Highlights for October 2, 1998
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• US-Mexico Cooperate on Biodiversity Issues: On October 21-25, Gary Waggoner (USGS Center for Biological Informatics) will attend the Latin American Botanical Congress in Mexico City. In addition to the professional paper sessions at the Congress, Waggoner will attend the annual meeting of the International Organization for Plant Information, for which he is a council member. He will also meet with representatives of the National Commission for the Study of Biodiversity (Comision Nacional para el Estudio de la Biodiversidad, CONABIO), the agency responsible for assessment and conservation of biological diversity in Mexico. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303-202-4222)
  
• GAP Represented at Society of American Foresters. On September 23, Mike Jennings (USGS Center for Biological Informatics) represented BRD's Gap Analysis Program at the national convention of the Society of American Foresters in Traverse City, Michigan. Jennings was invited to speak on "Mapping Vegetational Alliances of the United States for Biodiversity Management: The USGS National Gap Analysis Program" in the technical session program of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Working Group. (Mike Jennings, Moscow, ID, 208-885-3555)
  
• GAP For Endangered Species. On September 21, Mike Jennings (USGS Center for Biological Informatics) attended a meeting of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara, California. NCEAS is involved in a two-county project that tries to balance land development and economic growth with habitat protection for endangered species such as the San Joaquin kit fox. Their goal is to maintain ecosystem stability with the help of an optimization model for allocating limited land resources at the county level. (Mike Jennings, Moscow, ID, 208-885-3555)
  
• USGS Participates in DOI Remote Sensing Training Evaluation Panel. On September 23, Ralph Root and Karl Brown from the USGS Center for Biological Informatics joined with scientists from a broad cross-section of DOI bureaus in an effort to identify training requirements for DOI staff involved in geospatial technologies. The panel was organized at a meeting of the Interior Geographic Data Committee (IGDC) Remote Sensing Working Group. A summary of its findings and recommendations will be presented to the Department via the IGDC in the form of a white paper. The IGDC Remote Sensing Working Group coordinates remote sensing and Global Positioning System developments across all DOI bureaus. (Ralph Root, Denver, 303-202-4232)
  
• Seminal GAP Paper Published. Gap Analysis Program (GAP) project personnel from California, Wyoming, Washington, and Idaho published the first large ecoregional analysis using GAP data. Innovative methods for consolidating map products from different states were developed. The results showed that less than 4% of the land in the intermountain semi-desert ecoregion is permanently protected. Of 48 land-cover types, 20 were found to be particularly vulnerable to loss or degradation. This is the first of more analyses of this type to come. For details, see Stoms, D.M., F.W. Davis, K.L. Driese, K.M. Cassidy, and M.P. Murray. 1998. Gap analysis of the vegetation of the intermountain semi-desert ecoregion. The Great Basin Naturalist 58:199-216. (Mike Jennings, Moscow, ID, 208-885-3555)
  

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• US-Canada Cooperates on ITIS: On October 8, Gary Waggoner (USGS Center for Biological Informatics) will participate in an international planning meeting at USGS Headquarters in Reston for the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) partnership. The principal issue to be discussed is the complex interactions and activities that need to be coordinated between the ITIS-US team and the ITIS-Canada team, especially in the areas of data content and World Wide Web serving of ITIS information. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303-202-4222)
  
• NBII Supports Draft Web Site for Association for Biodiversity Information. On September 29, a draft Web site for the Association for Biodiversity Information (ABI) became operational by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics. The new site was established on a Windows NT Server,IIS4.0-Cold Fusion-based Web server purchased with National Biological Information Infrastructure funds. It was set up and deployed at CBI in close cooperation with the ABI's data content manager, Keith Carr. The draft site's content is currently evolving; a public announcement and url address will be released when it is finalized. (Mike Mulligan, Denver, 303-202-4242)
  

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.