For the past 10 months, member agencies of the Biodiversity Council have contributed records to an on-line database of resource projects called the Natural Resource Project Inventory (NRPI). As of May, NRPI contains records for over 1000 projects on coordinated watershed management plans, forest stewardship projects, weed eradication projects and much more.
This effort began as a Biodiversity Council sponsored catalog of cooperative resource management projects and related watershed management efforts. It has since added more detailed inventories of habitat restoration projects, in collaboration with the Department of Conservation and SERCAL, and activities to manage invasive weeds, cooperatively with BLM, the Department of Food and Agriculture and the California Interagency Noxious Weed Coordinating Committee. The current version of the inventory was proposed to the Council by co-chair Ed Hastey and adopted in March 1997. It is coordinated through UC Davis’ Information Center for the Environment, funded through the Bureau of Land Management and supported by participating members of nearly all agencies of the Biodiversity Council. NRPI offers a cohesive picture of past and current resource management efforts in California. This interagency effort is unique in the United States, and stands as a useful resource for both agency personnel and watershed groups in determining who is doing what on the California landscape.
While there are 1000+ records currently in the database, there are potentially thousands more that could be included to help NRPI provide an accurate overview of resource management efforts in the state. The Bureau of Land Management recently sent notices to all CBC members urging continued support of NRPI as work continues on the database.
“We’ve built a tremendous foundation, and we have work to do both on existing records and on incoming projects,” notes Professor James Quinn, ICE co-director. Future efforts include adding many more projects and including detailed outcome and monitoring data with water quality projects to help determine whether or not best management practices for nonpoint source pollution are effective.