Maps and GIS Services
Bad River GIS & Map Services Program
The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Map Services Program provides services and technology to the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa for mapping, GIS and Global Positioning System (GPS) training, data collection and organization, online and printed map requests. The environmental within the Bad River Reservation is home to many beings highly regarded by tribal members, for cultural, social, subsistence, and recreational purposes. To ensure the secure future for the environmental features—cultural, political, and natural—we document and describe all of the natural resources, infrastructure locations, and political boundaries.
Program Goal
To securely manage and disseminate data as maps, webpages, interactive maps, and reports that exemplify the political, cultural and natural resources within the Bad River Reservation.
Program Objectives
- To establish working relationship with each department and program of the Bad River Band
- To create a self-sustaining Mapping and GIS Program.
- To support outreach to all communities of the Bad River Reservation through map and data sharing in printed and online maps.
- To facilitate formal and informal learning of GIS, mapping, and GPS technology to staff
- To develop and maintain standards for data-sharing and documenting data used in maps and collected in the field.
Services Offered
- Spatial data analysis, GIS training & assistance
- GPS training & assistance
- Custom map creation-both interactive (“webmaps”) and static (printed) maps
- Large map plotter printing (costs apply)
On-Going Projects
- Tribe’s critical infrastructure (e.g., roads, sewers, pipelines, electric lines, housing/structure locations)
- Natural resources (e.g., wells, streams, wildlife locations, forest harvests, land use/land cover, designations of resources)
- Lease sites (e.g., locations of past and present lease boundaries, monuments for legal descriptions, maps for NEPA review of leases)
- Land ownership (e.g., historic allotments, fractionated interests, current owners, land purchases, plat maps)
- Tribal historic preservation (e.g., cemeteries, burials, historic roads and structures, historic plat maps)
- Governmental boundaries(e.g. Reservation boundary, watershed boundaries, PLSS boundaries)
Maps & Links
GIS & Mapping Services was recently involved in working with Bad River Youth Outdoors, to identify, map and catalog native and invasive plant species and their traditional uses. Workers also learned how to assess and monitor water quality.
Map of water quality monitoring sites, by Bad River Youth Outdoors 2017
Online native plant collection, by Bad River Youth Outdoors 2017 (URL)
-Due to the sensitive nature of native plant populations, the project map on iNaturalist has been set to private so that only summer youth workers and leaders can view where species were identified and collected.

Static Maps
Bad River Watershed: Overview of the Bad River Watershed, with boundaries of the Bad River Reservation and Lake Superior
Bird’s Eye View of the Bad River Watershed & Potential Mine: Overview of the Bad River Watershed, with emphasis on the Penokee Range surface water resources. A profile of the elevation changes and geologic bedrock illustrates the drastic differences along a south-to-north transect through the Bad River Watershed.
Interactive Maps
Bad River Reservation Anti-Degradation Tier Web Map
Recent article on Wisconsin Land Information Association web site, by Bad River GIS Specialist, on understanding global health impacts of air pollution: Read the Article
Links to Useful and Interesting GIS Data
Many of these sites provide links to even more data, interactive maps, and learning resources, and are designed for users of varying levels of GIS experience and ability. If you are looking for a particular type of data, or are unsure how to use any website containing GIS data and/or interactive maps, you are welcome to contact the GIS specialist for assistance.
Federal Datasets:
Many of these sites provide links to even more data and resources, and are designed for varying levels of GIS experience.
Soils: http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm
Forest Inventory: http://www.fia.fs.fed.us/tools-data/default.asp
Fish and Wildlife: http://www.fws.gov/gis/index.html
NOAA weather: http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/kmzgenerator.php
NOAA Lake Level Viewer: https://coast.noaa.gov/llv/#/lake/superior
NOAA MODIS Imagery: https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/region_map.html
USGS hydrography: http://nhd.usgs.gov/data.html
National Historical GIS: https://www.nhgis.org/research/related-sites
National Pipeline Data: https://www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov/default.aspx
USGS Real-Time Data: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/wi/nwis/rt
Bad River Tribe/USGS 2016 Flood Story Map: https://usgs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=45f89ed273cf424fac57aaa35cbb0e0a
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes Water Levels: http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/Missions/Great-Lakes-Information/Great-Lakes-Water-Levels/
USDA environmental and natural resources: http://nhd.usgs.gov/data.html
EPA monitored sites: http://www.epa.gov/enviro/geospatial-data-download-service Enforcement and Compliance: http://echo.epa.gov/?redirect=echo
Census TIGER files: http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger.html Data Ferrett: http://dataferrett.census.gov/
State of Wisconsin Datasets
WIDNR FTP: ftp://dnrftp01.wi.gov/../
DATCP FTP: ftp://ftp.datcp.state.wi.us/GIS/
WI State Cartographer’s Office: http://www.sco.wisc.edu/
General GIS Data, Interactive Maps, and Support:
Interested in taking GIS to the next level? Local educational opportunities:
Northland College GIS Minor Program of Study
Free GIS Software Available Through: OpenSourceGeo
GIS & Map Services Personnel
- GIS Coordinator, Matt Eitrem
(715) 682-7123 ext. 1510
- GIS Specialist, Suzi Smith
(715) 682-7123 ext. 1559
Interested in Volunteering? Please contact us! We always appreciate your help!