Coastal Zones and Public Fishing Areas Map

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 This Map shows a combination of the coastal zones of New York Sate, public fishing zones throughout the state, and public lands within the state. These are all essential pieces to the interactions between the people and the environment. The coastal zones map shows the areas of New York State boarders the associated with the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. These zones are in contact with oceans like New York City and Long Island, tidal areas extending miles up the Hudson river, and the Great Lakes of Ontario and Erie in western New York. These areas are important ecological communities that need to be managed for future generations. The rapid urban sprawl and urban disorder has compromised the ability for biodiversity and ecosystem services to flourish around many of these zones.
     The Public Fishing zones map shows all access points to areas of public fishing within New York. Fishing serves as a way for people to learn from their relationship with the environment. Fishing populations not only state-wide but world-wide have been impacted by the pollution, mass consumption of resources and other man-made influences. Responsible fishing practice, licensing, and education all help conserve not only natural fishing resources but other environmental resources as well. There is a bountiful amount of streams across the state for legal and environmentally responsible fishing activity. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation provides all information regarding fishing laws, regulations, and information resources regarding fishing, and other outdoor activities.
     The NYS public land map is a compilation of state and federal lands. These lands provide protected areas for recreational and environmentally protected zones. The two largest and most recognizable zones are that of the Adirondack and the Catskill mountain regions. These zones offer some of the largest areas of environmental protection zones and areas for hiking, skiing, and other outdoors activities. New York State has dealt with the tug-of-war between conservation and development of these lands for centuries. Past logging, housing and resort development, and mining has left environmental scars such as clearing of forests, pollution of land, and loss of biodiversity. Today the Catskill and especially Adirondack parks have strict regulations and enforcement of resource extraction, pollution, and housing development.

Sources:
Coastal Area Boundary Map
http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=317
Public Fishing Stream Map
http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=1193
NYS Public Land Boundaries
 http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=931
    Each of these sources is from the NYS GIS ClearingHouse website which is provided by the state government resources. There is many different sources of meta data in catogories such as education, elevation, law enforcement, soils wetland, and various others provided by municipal, state, and national sources. It also provides raster and orthographic maps of aspects of New York State. There are links to various GIS tools and software to help view the data provided on the sites data lists. The site also shows various GIS standards to which the maps conform.