Highlights for September 22, 2000
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• GAP Helps Assess Status of Sagebrush Communities. A team representing the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project (SW-ReGAP) will participate in a joint Bureau of Land Management–U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service meeting on the status of sagebrush plant communities and sage grouse habitat to be held in Salt Lake City on September 28. Programs and institutions conducting mapping and inventories in these habitats have been invited to discuss their work and help formulate plans to develop products and procedures for a two-year assessment project. Declines in sagebrush habitats have been substantial, generating considerable attention from land managers and Fish and Wildlife Service scientists. First-generation Gap Analysis Program (GAP) data are already being evaluated for suitability in the assessment, and new land cover maps generated by SW-ReGAP will be discussed. GAP is coordinated by the USGS and is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in Denver. (Patrick Crist, Moscow, 208-885-3901).
• USGS Scientist Participates in Interdisciplinary Sustainability Congress. Maury Nyquist of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics was an invited delegate to the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation's (RNRF) Congress on "Promoting Sustainability in the 21st Century" held in Portland, Oregon, September 6–9. RNRF is an umbrella organization for 18 professional societies whose mission is to advance interdisciplinary science, understanding, and stewardship of renewable natural resources by fostering interdisciplinary activities and synergy among professional, scientific, and educational organizations, and through public education. Two chapters from the report "Perspectives on the Land Use History of North America: A Context for Understanding Our Changing Environment" (USGS/BRD/BSR-1998-0039 [rev.]) were among the pre-Congress reading materials provided to delegates. Outcomes from the Congress will be published in an upcoming issue of the Renewable Resources Journal and provided as educational white papers for governmental, professional, educational, and business leaders. (Maury Nyquist, Denver, 303-202-4217)

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives: No report.

• NBII Highlights USGS-FWIE Partnership at IAFWA Annual Meeting. Lisa Zolly of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics participated in the recent International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Annual Meeting and, along with Terry D’Erchia of the Office of Biological Informatics, presented an exhibit highlighting the partnership activities of the USGS and the Fish and Wildlife Information Exchange (FWIE). FWIE and the NBII, along with other State agency partners, are cooperating to increase access to fish and wildlife information from State and Federal agencies through the NBII. The NBII program is assisting FWIE in development of the Wild Animal and Plant Information Transfer Infrastructure (WAPITI), which will provide integrated access to species-based data from multiple State fish and wildlife agency databases through one Internet query portal. FWIE and the NBII also cooperate in providing biological metadata training courses to State and Federal agency staff at locations around the United States. (Terry D’Erchia, Denver, 303-202-4264)
• USGS-NBII Help Plan for Ocean Biodiversity Information System. USGS representatives joined marine biologists from other Federal agencies and the academic community in a workshop to plan for an international Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS). This collaborative effort involving the National Ocean Partnership Program, the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, and the Sloan Foundation is envisioned as a distributed network of marine biological and environmental data for use in examining changes in diversity, distribution, and abundance of organisms over time and space. USGS provided one of two plenary talks that addressed a vision for development of the system and indicated potential opportunities to partner with the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) and other national and international biodiversity information systems, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. OBIS will include linkages to several USGS-led activities, including the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. (Mark Fornwall, Denver, 303-202-4215)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.