Carol Cady sees students benefit every day from Professor Elberty’s legacy. Carol is the GIS specialist and map technician, and she guides student course projects and research. 

“Our students’ GIS research is gaining recognition.  One student poster won second place at the NY State GIS conference 2005 and another third place in 2006.  One student has submitted an abstract to a national GIS conference for June 2007.  Data from a one student’s senior year thesis will be incorporated into the next version of the Adirondack Park Agency’s GIS data DVD.  This past spring a senior thesis won the NITLE Churchill GIS prize,” says Carol, and she could cite numerous other examples of student benefits.  Their GIS experience, she says, helps qualify them for internships.  “A geology student worked with the Adirondack Park Agency in the summer of 2006 on updating data and maps for their GIS data DVD,” she mentions.

Carol notes that this year several students are working on research projects with a major GIS component.  These include a study of hydrology and land subsidence in the Tully Valley, Tully NY; drainage evolution of the Adirondack North-flowing Tributaries of the St. Lawrence River; development of land cover types in a sub watershed of the Grasse River; mapping the tree species along the Grasse River. 

While she did not work with Professor Elberty, Carol says that his legacy lives on in many ways. “We still receive requests for Bill Elberty’s data, the St. Lawrence Land Trust still has some of his equipment, and whenever I attend New York state GIS meetings, I meet people who began their GIS careers at SLU,” she says.