Eddie Ellis, the designer of the Southeastern Agroforestry Decision Support System, or SEADSS, tested the Alachua County component this fall with six professionals in his efforts to refine the system and make it as user friendly as possible.

The group consisted of CSTAF’s P.K. Nair, Mike Bannister and Sarah Workman, and Alachua County Cooperative Extension agents Wendy Wilber, Gary Brinen and Cindy Sanders.

"They took it for a test drive, to get familiar with it, to see how it works and to comment on what would make it better and more helpful for them," said Ellis.

Based on the group’s feedback, Ellis is enhancing the system’s ability to find properties, and to generate reports useful to landowners. With these components, extension agents will be better able to identify candidate plants for agroforestry and prescribe agroforestry systems. Landowners could generate similar information.

The SEADSS is part of the Agroforestry Information System, a component of CSTAF’s efforts to develop appropriate agroforestry systems for landowners in the Southeast. SEADSS will be available on a website that includes general information, agroforestry research publications, photo galleries, and decision support systems.

The decision support component integrates county GIS on-line mapping with a subtropical tree and shrub database. Users of the system will be able to locate properties, identify soil types and conditions, and obtain a list of appropriate trees and shrubs.

Alachua was the first county completed, followed by Broward in South Florida, and Walton in the Panhandle. Ellis chose these counties because they represent different environmental conditions typical of a region of Florida. Other counties in Florida will be added, followed by counties in Georgia and Alabama.