Track: Forestry
A Interagency Aquatic Database and Geographical Information System
Shawn P. McKinneyOver 33,000 km of aquatic habitat from multiple natural resource agencies was assembled to form a singular database and GIS layer. This interagency dataset is now available to be analyzed at multiple ecological scales. The resulting descriptive statistics and spatial products will allow fishery professionals from different agencies as well as interested individuals access to a common set of information for further analyses. Specifically, multiple agencies now share data using common inventory protocols, databases and spatial layers. The unlimited access to multiple jurisdictional information allows biologists to tailor their analyses to corresponding biological scales. Thus, aquatic restoration projects, monitoring, and management priorities can be viewed at a watershed or provincial level, as opposed to a land ownership standpoint. Land stewardship activities can now be viewed at larger scales to gain contextual perspectives of nested aquatic relationships. The interagency aquatic database and GIS layer are being used by management at the state, federal, tribal and local levels as well as research. Resource professionals are communicating more effectively utilizing these products. More important, the aquatic resource benefits from efficient use of biologists time, while increasing the rigor and completeness of their analyses.
Shawn P. McKinney
USDA Forest Service
P.O.Box 1148
Corvallis, OR 97339
USA
Telephone: 541-750-7000
Fax: 541-750-7142
E-mail: mckinnes@ccmail.orst.edu