Highlights for March 16, 2001

I. Key Department News:

• U.S. Participates in First Governing Board of GBIF: The USGS Office of Biological Informatics (BIO) led the U.S. delegation to the first Governing Board meeting of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), held March 9-11 in Montreal, Canada. GBIF was officially established on March 1, 2001. The U.S. is one of the 14 charter member countries that signed the GBIF Memorandum of Understanding and jointly pledged $2.5 million toward the first year of operation (the U.S. share is $700K). The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is participating in GBIF as an associate member and also seated a delegation at the Montreal meeting. When fully implemented, GBIF will provide access via the Internet to information on the world's named species through access to data on the 3 billion specimens in natural history museums, herbaria and other collections worldwide and to genetic, climate, ecosystem and other geospatial information. The second Governing Board meeting, at which a host for the GBIF Secretariat will be selected, will be held in Bonn, Germany, in June 2001. (Barbara T. Bauldock, Reston, 703-648-4295)

• Departmental GPS Coordination site updated at the Center for Biological Informatics: The Department of Interior’s Web Site for the Global Positioning System has been redesigned to provide easier navigation and to reflect the program's maturity. The Web site contains sections on training courses, news, the status of DOI GPS use, procedures on transfers and ordering, Federal custodian application and much more. (Theresa Singh, Denver, 303-202-4227 and Karl Brown, Denver, 303-202-4240)

• Voyageurs National Park Vegetation Classification and Mapping Complete: The Center for Biological Informatics’ managed USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program delivered completed products for the Voyageurs National Park Vegetation Mapping Project to the Park on March 9. The products include spatial vegetation data, a vegetation classification using the National Vegetation Classification Standard, a field key of the vegetation communities, a method reports, an accuracy assessment, and metadata. The products were completed by the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy and the Minnesota Natural Heritage Program and will be used for a variety of Park management needs, including fire management, invasive species management, and wildlife management and monitoring. The Program's goal is to classify and map vegetation communities in 270 National Park Units. Fourteen park units have been completed and 14 projects are underway. (Tom Owens, Denver, 303-202-4259)

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• CBI Prepares to host NBII Metadata Clearinghouse Gateway: CBI has begun the effort to host the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Clearinghouse Gateway from its Denver offices. The Gateway serves up nearly 2000 records for NBII and it's partners, and is also a gateway to 17 partner clearinghouse servers. Last year the Gateway had more than 50,000 unique inquiries. This site was previously hosted by UMESC in Wisconsin and moving it to Denver will provide the public with faster access to information. (John Clark, Denver, 303-202-4244)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.