The Mid-Coast Water Planning Partnership project team has been working to develop a Story Map with Blue Water GIS to depict the information from the lengthy Step 2 Reports (Ecology, Water Quality, Water Quantity, and Water Infrastructure) in a more user-friendly and interactive way. This Story Map also helps to answer some of the commonly asked questions from the survey that was conducted by the Partnership and Oregon’s Kitchen Table in 2018 with 680 people that work in, live in, own a business in, or often visit Oregon's Mid-Coast region to assess their knowledge, values, and beliefs about water and the future of water in the region. Story Maps can be used for a wide variety of purposes; for advocacy and outreach, education, deliver public information, and so much more. Story Maps are a great way to convey complex scientific information, connect people with special places in your region, and highlight some of the species that call it home.

We are VERY excited to announce that we have completed this work and that both versions (English and Spanish) are now live! I highly encourage you to check out this amazing new learning tool and share it with your networks! The development of this communication and outreach tool is thanks to a grant from the Oregon Water Resources Department and a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation’s Donald H. Frank Unrestricted Subfund.

Each Story map has a desktop and mobile version associated with it but for full functionality and user experience, I recommend using the desktop version. The Story Map can be accessed two ways:

1. Direct link: English (https://storymap.midcoastwaterpartners.com) or Spanish (https://storymap.midcoastwaterpartners.com/spanish/)
2. Going to the Mid-Coast website, go to the Mid-Coast Resources Tab, under the drop-down menu you can select either the English or Spanish Story Map and it will redirect you to the page.