I found a 1990 black and white satellite view of our property on Terraserver, which show US Geological Survey imagery. Interesting to see how little development was in the area just 18 years ago. Fortunately our area above Long Point is still mostly forested, but certainly less so than in these...
The University of Washington has a detailed online topography database that shows both land topography and underwater bathymetry of the Puget Sound area. The visual representations of the data are interesting since...
Freeconomics lives on. I recently found a good source out there, putting our tax money to use. The USGS Store offers a Map Locator that creates printable high resolution topography maps in different scales. This includes...
Soil is the tissue that holds an ecosystem together. Its characteristics determine the types of plants that exist on a property. When combined with water retention levels, compaction, depth of organic layers, and proximity of underlying hard layers, it all combines to form the underlying structure...
Contour maps can be helpful in planning site design, locating roads, being aware of slopes, and more. The helpful forester from the Washington Department of Natural Resources sent a copy of a contour map for my property and the surrounding area. By using Google Earth and walking the property, I...
Virtual Earth (which later became Bing Maps) provides the most detailed and interesting 2D images available at this time. Virtual Earth's special sauce is the "Bird's Eye View". Throughout all of Whidbey Island,...