Land managers and resource and conservation professionals across political and organizational
boundaries (e.g. state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, private landowners)
often lack a common framework for planning and coordinated decision-making on a regional
scale. We created and implemented such a framework and demonstrated its application through
Story Maps, an interactive web-based communication tool. Story Maps facilitate collective
understanding and decision-making by displaying interactive maps and spatial data with
narrative text and multimedia. We developed a framework for coordinated development of Story
Maps, integrating both the Ecosystem Services and Human Well-Being frameworks used by
conservation planners in order to understand the following: (1) how people value the
Northwoods forest ecosystem of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; and (2) threats to these
values.
For this pilot study, we used our framework to map three human well-being values and threats to
those values across the Northwoods region of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The three
values included forest products sector jobs, water quality, and non-consumptive recreational
experiences in nature (outdoor recreation). Each value was explored in a story map designed to
communicate through spatial indicators, descriptive text, and graphics the extent and distribution
of values and threats.