It's Not Too Late to Register for UME-sponsored GPS & TN Computer Workshops

Handheld GPS receivers are a great resource for landowners, natural resource professionals, hunters and other outdoor recreationalists. Current GPS units are accurate (+/- 15 feet) and can be used for marking hunting locations, structures, streams and your vehicle location, as well as for fun activities such as geocaching. Professional natural resource managers can save valuable field time by using GPS with a computer to locate inventory plots, access roads, outline timber sale and property boundaries, direct customers to sale locations and much more.

The University of Maryland Extension is again offering Beginner GPS Training workshops this fall for individuals interested in learning how to use GPS handheld receivers with a computer, with specific applications to forestry and logging uses.  One session will be held October 27 at the University of Maryland’s Western Maryland Research and Education Center, and one will be offered at the Wye Research and Education Center, on November 3.  A third session is tentatively scheduled for November 10 at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Each of the sessions will cover the same material and feature both classroom and field instruction. The agenda will cover the basics of using a GPS receiver, as well as marking waypoints, creating routes, entering and finding coordinates, determining acreage of a site, incorporating coordinates into timber sale bids, locating roads, stream crossings, points of interest, downloading and uploading data to a computer (laptops provided), computer software options, and comparing different GPS handheld units.  Participants will be provided with the use of a Garmin GPS MAP76CSx unit and a laptop computer.

A second one-day workshop is being offered on the use of Terrain Navigator (TN) software that provides USGS topographic maps on CD-ROM and allows users to create GPS waypoints, routes and tracks and transfer them to a GPS unit or to download GPS information taken in the field and then create an individualized computer map of the area. This is very useful for both natural resource professionals and landowners, and its most recent upgrade is now fully integrated with Google Maps, which greatly enhances its utility. More information on TN can be found at: http://maptech.mytopo.com.

All workshops run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and cost $55.  Details follow:

Western Maryland Research & Education Center
18330 Keedysville Road
Keedysville, MD 21756

• October 27 – Beginner GPS Training
• October 29 – Integrating Terrain Navigator and GPS: An Affordable Easy-to Use System

Contact Pam Thomas at pthomas@umd.edu or 301-432-2767 x315

Wye Research & Education Center
124 Wye Narrows Drive
Queenstown, MD 21658

• November 3 – Beginner GPS Training
• November 5 – Integrating Terrain Navigator and GPS
• November 10 (tentative) – Beginner GPS Training (University of Maryland, College Park)

Contact Carol Taylor at carolt@umd.edu or 410-827-8056

For more information about GPS and Terrain Navigator training or a brochure with registration form, please visit:
http://www.naturalresources.umd.edu/EducationalGPS.html