Ecosystem Management: Federal Agency Activities

94-339 ENR

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
-- U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
----Ecosystem Management Activities
----Cooperation and Coordination
----Tools of Ecosystem Management
----Funding Ecosystem Management
----Ecosystem Management Limits and Opportunities

.ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
----Ecosystem Management Activities
----Cooperation and Coordination
----Tools of Ecosystem Management
----Funding Ecosystem Management
----Ecosystem Management Limits and Opportunities

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

INTRODUCTION

Ecosystems are structurally and functionally interrelated groups of living things and their physical environment. Effective ecosystem management recognizes the importance of understanding how each of the living and non-living parts of an ecosystem contributes to, and is affected by, the health of the whole system. The scale of a managed ecosystem depends on the resources at issue, their role in the whole system, and the variety of natural and human influences affecting the system.

Resource management policy limited by arbitrary boundaries of land ownership and individual agency responsibility has limited effectiveness. Traditional resource management focused on use of single economic resources (minerals, timber, or grazing for example) or preservation of single species has led to seemingly intractable conflicts over the management of resources. Decisions based on one issue have created unanticipated and costly problems elsewhere.

Ecosystem management emphasizes natural boundaries, such as watersheds, biological communities, and physiographic provinces, and bases resource management decisions on an integrated scientific understanding of how whole ecosystems work. Ecosystem management is the tool that resource managers need for deciding how to meet multiple resource needs in their areas of jurisdiction, considering the larger scale impacts of their decisions. Ecosystem management, appropriately implemented, can help to prevent the degradation of our resources and avoid the necessity for more costly and less effective restoration and mitigation strategies.

Understanding ecosystems requires physical, chemical, biological, cultural, and economic data, along with the analytical tools necessary to integrate and interpret the data and communicate the information in a usable form to decision makers. Timely, relevant, and focused research, data collection, and effective information management are needed to fill this requirement.

ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

The mission of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the timely provision of impartial, useful scientific information about the Earth for current and future generations. The USGS contributes to ecosystem management by providing data and information in two ways:

• -Critical Ecosystem Research and Assessment. These short-term activities draw on long-term USGS programs and capitalize on previous investments in research and monitoring to provide a scientific basis for making management decisions in specific critical ecosystems.
• -Long-term USGS research, monitoring, assessment, and data management programs. These programs are national in scope, but most are regional or local in application. They fill basic earth science data and information needs common to every ecosystem.

Within the spectrum of ecosystem management concerns in the Department of the Interior, the USGS plans to focus its Critical Ecosystem Research and Assessment activities on South Florida, San Francisco Bay and Delta, Klamath and Trinity Rivers, and Columbia River ecosystems.

South Florida

The Department of the Interior is committed to halting the deterioration of the Everglades ecosystem and to restoring, to the extent practicable, the original Kissimmee River system. Sea grass mortality in Florida Bay and the health of coral reefs have become critical ecosystem issues. The USGS, consulting with other Federal, State, Tribal, and local government agencies, identified areas where it can build on existing programs and make timely contributions of information that will facilitate critical ecosystem management decisions: (1) measure and model the movement of water in South Florida and Florida Bay to assess the availability of water for meeting the competing needs of the population, agriculture, and natural preserves; (2) assess water quality in South Florida, Florida Bay, and offshore (keys and reefs) building on ongoing programs and focusing on additional information needs such as transport mechanism for contaminants; (3) determine the natural state of South Florida and Florida Bay and offshore (keys and reefs) through paleoecology studies as a basis for assessing human influences; and (4) develop a quality assured data management system that will facilitate access to, and use of, information by all stakeholders.

Columbia River Basin

Salmon runs have declined 90 percent in the Columbia River Basin. Ongoing USGS work in the basin includes stream-flow measurement and toxic and nutrient studies in Lake Roosevelt; water quality assessments in four basins; studies of trace elements and their effect on biological productivity in Coeur d'Alene Lake; geologic mapping and identification of natural trace element deposits that could be toxic to biota; and production of digitized data bases of geology, elevation, hydrography, and other features. The USGS currently is working with the National Biological Survey, in consultation with other Federal, State, Tribal, and local government agencies, to plan the most effective ways by which they can contribute to evaluating the stresses on anadromous fish populations and to develop technically sound strategies to manage this important fishery resource.

Klamath and Trinity River Basins

The Klamath and Trinity River Basins suffer from a range of ecosystem management problems, resulting mostly from detrimental effects of human activities. Critical issues include anadromous fish declines and habitat degradation, wetland restoration, endangered fish and other species, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution. The USGS is working through existing coordinating bodies, such as the Klamath Basin Ecosystem Restoration Office, to identify and provide the critical scientific information needed now by ecosystem managers for resolving priority issues and for meeting legislative mandates for restoration of the ecosystem.

San Francisco Bay and Delta

Over the last 50 years freshwater inflow to the San Francisco Bay has declined about 60 percent because of diversion of water for agriculture and urban uses. Most wetlands are lost or degraded. Water and habitats are degraded by dredging and disposal of dredge spoils contaminated by sewage, street, and agricultural runoff. Biological communities are modified by introduced exotic species. Natural processes such as floods, droughts, and changes in oceanic circulation and sea level pose greater economic and environmental threats because of intensified human stress on the ecosystem. Fish populations are declining and increasing numbers of species are threatened or endangered. The USGS is working to increase ongoing collaboration with other Federal, State, and local agencies in multidisciplinary environmental studies that have direct application in near-term ecosystem management decisions, including water policy, wetland preservation and mitigation, sediment dredging and disposal, health and diversity of estuarine biota, and human safety.

Long-Term Programs Provide Information for Ecosystem Management

The USGS is contributing data and information for management of ecosystems nationwide through its long-term national programs. Rock, sediments, and soil form the foundations of ecosystems and hydrologic systems. Geological processes directly affect the formation, mineral content, and chemistry of soils and water. Surface and ground water are integral parts of ecosystem infrastructure. Water quality and quantity are critical in determining the health of an ecosystem. Geographic information is essential for describing ecosystems, monitoring status and trends, and evaluating changing environmental and human stresses on ecosystems.

The USGS supports broad-based geologic, hydrologic, geographic, and biological research addressing, among other things, the natural history of ecosystems and interactions between living things, land, water, and Earth processes. USGS research is improving the understanding of important ecosystem issues, including erosion, wetland loss, sediment pollution, sea-level change, and effects of increasing human stress on ecosystems. The USGS studies the effects of natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and extreme climate events, contributing to our understanding of natural variation and change in ecosystems. USGS studies of interactions of climate, water, and terrestrial processes, as well as the natural history of climate change, emphasize the effects of climate change in sensitive ecosystems. The USGS evaluates ground water on regional scales, providing a basis for assessing ground-water systems beyond political boundaries and over entire ecosystems. There is a continuing need for improved hydrologic modeling to make decisions on water-related economic and environmental issues. The USGS National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program systematically describes status and trends in the quality of the Nation's surface and ground-water resources. The NAWQA program, when fully implemented, will study sixty major river-basin and related aquifer systems throughout the United States. USGS studies are providing information needed to improve waste disposal practices and to mitigate or prevent further damage to sensitive ecosystems nationwide.

The USGS is the largest collector of water information in the United States. The National Water Information System provides access to information about the quantity and quality of water resources for the Nation. The USGS operates nationwide surface and ground-water data collection networks producing information about the availability and distribution of water resources, floods, and droughts. The National Stream Quality Accounting Network provides information about water quality and stream flow for the Nation's major rivers. The USGS operates a network of hydrologic benchmark stations to monitor changes in water quantity and quality in relatively pristine headwater areas. The USGS is the lead Federal agency for monitoring atmospheric deposition and air quality under the National Acid Precipitation Program. As such, the USGS maintains a National Trends Network, which contains 150 geographically distributed sites for monitoring the chemical composition of precipitation.

The USGS provides contemporary and historical maps including cultural, hydrographic, topographic, land use, land cover, and geologic information. It produces digital map data necessary for modeling and analyzing ecosystems using Geographic Information Systems technology. The USGS provides images of the land, including historical and contemporary aerial photography, satellite data such as Landsat and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer images, and Side-looking Airborne Radar data. The USGS Atlas of the Exclusive Economic Zone provides side scan sonar images depicting the physiography of the sea floor under United States jurisdiction. The USGS is developing a modern digital geologic map data base for the Nation.

USGS mineral and energy resource surveys provide information and assessments that help ecosystem managers evaluate competing demands for resources. The USGS provides worldwide information on mineral occurrences, including data useful for identifying potential sources of contamination. The USGS maintains the National Geochemical Data Base containing chemical data from soils, rocks, stream sediments, water, and plants. The USGS maintains a data system that supplies coal quality information useful in addressing air and water quality issues.

COOPERATION AND COORDINATION

The USGS has standing coordination agreements with Department of the Interior bureaus that have resource management responsibilities, as well as with the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Soil Conservation Service.

The USGS participates in the Interagency Ecosystem Management Coordination Group, Sustainable Biosphere Initiative, Man and the Biosphere, and other groups and programs that foster cooperation, collaboration, and communication among governmental and non-governmental agencies for ecosystem management throughout the Nation and, where appropriate, internationally. The USGS was instrumental in forming the Terrestrial Research Interest Group, an informal group of Federal agency representatives who have worked together to develop a strategy for enhancing the quality and relevance of the scientific information available for ecosystem management.

The USGS Critical Ecosystem Research and Assessment program will play a key role in the Columbia River Basin, Klamath and Trinity River Basins, San Francisco Bay and Delta, and South Florida ecosystems. In order to structure a responsive program, the USGS held workshops with other Federal, State, Tribal, and local government agencies in each ecosystem, working through existing coordination groups, to learn more about critical ecosystem management issues and information needs. From the beginning, the National Biological Survey participated in planning these workshops, and they will continue to participate in program planning and implementation. As the Critical Ecosystem Research and Assessment program develops, the USGS will continue to work through existing coordination groups, consult with other agencies, and provide impartial, relevant, and timely information to ecosystem managers.

The USGS has the lead role in the Science and Assessment Strategy Team formed in the aftermath of the 1993 Mississippi flood to provide earth science information to support Federal decisions on modifications to Federal flood plain management programs that will better protect life, property, and the ecology of the Upper Mississippi River Basin.

The USGS co-founded the interagency Terrestrial Ecosystems Regional Research and Analysis Laboratory. This laboratory is an open, collaborative research facility that develops decision-oriented tools and methods for analyzing population, land, and natural resources in support of land-resource management.

The USGS, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and National Biological Survey are cooperating to construct a data base of taxonomic names. The data base will allow agencies at all levels of government access to high-quality taxonomic data.

The USGS recently coordinated an interagency purchase of Landsat imagery at significant savings to the Government. These images are of interest to many agencies, including the USGS, National Biological Survey, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and are being used to develop a multi-resolution data base of land-cover information for use in ecosystem monitoring research.

The USGS Federal-State Cooperative Program is a unique, jointly funded partnership between the Federal Government and over 1000 State and local agencies to gather water data and investigate water resource problems and issues. The program is an important foundation for planning, data collection, development, and management of the Nation's water resources.

Each of the 60 studies in the National Water-Quality Assessment Program has, or is forming, a liaison committee, which consists of representatives of other Federal, State, Tribal, and local government agencies, as well as academic, professional, and other private sector stakeholders.

TOOLS OF ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

The USGS is an internationally recognized expert in developing computer-based spatial data sets and automated geographic analysis tools. The USGS is participating in the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure under the aegis of the Federal Geographic Data Committee. The USGS's Earth Resources Observing System Data Center has been designated as the World Data Center-A for Land Remotely Sensed Data by the International Council of Scientific Unions.

The USGS provides geographic information systems (GIS)-based land use and land cover, as well as natural resource data and analyses, necessary to understand changing natural and human factors in the competition for land, water, food, and other life-sustaining or life-enhancing resources. USGS spatial data base contributions include information such as water quality and quantity, cartographic and geographic information, topography, soils, land cover (vegetation, for example), land use, geology, contaminants, and energy and mineral resources.

The USGS is collaborating with the National Biological Survey on the Gap Analysis Program by conducting research on the processing needed to create useful land cover data sets for gap research, for example clustered Landsat Thematic Mapper data. In addition USGS is producing thematic maps of land cover, land ownership, species, and Thematic Mapper images needed for the Gap Analysis Program. Statewide thematic maps currently are being produced for Utah as a demonstration project.

FUNDING ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

The President's budget for FY 1995 establishes a new USGS Budget Activity--Critical Ecosystems Research and Assessment--that focuses directly on priority ecosystem management issues. The general budget structure accommodates flexibility in ongoing USGS research, monitoring, assessment, and data management programs that contribute to ecosystem management. Initially, focused ecosystem research and assessments can be accomplished by either temporary or permanent reallocation of budget and personnel resources. Further expansion of focused ecosystem programs under current constraints would be at the expense of essential contributing national environmental programs.

ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT LIMITS AND OPPORTUNITIES

The USGS aspires to continue its role as an expert and effective provider of impartial earth science data and information needed for ecosystem management. The mission of the bureau, its expertise, and enabling legislation subsume this continued role. A challenge to the USGS will be to meet changing national priorities and expanded national needs for data and information to support ecosystem management within the context of investment in research, development, and information infrastructure. The USGS hopes to meet this challenge through the flexibility of its workforce, expanded partnerships with other agencies, and cooperative programs with the States and Indian Nations.

CONTACT

Marty Power
U.S. Geological Survey
Department of the Interior
913 National Center
Reston, VA 22092

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can protect and restore ecosystems by reducing pollution and other stresses while also addressing socioeconomic needs on a sustainable basis. By complementing existing programs with an expanded focus on ecosystems and landscapes, EPA can provide better protection for public health and the environment nationwide.

EPA has both the legislative authorization and expertise to play a significant role in Federal ecosystem efforts. The agency's governing statutes authorize the protection of ecosystems for many different types of resources throughout the country. For example, the agency actively protects a variety of aquatic habitats such as wetlands, lakes, rivers, and streams through the Clean Water Act. The agency also reduces risks to habitats through its authority to regulate chemicals or wastes. The agency's non-regulatory programs provide grants and incentives that can be directed toward improving ecosystems. EPA research is contributing to ecological risk assessment and risk management methods, landscape ecology, improved understanding of ecological condition, and better data on ecosystem status and trends. Moreover, EPA is building up its level of coordination with other agencies in the area of information management and data sharing. This is best typified by EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) which is designed to determine the status and trends of ecosystem conditions. In preliminary discussions with other Federal agencies, it is clear that they view EPA as an important ally in ecosystem protection.

EPA's challenge will be to integrate ecosystem management concepts into all agency operations, and to forge working alliances among Federal agencies, States, tribes and other parties involved in ecosystem and biodiversity issues. Currently an Ecosystem Protection Workgroup led by three Assistant Administrators is developing recommendations for changes to EPA programs, policies, and institutional structure. The workgroup will also ask the EPA regions and States to select demonstration projects that will help protect and restore the Nation's ecosystems by refocusing the agency's activities from programs to places.

Two steps must occur if ecosystem protection is to be integrated into the agency's work. The first is to broaden the agency's efforts to be more cross-media and integrated with an emphasis on ecosystem-level problem solving. The second step is to focus on specific ecosystems upon which the agency's resources can be more effectively directed to achieve area-specific environmental goals. The goal of the agency's ecosystem protection efforts will be to maintain overall ecological integrity of the environment while ensuring that ecosystem outputs meet human needs on a sustainable basis.

While the agency is currently working to more fully integrate ecosystem protection into its operations, various EPA programs and regional offices have already begun to move toward an ecosystem protection approach in specific geographic areas. These activities are too numerous to describe fully here, however several examples from program and regional offices are provided below.

Office of Research and Development (ORD)

Because ecosystems are affected by multiple, interacting chemicals and many other non-chemical stresses, the agency needs a better understanding of the stresses on all the components in a system. Unfortunately, a holistic approach has not yet been well developed. Consequently, the Office of Research and Development is reorganizing its ecological research program to focus on developing the capability to do risk assessments for ecosystems. By studying the interactions among the water, atmospheric, and land systems in a geographic area, the agency can best contribute to risk reduction strategies for ecosystems.

One example of ORD's ongoing efforts is EMAP, a national scale monitoring program developed to determine the status and trends of the nation's ecosystems. When fully implemented through cooperation with other agencies that share resource monitoring responsibilities, this research and monitoring effort will provide the needed information to document the current condition of our ecological resources, understand why that condition exists, and predict what conditions will exist in the future under various management alternatives. Such information will enable EPA to take steps that will minimize future risk or to revise current efforts that fall short of their intended results.

ORD Laboratories also support ecological protection. One example of work being done is the "Ecosystem Management Research in the Pacific Northwest" effort by EPA's Corvallis Lab. The research proposed is a part of the multi-agency initiative to implement ecosystem management in the Pacific Northwest. The research program is designed to complement research planned by other Federal agencies within the region and will focus on multiple-use, multiple-ownership lands.

Office of Water

The Office of Water is planning and managing water quality and water resources on a watershed basis using ecosystem principles. The framework for this effort is the Watershed Approach which is an integrated, holistic strategy for more effectively restoring and protecting aquatic ecosystems and protecting human health. Another example of the Office of Water's contribution to ecosystem protection is the continuing work to develop biological criteria. In addition, several water quality research issues will be consolidated into an ecosystem protection research cluster in FY 1995. This will provide the scientific basis for sustainable management and protection of ecological systems in specific watershed areas.

Office of Administration and Resources Management (OARM)

The Office of Administration and Resources Management will be focusing on providing tools and infrastructure required to implement ecosystem protection. OARM will assist in the removal of institutional barriers to implement ecosystem protection in the budget, information systems, organizational structures, and assistance programs.

Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)

Strategic enforcement of existing Federal pollution standards should be a major component of EPA's ecosystem protection effort. The primary function of OECA's Agriculture and Ecosystems Division will be to identify environmental impacts and activities in critical ecosystems in order to ensure efficient and coordinated enforcement responses. One specific enforcement project will develop a process to target areas that are adversely affected by facilities that are in noncompliance with environmental laws. The use of the National Environmental Policy Act and EPA's responsibilities to review the actions of other agencies are important elements of ecosystem protection.

Great Lakes National Program Office

The Great Lakes Program is a nested structure of activities, managed and implemented by an alliance of State, Provincial, Federal, tribal, and non-governmental agencies. This nested structure is meant to parallel the natural hierarchies and boundaries found in the Great Lakes ecosystems; from local landscapes to sub-watersheds to individual lake basins to the entire Great Lakes basin and beyond.

Great Lakes Program actions are coordinated under a 5-Year Strategic Plan. The agencies and organizations involved are working in partnership to address a range of environmental issues, including: the promulgation of water quality criteria and implementation procedures tailored specifically for the Great Lakes Basin; inventorying and protecting critical and important habitat throughout the Basin that supports the region's outstanding biological diversity; demonstrating state-of-the-art assessment and clean-up technologies to remediate contaminated sediment; conducting the most extensive monitoring and modeling evaluation of toxic substances ever undertaken to evaluate pollutant loads, transport, and fate in the Lake Michigan watershed; and pioneering the development and implementation of an integrated information management system to support ecosystem management at the State and Federal level.

Chesapeake Bay Program Office

The Chesapeake Bay program is a multi-governmental partnership which includes the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia; Washington, D.C.; the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a tri-State legislative body; and EPA representing the Federal government. The Chesapeake Bay Program has been directing and conducting the Chesapeake Bay restoration since 1983. More than half of EPA's $21 million Chesapeake Bay Program budget is given to the States in the form of implementation grants for on-the-ground projects to fulfill the goals and commitments of the Program partners. Bay Program efforts are multi-media, cross-program, inter-governmental, and involve a diverse array of stakeholders. The Program has concentrated on enhancing the living resources of the Bay through habitat restoration projects, nutrient reduction activities from point, non-point, and air deposition sources, and has recently moved its focus upstream into the watershed's tributaries.

Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response

Funding through this office is targeted to States to address waste management's contribution to environmental protection in sensitive ecosystems such as the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, and the Caribbean. Activities that support ecosystem protection include: ecological assessment guidance and planning, pilot cleanup projects to stimulate redevelopment in contaminated urban areas, and policies to integrate Federal facility activities into ecosystem protection.

Region l - Maine, Vermont, Hew Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts

Region 1's Resource Protection Strategy entails developing management measures to protect high priority natural resources in New England and integrating its work with ecosystem management principles. Working with New Hampshire as a pilot State, Region 1 is developing a process to be used in all New England States to identify and protect priority resources. Support for this project comes from State, Federal, and local agencies, environmental groups, and other organizations. The purpose of this work is to ensure that limited financial and staff resources are spent where they are most needed. The first step is to develop criteria for selecting the highest priority resources in the State. The second step will be to ensure that adequate measures are in place to protect these resources.

Region 2 - New York, New Jersey, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico

Region 2 is working with stakeholders to develop comprehensive plans to restore the ecological integrity of the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, Long Island Sound, New York/New Jersey Harbor, New York Bight, Delaware Estuary, and San Juan Bay. The Region is also preparing, in cooperation with the Corps of Engineers, an environmental impact statement covering land use planning and environmental protection in the Hackensack Meadowlands District in northwest New Jersey.

Region 3 - Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, Delaware, and Virginia

Two ecosystem related projects highlight Region 3's efforts. The first is the Mid-Atlantic Highlands Assessment which will evaluate the condition of more than half of Region 3's natural resources. The effort will support improved planning by States and the divisions of Region 3. The assessment combines a number of complex State, regional, and national environmental monitoring designs into an assessment process. When fully developed, the assessment will provide the tools to integrate land cover information, measures of human-caused environmental stress, and the biological assessment of stream and fish communities, and agricultural and forest ecosystems. These integrated assessment tools permit improved environmental management by focusing programmatic and technical tools on key problems.

The second project is the Poconos Habitat Demonstration project. A part of Region 3's Terrestrial Ecosystem Protection Initiative, this project will identify ecosystem goals and action plans for two watersheds in Monroe County, PA. Federal, State, and community groups are involved in planning, research, and implementation of actions to meet the identified goals.

Region 5 - Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin

The oak savannas and open woodlands of the Midwest are among the country's most threatened communities. Region 5, along with The Nature Conservancy and two universities, hosted a conference in 1993 that developed a recovery plan for these rare ecosystems. The region is continuing to work with many partners to revise the recovery plan and to identify critical sites for protection and restoration. In addition, Region 5 established an Environmental Roundtable in 1991 to engage Federal, State, and non-governmental organization partners in cooperative ecosystem protection.

Region 7 - Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri

Region 7's Great Plains Project is a cooperative ecosystem effort with the Western Governor's Association, Mexican Border Governors, the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior, and other public and private groups. The overall goal of this initiative is to select areas of high biological value in the Great Plains region; assess the health of the ecosystems within several of these areas; and develop a range of management tools to integrate economic and environmental needs. Three specific objectives of the project are to compile available scientific knowledge and information on the ecological structure of the Great Plains region; determine areas of high priority for protection, enhancement, or preservation based on existing quality of habitat and threats from various factors; and provide this information in a geographic information systems (GIS) format for decisionmaking throughout the Great Plains.

Region 9 - California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii

Region 9's San Francisco Bay/Delta Estuary Initiative is a long-term geographic initiative that focuses on protecting and restoring the estuary's waters, wetlands, and aquatic ecosystems by informing and involving the public, agricultural, and regulated communities. The initiative emphasizes Region 9's commitment to ecosystem protection, pollution prevention, forming partnerships with Federal and State counterparts, coordination with other projects, improving EPA's science and technical capabilities, and fostering cross-media integration.

Region 10 - Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Idaho

Region 10 continues its work for planning and implementing the Northwest Forest Plan. Region 10 staff participate on Federal interagency teams that address scientific assessment, environmental impact statement preparation, public comment analysis, air quality assessment, overall implementation, monitoring, restoration, watershed analysis, geographic information systems, and community economic assistance. EPA will strive to increase participation of State and private landowners and reinforce the commitment to monitoring and adaptive management.

EPA's most direct jurisdiction responsibility regarding wildlife involves water quality criteria, standards, and management program designed to protect aquatic life. EPA Region 10 has adopted a Watershed Protection Approach to recognize the need to expand EPA's traditional focus to include a broader array of ecological stressors and to involve the range of stakeholders within a watershed. This approach is consistent with the goals of the Office of Water. Region 10 proposes to encourage and facilitate State and local efforts to manage on a watershed basis, target technical tools, funding, and expertise to watersheds where pollution and habitat destruction pose the greatest risk to human health or ecological resources, and build stronger alliances among the many stakeholders within a watershed.

COOPERATION AND COORDINATION

Many of the projects and activities described above are being done in collaboration with Federal and State agencies, and reflect how EPA works with these other agencies. EPA recognizes the importance of working with other agencies to achieve ecosystem management. Accordingly, the agency will strive to increase coordination and collaboration among Federal, State, tribal and private organizations.

EPA is involved in many coordination efforts with our Federal partners. The Assistant Administrator for Policy, Planning, and Evaluation, for instance, is EPA's representative on the Interagency Ecosystem Task Force chaired by the Director of the Office on Environmental Policy at the White House. Another strong example of EPA's efforts is a workshop on EPA's ecosystem protection efforts sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute that brought together 20 Federal agencies. The report generated at the workshop outlined many useful suggestions for EPA's ecosystem protection efforts and for opportunities for interagency coordination and cooperation. EPA was also instrumental in bringing together Federal, State, and local agencies, the private sector, and the public in a conference held in March, 1993 to exchange ideas and information concerning comprehensive watershed management.

EPA ecosystem protection efforts will benefit greatly from increased interaction with other Federal agencies. For example, the Interagency Ecosystem Management Coordination Group was formed to promote coordination and collaboration of ecosystem management activities among diverse agencies. EPA staff assisted in the formation of the group and continues to work with other agencies in its many functions. EPA will continue to profit from the group's network of agencies, and others, as it works on ecosystem management related issues.

TOOLS OF ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

Efforts to protect the environment are inherently geographic in nature. Achieving an informed understanding of the often complex relationship between natural resources, human population, and pollution sources is critical to successfully accomplishing the mission of the EPA.

The agency is one of the largest consumers of spatial data in the civilian government. In an effort to maximize the use of this information, the Office of Information Resources Management (OIRM), established a National Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Program in 1989, to manage, coordinate and promote EPA's integrated use of spatial data. While the primary leadership role rests within OIRM, the Regional, Laboratory, and Program Offices GIS teams serve as the key reference point for EPA's spatial application development and program support. This agency-wide infrastructure includes: 10 regional offices; 7 laboratories; the Center of Excellence for Applied Research and Development in Las Vegas, NV; the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP); the National Data Processing Division in Research Triangle Park, NC; and Headquarters program offices.

The National GIS Program in OIRM was established to provide both leadership and support to the agency decision-makers and program offices. The GIS Program is responsible for developing and maintaining an agency-wide support network; participating in the review and evaluation of new GIS related technologies; promoting the sharing of GIS data and expertise; coordinating with external organizations concerning GIS and related geographic data activities; and serving as a focal point for GIS issues within the agency.

The GIS Program has been actively involved with the development and implementation of the EPA Locational Data Policy, which requires that environmental monitoring data EPA collects include a latitude-longitude coordinate of know accuracy; the National Spatial Data Management Plan, which addresses the best way to deliver these data across the agency; and a member of the Federal Geographic Data Committee, in the development, implementation, and support of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.

FUNDING ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT LIMITS AND OPPORTUNITIES

(EPA chose not to discuss these two topics in their report.)

CONTACT

Jim Serfis
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, S.W.
Room 2119, MS 2252
Washington, D.C. 20460