial strips, and hobby farms and their accompanying roads, communication towers, power lines, and more. Development threatens to fragment habitat and destroy critical natural, cultural, and scenic resources beyond the boundaries of the St. Croix and Namekagon rivers as they fl ow to the Mississippi. To preserve the area, the nonprofi t St. Croix Scenic Coalition, with the National Park Service acting in an advisory role, is using GIS software to identify and map valued community assets, such as scenic views. As a fi rst step, area residents identifi ed overlooks, trails, and roads that offered signifi cant views in a particular area. The coalition downloaded the data into GIS software, which ana-lyzed and displayed what could be seen from the different locations, and how often. Resi-dents then returned to those locations and rated them using specifi c criteria. The resulting GIS map displayed the scenic quality of the area. These maps can help set priorities for conservation, direct development to other areas, and plan ecological corridors. The coalition hopes the effort will help reduce the harmful effects of rapid development. A community cannot protect scenic areas it has not identifi ed. Preserving natural areas in the St. Croix River Valley serves the National Park Service mission to protect America’s wonders for future generations.

Scenic Quality Analysis in the St. Croix River Valley

This GIS map displays areas visible to visitors from various scenic viewpoints along the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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St. Croix Visitor CePark Headquarters

Visitors can still admire this unimpeded view of the Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

This ranking of scenic views shows the need to set priorities for preservation and protection from development pressures.

CHAPTER 1 • OUTDOOR FUN: VISITORS AND RECREATIONScenic Quality Analysis in the St. Croix River Valley

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