If you have ever used Google maps to look up information then you have used a GIS program! Whether you were looking at restaurants in your area or looking to see how far you are from your friend's house GIS is a visual representation of information and a way to examine spatial relationships. For example, if you are traveling to a set destination that is 5 miles from you then you can guess how long it will take you to get there. But when you put the location in google maps you will see the geographic data between you and your destination. This information gives you a better understanding of the route you need to take therefore know how long it may take you.

GIS stands for "Geographic Information System" and, at its core, it is a way to map out data points and have a visual representation of landscape information. GIS is not just used to make our travel easier it is also used in modern science. Instead of the information being placed on charts or graphs, it is put onto a map so that the information can be analyzed more easily.

Let's take a look at this picture to the right for example. This image is of the four main bird migratory pathways from the Michigan Audubon Society. To get this information, birds were tracked using a variety of methods and the data that was collected was placed on a map. Being able to see these paths allow scientists to focus their conservation efforts on certain areas. But this is GIS in its basic form. While useful, there is even more information that can be taken from this

Pollution is another human-related cause of bird deaths. For example, harmful chemicals can contaminate the water that birds need for survival. Harmful pesticides can be sprayed on plants and have been known to poison birds. This happens because they consume the plant directly or eat bugs that ate the plant. Additionally, improperly disposed plastics can be consumed by birds or physically restric them.

Two of the main causes of bird deaths are collisions and outdoor cats. Bird collisions happen when a bird strikes an object causing them to perish. This could be caused by windows, cars, planes, turbines, etc. Bird collisions cause between 1 million to 1 billion deaths per year in the United States alone. Cats that have the ability to be outside, whether they are feral or pets, cause between 1.3 to 4 billion birds deaths in the United States

With these important benefits and the few examples listed above that are causing population decline, is imperative to use the resources we have to try to conserve the current populations. By using GIS programs we could pinpoint the areas that are the most concerning and try to prevent these deaths. The first step in making GIS useful in bird conservation is data collection. The information is first gathered then the data points are mapped out. That data can be gathered in a variety of ways, even for the use of other studies.

The Bird Conservancy of the Rockies in Colorado has two full time GIS employees. They enter data into GIS applications and use this data to compare different information. For example in a recent study they wanted to compare the different effects that certain forest management types would have on bird diversity in Ponderosa Pine forest. Some management types such as tree removal (for fuel) opened the forest canopy which increased bird diversity in some areas but reduced it in others. In the example above they used GIS to make predictions of the effects of the different forest management types. This can then be used to show which scenario would work best in each area. This is mainly how GIS is used in conservation, comparing and showing a visual representation of the data to be able to focus conservation efforts.