Monday, November 22, 2010

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site.  Products include project report - sampling approach, and methods; field data - graphic of field plots, field plots database, physical descriptive for plots, and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphics of vegetation communities, and geodatabase; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park. The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for ninety-five park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products.

(Photo: Yosemite National Park, courtesy of the Vegetation Characterization Program web site.)

Friday, November 19, 2010

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Ozark National Scenic Riverways and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Ozark National Scenic Riverways and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site. Products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, and spatial orthophoto data; project report - photointerpretation key, vegetation descriptions, vegetation key, photos of map class, and accuracy assessment; field data - graphic of field plots, field plots database, physical descriptive for plots, and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphics of vegetation communities, geodatabase, and plot and AA photos; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Ozark National Scenic Riverways and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for ninety-seven park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products.

(Photo: Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, courtesy of the Vegetation Characterization Program web site.)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Renewable Energy Project (RENEW) Created in NBII Ecological Topics

The new Renewable Energy Project (RENEW) Web site was launched in October. The mission of this new NBII project is to integrate and provide access to objective, accurate information about renewable energy and the environment for a broad user community of resource managers, scientists, educators, and the general public. Found under NBII’s Ecological Topics section, the Web site contains over 20 pages of researched content about renewable energy sources, development, environmental impacts, data, news, and maps. The Project is managed by Julie Prior-Magee and was developed in partnership with the The Big Sky Institute (BSI) at Montana State University (MSU) with feedback and content contributions from Bird Conservation Node (BirdCon), Pollinators Project, Central Southwest/Gulf Coast Information Node (CSWGCIN), and Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN).

(Photo: Wind turbines.  Courtesy of the NREL Image Library)

Monday, November 15, 2010

WDIN Releases its Web Application, the Wildlife Health Event Reporter

WDIN, through its partners at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, the University of Wisconsin Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, and HealthMap.org (Children’s Hospital Boston), has created an experimental Web application, the Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER), and has added the ability to report wildlife health events to a mobile phone application by HealthMap called Outbreaks Near Me. These tools will enhance public assistance in the surveillance of wildlife disease events. As a result of citizens using WHER and HealthMap’s mobile application, resource agencies will be able to assess the benefits of these tools through an increase in observational power that could potentially lead to a better understanding of both baseline and exceptional wildlife disease events. WHER can be accessed at http://www.wher.org. Individuals can obtain an account and provide feedback by contacting wdin@usgs.gov.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

USGS Scientist to Help Develop Bumble Bee Conservation and Research Strategy

USGS Core Science Systems scientist and manager of the Pollinators Project of the National Biological Information Infrastructure program, Elizabeth Sellers, will participate in an invitation-only IUCN North American Bumble Bee Species Conservation Strategy workshop in St. Louis, MO, on November 9-12, 2010. Bumble bees are among the most important wild pollinators in both agricultural and natural ecosystems. The population declines that have been noted in several species of formerly common North American bumble bees underscore the need to develop a coordinated conservation and research strategy. Facilitated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, the main goal of the workshop is to develop a comprehensive strategy that will direct future research and conservation work on imperiled North American bumble bees.

(Photo: Bumblebee (Bombus sp.) on a dame's rocket flower.  Credit: Elizabeth A. Sellers /life.nbii.gov)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Additional Focal Species Pages Launched

Ten new species pages have been added to the Focal Species Web site.  These focal species pages contain information about Audubon’s Shearwater, Bendire’s Thrasher, Black-capped Petrel, Brant (Pacific Black subspecies), Common Eider (American subspecies), Emperor Goose, Greater Shearwater, Kittlitz’s Murrelet, Mountain Plover, and White-winged Scoter. The Web pages were developed with input from USFWS and USGS biologists who are familiar with these species. Sub-pages will be added in the coming year to these pages in order to provide access to additional relevant online resources for these species. The Focal Species Strategy is an activity of the USFWS Migratory Bird Program aimed at returning these species populations to healthy and sustainable levels.


(Photo: Collage of egrets.  Courtesy of the NBII Focal Species Web site.)