Internet-based portal gathers regional fish, water, and wildlife data

February 27, 2007

Related link: Council's NED home page

PORTLAND — The Council, NOAA Fisheries, and the Bonneville Power Administration this week unveiled a new Internet-based tool that provides access to a vast reservoir of information about fish, wildlife, and water in the Pacific Northwest. The free, easy-to-use service, the most comprehensive ever developed in the region for fish and wildlife information, will help scientists share information, but it also will be useful to students, scholars and, in fact, anyone who has interest and access to a computer.

The Northwest Environmental Data-network portal is a product created by the Northwest Environmental Data-network (NED) to improve the quality, quantity, and availability of regional fish, wildlife, and water data. The portal provides an Internet gateway to this data — in essence, a one-stop shopping center of environmental and biological information on fish and wildlife species, water quality, habitat, and other information that results from scientific research.

“The portal will be an effective data-management tool that will assist regional fish and wildlife planning and resource management,” Council Chair Tom Karier said. “It is important for decision-makers to have access to the best available data, and it is equally important that the available data can be shared efficiently with all interested parties. The portal will vastly improve public access to fish and wildlife data.”

In addition to the primary sponsors, who include the Council, Bonneville, and NOAA Fisheries, partners in the portal include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Washington Monitoring Forum, British Columbia Integrated Land Management Bureau, Warm Springs, Umatilla, Nez Perce, and Yakama tribes, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, Oregon Geographic Information Council, and the State of the Salmon Consortium.

Karier co-chairs the NED effort with John Stein of NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

“The portal is an example of how representatives from many different groups can work together at a regional level,” Stein said. “Science that serves the region requires transparent and easy access to data of known quality, and the portal is a tool that meets the goal of improved access. Using what we have and sharing it are key steps, but we also need to harness available technology, and the portal does that.”

Users of the NED portal will be able to:

The portal was created in response to an independent study in 2003 that found that many regional researchers, scientists, managers, and members of the public could not easily locate data needed to stay informed and make decisions about fish and wildlife management and recovery. The study recommended the establishment of a regional data portal based on national and international data-reporting standards.

Contacts: