They are creating the Natural Resource Project Inventory (NRPI) of written text and electronic data searchable on the Internet. Its goal: making regional or statewide information about restoration projects accessible on the Internet, hopefully this fall.

"People are working together in a collaborative way to solve resource conservation problems that wouldn't be so big if we had a better picture of what's going on," said Ed Hastey, state director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. "This new data base will consolidate and coordinate a great amount of information so that communities can share knowledge, reduce costs, and avoid duplicating their efforts."

BLM Grant

Work on the NRPI was initiated in March 1997 through a $50,000 grant from the BLM with the expectation that Council member agencies would work collaboratively and provide personnel and resources to help collect data.

The inventory is being designed and coordinated by the University of California's Information Center for the Environment (ICE).

"The Biodiversity Council's support for this project enabled us to find out what each other's agencies were doing, so that all of the projects could be brought together under an umbrella with a common core that would be easy to search," ICE Managing Director Mike McCoy said.

The NRPI is part of the information inventory of CERES -- the California Environmental Resources Evaluation System created by the California Resources Agency, at http://ceres.ca.gov/