Finding Acceptable

Campsites for
Worthington State Forest

Christine Albrecht
The Objective:

1. Find acceptable areas to place 5-10 backcountry

campsites in Worthington State Forest
Step 1: Getting Started
➢ To start, I added Warren County to a blank map and went to
https://gisdata-njdep.opendata.arcgis.com/ to find the State Forest
boundary for Worthington State Forest (WSF).
➢ I then used the “Dissolve” tool to find the boundary of WSF from the
state forest boundary layer.
➢ I also used the land use shapefile and used the “select by attributes”
button to find the forest land use type then created its own layer.
➢ I used the “Clip” tool to clip the Forest Land Use to WSF.
Dissolve to Find WSF Boundary
Clipping Forest Land Use
Step 2: Rasters

➢ To find the rasters needed for WSF I went to

https://apps.nationalmap.gov/downloader/ and downloaded four rasters
near/in Warren County, NJ.
➢ I added these rasters to the map and used the “Mosaic to New Raster”
tool to combine the rasters into one.
➢ I then clipped the raster to WSF using the “Clip Raster” tool.
Mosaic to New Raster
Clipping the Raster to WSF
Step 3: Slope and Extracting
➢ In order to have acceptable campsites, we need to find the slope of
Worthington State Forest. To do this, I used the “Slope” tool and input my
raster layer to create a new raster slope layer.
➢ We now need to find slope less than or equal to 5% for acceptable spots
for camping. To do this, I used the “Extract by Attributes” tool and selected
my slope raster to make it less than or equal to 5%.
Slope
Extract ≤ 5% (Acceptable Areas for Campsites)
Step 4: Adding Trails, Water, Roads, and Campgrounds
➢ In order to find acceptable campsites, we need to add in some attributes of WSF. I started by
downloading streams & water bodies in New Jersey from
https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=247f2f76682843109eafc881d7a2c0bf
➢ Trails from
https://njogis-newjersey.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/njdep::statewide-trails-in-new-jerse
y/explore?location=40.979409%2C-75.043357%2C12.41
➢ Existing campsites from https://gisdata-njdep.opendata.arcgis.com/search?q=campgrounds
➢ Roads from
https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=a9f88e6d37984d21900585bee9fcb5f9
➢ And added all of these shapefiles to my map.
➢ I then clipped them using the “Clip” tool to WSF
Step 5: Soils

To find suitable areas for camping, we need to know what soils are acceptable.

➢ I started by creating a new shapefile and going to

https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm to find the soils in
Worthington State Forest.
➢ I downloaded the soils in WSF and added this soil shapefile to my map.
Adding All Soils
Soils Cont.
➢ I started finding the soils rated “very limited” on
https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm and found the soil
data explorer and recreational development to find the soil ratings for camping.
➢ The soils that were rated “very limited” include:
○ NauD
○ WecBc
○ UccAs
○ CatbA
➢ I was left with acceptable soils on my map to find suitable campsites.
 Web Soil Survey (find “very limited”
soils in red & delete them from map)
Acceptable Soils
Step 6: Buffering
Now that I have all my attributes down, it’s time to start looking for suitable areas for campsites.

➢ To do this, I want to use the “Buffer” and “Multiple Ring Buffer” tools to look for appropriate
areas following these instructions:

○ Be no more than 500 feet from an existing trail, but also at least 100 feet from an existing trail
○ Be at least 1000 feet from a road.
○ Be at least 100 feet but not more than 2000 feet from a water source.
○ Be at least 200 feet from an existing campsite (including group campsites)

➢ I started putting down points for acceptable camping areas, and deleted as I went through
each distance instruction.
10 Acceptable Campsites
Finished Map
References/Sources
Layers:
Warren Country: Coordinate System = NAD 1983
Worthington State Forest:
https://gisdata-njdep.opendata.arcgis.com/
Coordinate System = WGS 1984 Web Mercator (auxiliary
sphere)
Forest Land Use: Coordinate System = NAD 1983 StatePlane
New Jersey FIPS 2900 (US Feet)
Raster: https://apps.nationalmap.gov/downloader/
Coordinate System = NAD 1983
Soils: https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm
Coordinate System = WGS 1984
Roads:
https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=a9f88e6d37984d21900585bee9fcb5f9
Coordinate System = NAD 1983 StatePlane New Jersey FIPS 2900 (US Feet)
Trails:
https://njogis-newjersey.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/njdep::statewide-trails-in-
new-jersey/explore?location=40.979409%2C-75.043357%2C12.41
Coordinate System = NAD 1983 StatePlane New Jersey FIPS 2900 (US Feet)
Water Bodies & Streams:
https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=247f2f76682843109eafc881d7a2c0bf
Coordinate System = NAD 1983 StatePlane New Jersey FIPS 2900 (US Feet)
Existing Campsites:
https://gisdata-njdep.opendata.arcgis.com/search?q=campgrounds
Coordinate System = WGS 1984 Web Mercator (auxiliary sphere)
Geodatabase