Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta berry harvesting location maps

Participatory mapping is a general term applied to activities that work with participants to gather and map spatial information to help communities learn, discuss, build consensus, and make decisions about their communities and associated resources (NOAA 2015). Here we used participatory mapping to document the locations of different species of berries and understand any social, ecological, or climatological reasons that these locations may be shifting. Mapping was accomplished using topographic basemaps of the villages and surrounding areas overlaid with mylar sheeting. The area surrounding the villages of Hooper Bay and Kotlik were represented with arrays of 1: 63,360 USGS quadrangle topographic maps (USGS, 2017). A 1:250,000 USGS topographic map was utilized for Emmonak, and a 1:500,000 scale community-created place names map in Chevak. Participants identified harvesting locations for each of the five berry species by drawing onto the mylar sheeting using varying colors of markers to represent different species of berries as well as to distinguish between current and historic harvesting areas. Participants were encouraged to draw polygons, but in some cases lines and points were used. Location maps were manually digitized in ArcMap 10.5.1(ESRI 2107 using a USGS topographic digital basemap that matched the scale and extent of the paper maps used during the participatory mapping activity.