Highlights for January 17, 2002

I. Key Department/Bureau News

• BLM Looks at USGS Vegetation Mapping: Karl Brown, Acting Coordinator for the USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program (VMP), submitted a joint proposal with Geneva Chong to the BLM Science Needs process. The joint proposal covers vegetation characterization and invasives plant inventories in the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area adjacent to the Black Canyon and Curecanti National Recreation Area efforts. As planned, Karl and Geneva will meet with both National Park Service and BLM area planners to discuss a coordinated invasive plants inventory with the vegetation mapping and classification. Brown will present ways the USGS, NPS and the BLM can cooperate to describe, classify, and map vegetation communities in the Gunnison Gorge area. The Vegetation Mapping Program is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program. (Karl Brown, Denver, 303-202-4240)

• Vegetation Mapping Updates for Isle Royale National Park: USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program (VMP) documentation for Isle Royale National Park has been updated on the VMP Web site. Now available: vegetation sampling and classification scheme, vegetation class field key, vegetation descriptions, and a link to National Park Service information about Isle Royale National Park. The goal of the VMP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of national parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for ten parks, including aerial photographs, photointerpretive signature keys, field data (field sites, physical descriptive and species list data), geospatial vegetation information, accuracy assessment information, metadata (physical descriptive, species list data, and geospatial vegetation information), a mapping report, and a link to National Park Service information about the respective park area. The VMP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. (Karl Brown, Denver, 303-202-4240)

II. Agency Work on Presidential Initiatives

• World Data Center Committee Site Visit to CBI Authorized: Donna Mahoney, USGS/Center for Biological Informatics, has led efforts to Establish NBII as the World Data Center for Biodiversity and Ecology this past year, drafting the proposal and interacting with WDC participants, International Council of Scientific Unions panel members, and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Geophysical and Environmental Data coordinator. The Committee recently reviewed the NBII proposal and authorized a site visit to assess NBII and CBI programs and make recommendations to WDC’s Panel for NBII’s designation as a World Data Center. The scheduling and agenda planning for the visit are underway. There are 13 discipline Word Data Centers situated in the U.S. and numerous others in China, Japan, India, Europe, Russia and Australia. The USGS currently has two World Data Centers, the WDC for Seismology at the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver and the WDC for Remotely Sensed Land Data at Sioux Falls, SD. (Donna Mahoney, Denver, 303-202-4238)

III. Notable Congressional Activity
Nothing to report this week.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries
Nothing to report this week.

V. Key FOIA Requests
Nothing to report this week.