• Our Process
  • About Us
  • Portfolio
  • Contact Us
Blue Water GISBlue Water GIS
Blue Water GISBlue Water GIS
  • Our Process
  • About Us
  • Portfolio
  • Contact Us

Blue Water GIS

Cartography. Data Visualization. Storytelling.

MWBE Certified - Woman Owned Business

WINNER - ESRI 2022 StoryMap of the Year

Tools of Our Trade

You want your story to shine. We illuminate your message with maps.

Mapping Tools

Story Maps, Interactive Maps, 3D Maps

The most powerful map making tools in the business.

Let your map do the talking.

See a Mapping Project

Data Visualization

Flourish, Tableau, ESRI Dashboards

We make complex data visible, accessible, and useable.

Your data in a whole new light.

See a Visualization Project

Spatial Analysis

ESRI ArcGIS Products

We crunch your data, then give you tools to explore it.

The power's addicting.

See a Spatial Analysis Project

your goal.
our profession.
Inspiration is

It's time to compel your audience to action.

Let's talk about your story

Our Process

From concept to post-launch support.

  • Idea

    Your idea has come to fruition, your project has seen success, and now it’s time to tell the story.  

  • Design

    Together we determine a product layout that best conveys your message.   

  • Development

    Maps, data visualizations, imagery, and narrative give power to your story. 

  • Deployment

    Product launch includes social media outreach, and since your project is our portfolio, we stay invested.

  • Analytics

    We monitor website analytics to ensure long-term success. 

Keep up with our efforts

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We design products that amplify your endeavor.

Our tools captivate, motivate and inform.

Featured Projects

Browse our highlighted projects or dive into our full portfolio below.

The Okavango Delta

StoryMaps

Okavango - EarthViews 360° StoryMap

EarthViews 360° and The Wild Bird Trust, through National Geographic’s Okavango Wilderness Project, have been gathering 360° imagery to help scientists better understand these waters and educate the world about the wonders of the Okavango.

Read More

We are so lucky to have happened upon Katie and Mark’s work and their ability to take our functional solutions and ideas and blossom them into a multi-sensory trip through the rivers we map.  I’m excited to continue our partnership with Blue Water GIS and let their amazing storytelling take us all on new journeys.

-Courtney Gallagher, CEO, EarthViews

Mid-Coast Water Resources

Story Map

MID COAST WATER PARTNERS

From Cascade Head to Cape Perpetua, humans and ecosystems rely on plentiful, clean water, and even in this temperate rainforest, water is limited during the dry season. Here’s the story of how communities are preparing for this reality.

Read More

What Blue Water GIS did was nothing short of a miracle. Katie and Mark took 600 pages of dense technical information and, with very little assistance, interpreted it and turned it into a beautiful, approachable, and informative outreach tool.

- Harmony Burright, Planning Coordinator, Oregon Water Resources

Howler Monkey Rescue

Pro Bono

WILD SUN RESCUE CENTER

A crowdsourced reporting tool for wildlife electrocutions and injuries in Costa Rica allows managers to quickly locate harmed animals. The data then compiles over time, building a map of animal injury hotspots for future advocacy.

Read More

“We are thrilled with the work of Mark and Katie in creating a tool for us identify hot spots of wildlife electrocution so that we can hold the electric company in Costa Rica accountable. Lives will literally be saved!”

-Jeremy Levine, Director, Wild Sun Rescue Center

Trout Tracking

Data Visualization, Interactive Maps

TROUT UNLIMITED FLOY TAG TRACKING

A dashboard for the public to engage with fisheries biologists and real time scientific discovery. The tools we built allow anglers to instantly report fish that have been tagged, and the data populates a user friendly interface.

Read More

“Blue Water GIS took our novel idea and built an easy to use and efficient platform for us to capture fisheries data and display it to the public. Local anglers couldn’t be happier!”

-Rob Roberts, Little Blackfoot Project Manager, Trout Unlimited

Subterranean Bat Habitats

Comprehensive Data Management

BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL

A data collection tool that allows BCI’s subterranean team to quickly, easily and accurately collect field data. Each data point integrates it into a comprehensive abandoned mine survey dashboard with the click of a button.

Read More

“Blue Water introduced us to new tools, techniques, and ways of collecting data that were previously unknown and now are helping us achieve our conservation mission better than ever before.“

-Jason Corbett, Director of Subterranean Program, BCI

Brightstorm

Data Dashboards and Prioritization

Brightstorm - A TNC & OPTI Joint Venture

We are analyzing and creating visualization tools for large datasets to help prioritize potential water resilience projects and areas of opportunity for Brightstorm, a joint venture between Opti and The Nature Conservancy.

Read More

“Blue Water GIS has become an integral part of our team here at Brightstorm.  Their thought leadership and technical expertise in visualization and analysis of large distributed spatial datasets is vital to our ability to deliver the water quality and quantity impacts that our clients are seeking.”

- Matt Rea, Strategic Partnerships Manager, Brightstorm

All Projects

Our backyard is Bellingham, Washington, but we've worked from Alaska to Hawaii and south to Costa Rica.
Click below to view our entire portfolio.

View All Projects

Featured Clients

While we specialize in conservation focused non-profits, we also work with local, state, and federal agencies, as well as private firms.

"Blue Water GIS took a mammoth task
of years of data and made a legacy."

-Jason Corbett, Bat Conservation International

Let's talk about your legacy

About Us

The Explorers Behind The Maps.

Storytellers
Geographers
Explorers
We are

Blue Water GIS is a small, family-owned firm that was born out of a passion for understanding and conserving our natural world. The powerful geospatial programs and data visualization software available today allow us to interpret, map, and display the workings of our physical world like never before. And that’s what we’ve been doing since 2009.

We clarify data into compelling stories and beautiful maps.

We base out of Bellingham, WA, but being explorers at heart, we look for opportunities to meet new people, and discover new projects around the globe.

Katie Gaut

Data Nerd & Mapping Guru

A love of people, places and data have drawn me down the path of the geographer.  I’ve been using geospatial tools for over a decade to meld these interests together and help tell the stories of organizations that are doing good in the world.

Curiosity and the drive to explore have taken me across the globe, working in the estuaries of Alaska, the jungles of Hawai’i, and the seas of British Columbia.  And while adventure fuels the soul, numbers and maps fuel my spirit.  Few things make me happier than guiding good people through the creative process of telling the story of meaningful work.

Experience

  • 15 years tinkering with ArcGIS products
  • 10 years crunching data and making it shine
  • 12 years experience in water rights analysis

Degree(s)

  • University of Hawai’i,  MS – Conservation Biology
  • Southern Oregon University, BS – Computer Science & Biology

Things I Love (Besides Maps & Data)

  • Sailing  (I’ve been a captain for 10+ years & hold a USCG 100 Ton Master Captain’s License)
  • Freediving and spearfishing in tropical waters
  • Milking our small herd of dairy goats

Email Katie

Mark Thompson

Writer, Mapmaker, Naturalist

Since Blue Water’s inception, I’ve provided various talents as both copy editor and graphic designer.  While my main focus is the written word, I also take lead on data visualization, cartographic design and photography.

Underlying all my crafts, both at work and at play, is a desire to explore and learn.  If I’m tracking an animal, my map is the trail itself.  If I’m in the mountains, a topo, and at sea, a nautical chart.  Different journeys require different maps, but all good ones share the trait that they inspire you to explore further.  This is our goal as well in all that we do.

Experience

  • 3 years of bringing data to life with Story Maps and other digital media
  • 12 years of natural resource project management
  • 15 years of creative and technical writing
  • 6 years of plant production and small scale agriculture

Degree(s)

  • University of Montana, BS – Liberal/Wilderness Studies

Things I Love (Besides Maps & Data)

  • Plant propagation
  • Natural history and the deciphering of ecological patterns
  • Tracking wild animals

Email Mark

Amanda Huber

Mapmaker & Data Viz Designer

Amanda’s been designing maps, data visualizations and Story Maps with Blue Water since 2016, and she has become an integral part of our team on most every project we embark on.  She’s a wizard when it comes to beautifying and displaying complex data, a testament to her expertise in both GIS and visual design.

Experience

  • 7+ years of GIS data wrangling, product design, and mapmaking
  • Data visualization, user design, and cartography

Degree(s)

  • University of Minnesota – Duluth, BS – Geology, GIS Certificate, Minor in Communications

Things I Love (Besides Maps & Data)

  • Exploring the wilderness while hiking, fishing and camping
  • Landscape and macro photography
  • Rockhounding
  • Playing ultimate frisbee competitively around the U.S.

Email Amanda

Our Partners

While we typically handle projects entirely in house, there are times when an outside partner brings a particular skill to the table that makes the end product even more exceptional. Over the past five years we have cultivated relationships with professionals that excel in coding, marketing, design and social media.

If our skills don’t quite cut it, we’re not too proud to call on a little help from our friends. Similarly, if your organization has overlapping or complimentary skills, we are happy to work alongside your team to make the best product possible.

Put Yourself on the Map

We want to hear your story

Bellingham, WA 98226

Katie@BlueWaterGIS.com

(360) 202-4861

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