Accessible on Internet with Mosaic computer software, CERES offers an array of information, including news of the month, listings by topic, and frequently asked questions. CERES users can access data from departments under the Re sources Agency, federal resources agencies, and program partners, such as the University of California's Sequoia 2000, Australia's ERIN, the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, River Assessment Program, the Center for Environmental Design at UC Berkeley, and the Land, Air and Water Resources Department at UC Davis.
CERES eventually will provide access to general plans and environmental impact reports from California's 58 counties. Textual reports, statistical tables, photographs, video and audio files, and satellite imagery maps also will be available. The Department of the Interior's National Biological Survey and other information systems are to be linked with CERES soon.
A leg of the CERES network in Redding will unlock a wealth of information for rural communities in the Klamath Province and Sierra Nevada. The information available will include maps of the Klamath region listed in special "yellow pages" called the Meta Data Dictionary, which will tie into CERES.
CERES - formally the California Environmental Resources Evaluation System -was named for Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, whose symbol - the poppy - is the California State Flower.
By supplying information about resource interdependence, CERES will assist environmental decision-makers in protecting biodiversity and promoting ecosystem planning. It also will help to eliminate inconsistency and costly duplication of effort in gathering and compiling scientific data.
CERES will be accessible to public agencies, non-governmental and private groups, the business sector, and the general public through personal computers and bulletin board systems in public libraries. The 26-member federal, state and local government agencies of the California Executive Council on Biological Diversity, which are committed to developing and managing information for entire ecosystems, will guide and sup port CERES.
Governor Pete Wilson honored Secretary for Resources Douglas P. Wheeler May 18 with the first Governor's Technology Award for outstanding work with the CERES system. The Governor said CERES "will improve millions of Californians' daily lives through its practical applications."
Coordinating CERES and providing oversight are: Undersecretary for Resources Michael Mantell; Carol Whiteside, the Governor's director of intergovernmental affairs; Gary Darling, technology adviser to the Resources Agency; Robert Ewing, chief of the Strategic Planning Program in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; and Philip Griffiths, special assistant to the Secretary for Resources.