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I'm looking to make maps.
Nothing too sophisticated.

Map of my county. No need for roads, though major waterways (lakes, rivers) would be nice. I'm guessing I need to find a data file somewhere and a php script that can interpret the data file (or a way to convert it into data file some php script can interpret).

The data points to be placed on it are regular hexagons. The opposing parallel sides of each hexagon is 3 miles apart.
When a piece of data is plotted, the entire hexagon gets filled in with a groovy color.
It would be nice to be able to lay a topographical map on top.

Purpose is to create range maps for local wildlife based upon volunteer user input data.

IE people spot a California Mountain Kingsnake. They take voucher photo of the snake and GPS coordinate. They enter said data into database. Entry is verified, and now the hexagon their sighting occurred in gets filled in on the range map for California Mountain Kingsnake.

Budget is low - local herp club. Purpose is noble - to help us keep track of local populations and over time if range decline is noted, we can investigate if the decline is real and why it may be happening and possibly hug some trees to help out the native species. But anyway, we really want to use open source software for this because as stated, budget is pretty much zilch.

Any pointers to software that can do this kind of thing?
I think the hexagon thing I'll have to do myself - I already have a basic algorithm figured out that will determine which hexagon a GPS coordinate belongs to, so it is just a matter of coding php to draw a filled hexagon on the map with center at a specified long/lat position.

But I know nothing about making php draw maps of any sort, I'm guessing there is probably some basic libraries out there I can use code from? Maybe some good articles?

It really does need to be database driven on the fly map generation for various reasons.

We plan on tracking birds and plants as well, as everything is related, but that part will come later - and we may ask for help with that data from local bird/botany groups.