The Nature Conservancy has accepted a generous gift from Corvallis Microtechnology (CMT), a leading maker of Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Corvallis manufacturers rugged, water-proof hand-held computers for field professionals in forestry, utility, fisheries, wildlife and environmental assessment. The Conservancy knows first-hand that GPS is a powerful tool for conservation. Inventorying and monitoring are more accurate and take less time and effort when staff have GPS tools to help map and track species, systems, threats and land ownership.

The gift, valued at $500,000, includes one hundred MC-GPS receivers, PC-GPS 3.7 software licenses, technical support, and free training for several dozen TNC trainers. CMT has also offered the Conservancy a 40% discount on additional GPS receivers and 20% discount on all accessories.

The Conservancy accepted this wonderful gift following a careful examination of both the organization’s use of GPS technologies and the best potential GPS partners. We conducted a survey to determine the status and direction of GPS at the Conservancy. Recipients were chosen based on their identified need and capacity to make immediate and effective use of the equipment.

Distribution of the units and training has begun. The logistics are described here.