StreamNet Project
BPA Project No.:  198810804
FY 2008 Work Statement
October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008

Note 1:  This contract is being submitted while regional entities (CBFWA and NED) are continuing efforts to help establish regional data type priorities for the project.  Therefore this should be considered as a first draft, and it may be necessary to amend the contract to adjust to final data and data service priorities once they are established.

Note 2:  Project costs have, in most cases, been allocated equally across all individual titles within each Work Element, since it is not possible to accurately separate them for the large number of individual titles and the fact that in some cases given work effort (cost) can address several titles at the same time.

Participants:

Bruce Schmidt, Project Manager, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission
Phil Roger, Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission
Bart Butterfield, Idaho Department of Fish and Game
Janet Hess-Herbert, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks
Cedric Cooney, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Steve Pastor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Brodie Cox, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife


Project Description

StreamNet is a cooperative, multi-agency data compilation and data management project authorized by the Northwest Power Planning Council's Fish and Wildlife Program (FWP).  It is funded primarily by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) through the FWP as part of its program to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife resources affected by the development and operation of hydroelectric facilities on the Columbia River and tributaries.  Other funding has also been obtained in the past from agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) administers the project.  PSMFC staff are also responsible for the regional components of the project, including maintaining the regional database, assuring regional data standardization, making data available in Geographic Information System (GIS) formats, building and operating Internet based data delivery systems, and posting the data for public access.

Three fourths of the project consists of sub-projects within the state fish and wildlife agencies, Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission and US Fish and Wildlife Service to develop data and databases within the respective agencies and facilitate data transfer in regionally consistent format.  In addition to administratively housing the StreamNet sub-projects, these cooperating agencies also contribute in kind support.  The kind and amount of support varies between agencies.  All agencies provide at least some salary support for their respective StreamNet Project Leader (from one or two months to full time).  Several agencies contribute use of servers or other computer equipment and services that are not covered by charges for indirect costs.  All contribute time by biologists and in some cases data entry staff to provide data to the project.  

The project has received input on additional regional data type needs and priorities at the same time that the project is decreasing staff levels to meet the realities of inflation impacts due to this being the fifth year at level funding.  Work in Oregon and Washington is being limited by geographic coverage due to reduced staffing in the subcontracting agencies.  At the same time, we are exploring new data types through pilot efforts by subbasin in Oregon in response to requests by CBFWA for new data types.  We are also reacting to requests for improved timeliness of data delivery through pilot testing in Idaho of new agency data systems and direct automated data pathways.  We intend to increase support to agencies to build databases capable of speeding data flow as the only means to improve timeliness and increase efficiency in order to develop new data type priorities given level funding.  Another key intent in response to regional priority input is to increase coordination with tribal programs to determine availability of tribal data and tribal agency data management capabilities to support data transfer to StreamNet.  Pilot efforts are planned in this work statement, but complete delivery of tribal data will likely require additional capabilities within the tribal agencies.

StreamNet functions to obtain, standardize, georeference and disseminate fish related data.  It focuses on the kinds of data primarily collected by the state, tribal and federal fisheries management agencies for use in management and research programs.  Work is organized around eight BPA defined Work Elements:

1. WE 159 Submit / Acquire Data.  The agency components of the project obtain various specific data sets from within their agencies and other agencies within their respective states or among member agencies.  These data are then converted into regionally consistent formats so that all data are comparable despite agency of origin.  The formats are agreed to by all participating agencies so that all are comfortable that data from different sources are being combined correctly.  These data are then submitted to the regional database at PSMFC.  In addition, source documents for all data are submitted to the StreamNet Library so that all data in the database are tied to source documents that are available through the library.  Data acquisition this year is being restricted by location in Washington and Oregon due to staff reductions.  Automated data exchange and agency database extraction techniques are being tested in Idaho.

2. WE 160 Manage / Maintain Database.  All components of the StreamNet project maintain databases and computer systems to support their work at both the source agency and regional levels.  This work includes maintenance of the hardware systems themselves and maintenance, updating, management and quality control of the data.  Also included is development of various software tools to assist in data management and manipulation, and development of the various standard data formats referred to as Data Exchange Formats (DEF) used to assure data consistency across the region.  StreamNet also maintains a number of regional base data layers that are essential for management and depiction of data, including the PNW 1:100,000 routed hydrography (stream layer), a new interim mixed scale hydrography, and various general GIS layers.

3. WE 161 Disseminate Raw and Summary Data.  Dissemination of data through the StreamNet website (www.streamnet.org) entails development, maintenance and operation of various applications, including a tabular data query system, interactive map applications, a searchable Independent Data Sets archive, and various pre-selected data sets.  Data services include responding to requests for information from individuals, subbasin planners, other FWP supported projects, watershed councils, agencies and regional entities.  The StreamNet Library provides access to data source documents for all data in the StreamNet database, the entire NW Power and Conservation Council document collection, and a major collection of fish and wildlife related agency reports and documents (gray literature).  They also provide various services such as document scanning and Interlibrary Loans to aid patrons in obtaining information.  

4. WE 189 Coordination.  StreamNet coordinates with a variety of other database projects and regional initiatives.  Coordination with other databases is for the purpose of avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort and to facilitate data sharing.  Coordination with regional initiatives (such as Subbasin Planning, CSMEP, PNAMP, NED) is to provide data services and share experience and expertise with regional data consolidation and dissemination and assist these initiatives in reaching their goals.  Coordination to encourage and support agency development of internal database systems is being given added emphasis this year as a means of moving toward more efficient data flow from data collecting agencies out to the regional scale data users.

5. WE 99 Outreach and Education.  StreamNet produces occasional documents and brochures that explain the project and how to use it to obtain data.  Project members also participate in professional organization meetings to explain project data services, advertise data availability, and encourage greater flow of data to the project.

6. WE 119 Manage and Administer Projects.  All project participants contribute to management of the project.  Each agency manages its own portion of the project, and PSMFC manages the overall project.  Management tasks include budget development and expenditure tracking, personnel supervision, and management of project activities to accomplish tasks contained in the statement of work.  Participants contribute to project guidance through active participation in the StreamNet Steering Committee and serve as liaisons with their respective agencies

7. WE 132 Produce Annual Report.  A detailed annual report will be prepared that describes the specific work accomplished by the project during the preceding fiscal year.  In the past, detailed activities were reported in four quarterly reports.  With the advent of Pisces, however, quarterly reports were converted to the abbreviated Pisces format, eliminating the former detail.  As a result, we are redesigning the annual report to contain summaries of the detailed work done by Work Element and Milestone.

8. WE 185 Periodic Status Reports for BPA.  This work element entails completing and submitting abbreviated quarterly and final status reports in the Pisces system.

Details of the actual tasks performed by the project are detailed in the Milestones under each Work Element.