Central Region State Partnerships

WILDLIFE - HABITAT RELATIONSHIPS IN THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE AREA METADATA CREATION

Geographic Information and Analysis Center
Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana

Need—USGS Agency information needs and Biological Resources Division research capabilities are beginning to focus on analyses of landscape-level habitat use by ungulates and carnivores, relative to human use and habitat change. In particular, use of the Gardiner Basin portion of the Northern Yellowstone Winter Range by elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope is of great concern to management agencies in relation to human activities including prescribed burning, logging, ranching and housing. Similarly, the direct and indirect impacts upon grizzly bear, black bear and mountain lion of potential interspecific competition from the reintroduced gray wolf across the northern Yellowstone range is of ecological interest, and concern to management agencies. The USGS-Fort Collins Science Center's Greater Yellowstone Field Station has the capabilities to address many of these issues, using spatial analyses. However, most of the necessary geospatial data lack the requisite metadata. This proposal requests funds to build such metadata in partnership with Montana State University Geographic Information and Analysis Center.

Background--Knowledge of ungulate habitat-use patterns in the Gardiner Basin has been identified as a priority need by the Northern Yellowstone Cooperative Wildlife Working Group (NYWWG), to which the BRD is a signatory party. Other signatory members include Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Gallatin National Forest (GNF) and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP). BRD is preparing to analyze mule deer use of the Gardiner Basin with a data set of over 4,000 radiotelemetry locations gathered between 1993 and 1997. Subsequently, BRD will conduct comparable analyses of mule deer summer habitat use. Data gathered by Montana State University (MSU) faculty are available for analyses of habitat use within the Gardiner Basin by other ungulate species. Many of the GIS data themes to be used in these analyses will be provided by the land management agencies (YNP, GNF). Similarly, the BRD's Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) is prepared to initiate landscape-level analyses of large carnivore habitat use. Partners include wolf biologists with the Center for Resources, YNP, and mountain lion researchers at the Hornocker Institute. Other BRD generated data may be available. Land management agencies, universities and non-government organizations will be surveyed to identify sources of data. Management agencies with a special interest in the results of these analysis include the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, National Park Service, MFWP. Identification and prioritization of georeferenced data requiring metadata will be coordinated with BRD's Greater Yellowstone Initiative.

The survey will provide insights into gaps in available data layers. Such information may serve as the basis for identifying and prioritizing future data gathering efforts.

With relatively minor adjustment, boundaries of these data layers can altered to encompass the range of bison in YNP. They will then be available for analyses of movements and habitat selection by a number of BRD and MSU researchers participating in BRD's Bison Research Initiative.

This proposal presents a work plan for assembling and developing metadata for all data sets identified as necessary to landscape-level analyses of ungulate and carnivore habitat use by the USGS - Fort Collins Science Center, Greater Yellowstone Field Station. The proposal is presented as a partnership with Montana State University under a sub-agreement under an existing master agreement between USGS and Montana State University.

A network of data clearinghouses build on metadata and facilitate management, access and use of data at State, County, and regional levels. The Greater Yellowstone Area Data Clearinghouse (GYADC) is under active development in the Geographic Information and Analysis Center (GIAC) at Montana State University; the GYADC is a Clearinghouse under the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). This project will allow the GYADC to be extended such that the metadata from the National Biological Information Infrastructure and NSDI are readily linked. This will facilitate analyses by the USGS - Fort Collins Science Center, Greater Yellowstone Field Station and others and provide a single point of access to biological, environmental, and socio-economic information for the Greater Yellowstone Area through active collaboration of agencies, state and local government, and public and private institutions.

Metadata are necessary for documentation, retrieval, archive and analysis of data sets. The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has established a standard with which metadata are intended to be compliant and a program of work is establishing metadata for spatial data at a variety of geographic scales and locations.

Coordinate with the USGS - Fort Collins Science Center, Greater Yellowstone Field Station to identify datasets that require metadata.

Coordination of data and metadata with existing data for the Greater Yellowstone Area through expansion of the NSDI node to act as a NBII data clearinghouse node. MSUs GIAC and Mountain Research Center have invested considerable resources developing the GYADC. Currently this program is in Phase II which is developing a series of coherent framework data to complement the metadata contained in GYADC. These data include elevation, climate, transportation and digital orthoquads that will be served from the GYADC site at MSU.

Regular meetings between GIAC staff and the USGS MESC GYFS staff will identify datasets requiring metadata. GIAC staff will act as metadata specialists to collect and enter the metadata.

Metadata specialists works with USGS MESC GYFS staff to collect information about the datasets. Some datasets will be readily documented, others may take a significant time.

Metadata specialist enters metadata using METAMAKER software. Staff in GIAC have experience with METAMAKER through previous work collecting metadata for Yellowstone National Park and others as part of GYADC.

Metadata specialists supply GYADC Clearinghouse and USGS with FGDC compliant metadata. These data will be part of the NBII and NSDI.

Where appropriate, GIAC staff will also work with USGS MESC GYFS staff to develop datasets and serve data on the NSDI/NBII Clearinghouse server in agreed formats. This data service will be two way, datasets being prepared by GIAC for GYADC being available to USGS staff for use in their analyses.

Year: 1999
Part-time (6 months pa) Metadata specialist responsible for collecting and entering metadata 1044 hours per annum @ $35 per hour	$36,540
This figure includes all other costs and overheads incurred by GIAC.
University IDCs (15%)	$5,481
Total	$42,021
Year: 2000
Part-time (6 months pa) Metadata specialist responsible for collecting and entering metadata 1044 hours per annum @ $37 per hour	$38,628
This figure includes all other costs and overheads incurred by GIAC
University IDCs (15%)	5,794
Total	44,422

Grand Total	$86,443

No travel is requested since GIAC and the USGS MESC GYFS are located on the same floor of the same building at MSU

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