Highlights for August 20, 1999
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• Aurora Partnership Brings the Pieces Together. The Aurora Partnership, a public/private collaboration to stimulate the development and application of decision support tools, services, and systems for place-based decision making, was established last year with representatives from state, local, and federal government agencies, universities, non-governmental organizations, and corporations. Aurora seeks to address the needs of policy makers, land and resource managers, county and community leaders, as well as the general public. The theme of this year's annual meeting, hosted by the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, is "Bringing the Pieces Together." Participants in the Second Annual Meeting, to be held September 28-29, will examine the components of place-based decision support systems, look at what's working and what isn't, and examine the contributions that the Aurora Partnership can make in fostering the development and implementation of next-generation decision support tools, systems, and services. Featured speakers include Mark Schaefer, DOI Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science; Jack Pellicci, Oracle Corporation Global Sector Vice President; David Schell, President of the Open GIS Consortium; Larry Ayres, Intergraph Corporation Executive Vice President; and Jack Dangermond, President and CEO of Environmental Systems Research Institute. (Maury Nyquist, Denver, 303-202-4217)

• Historical USGS Maps Used in NPS Geologic Inventory. The National Park Service (NPS) is conducting a geologic inventory of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument that will be incorporated into an upcoming comprehensive report on the geologic history and features of the monument. Located 45 miles west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, the monument protects a portion of an ancient lakebed containing petrified sequoia tree stumps and a wealth of perfectly preserved fossil insects, leaves, flowers, fishes, birds, and small mammals that date back 35 million years. On August 19, Ralph Root of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics will meet with NPS and University of Colorado Museum scientists to review geologic maps and reports produced at Florissant over the past 20 years. In 1981, Root mapped the geology of the monument, and other studies and mapping projects followed in the 1990's. In addition to the USGS, partners in this effort include the American Association of State Geologists as well as numerous individual volunteers and cooperators at NPS units, colleges, and universities. (Ralph Root, Denver, 303-202-4232)

• BRD/NBII Web Page Updates. USGS Center for Biological Informatics staff have completed the update for the BRD and NBII Web sites to "biology.usgs.gov" within all script and text-type files. All E-mail suffixes of "@nbs.gov" and "@NBS.GOV" have been changed to "@usgs.gov" for files within those Web sites. (Bruce Powell, Denver, 303-202-4250)

• International Attention for Biological Data Profile. The Biological Data Profile of the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata was presented at a meeting of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Standards for the Transfer of Spatial Data held in Ottawa, Canada, August 9-10. Participants reviewed draft chapters of a book on geospatial metadata standards to be published by the Commission. The Biological Data Profile, developed by a Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) team led by Susan Stitt of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics, was the only standard presented with a biological emphasis. The book will also contain chapters relating to metadata standards from Australia-New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Russia, the International Health Organization (IHO), U.S. FGDC, U.S. Census Bureau, and several other organizations. Representatives from Canada, Denmark, IHO, Israel, South Africa, Russia, and the U.S. were in attendance. (Susan Stitt, Denver, 303-202-4234)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.