March 2008 ORGANIZATION OF FISH AND WILDLIFE …

It is difficult to believe that half the year has passed since our gathering in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. OFWIM has been an active organization with outreach efforts, committees setting goals and starting work, and a new web portal community that should be ready soon for our members. There is still room for more members to participate in the committees. The training committee is looking for topics for potential training throughout the year, not just at the conferences. Some of the training can be performed via web-ex demonstrations. If you have something you would like to share with your OFWIM colleagues, please contact the committee chairs for additional information. Much work has also been completed for our upcoming annual conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the end of October. The meeting planning committee is well under way in setting up several exciting field trips. They have also created the first call for papers, which is in-cluded in this newsletter. Please feel free to start submit-ting abstracts soon. If you aren’t sure if your topic fits under a header on the call for papers, submit it anyway! Our theme this year is “Using Innovative Technology to Move from Planning to Implementation.” As our annual conference and business meeting draws nearer, we will be asking for nominations for all of our officer positions. If you, or someone you know, might be interested in serving in an officer capacity, please contact any of the current officers, or the awards and nomination committee chair for further information. The executive committee would also encourage everyone to send ideas of how to improve the or-ganization, topics for future meeting sessions, and training and other opportunities that you would like available throughout the year and not just at the conference. A list of contact information is available on the web site at: http://www.ofwim.org. We still have seven months until our next face-to-face meeting and we would like to see activity continue throughout the year. As much as spring is a reminder of renewal, please remember to renew your membership for 2008. Memberships now run for a calendar year and not from conference to conference. Have a happy and healthy spring season!

Sabra Sabra Schwartz OFWIM 2008 president

President’s Message

O R G A N I Z A T I O N O F F I S H A N D W I L D L I F E I N F O R M A T I O N M A N A G E R S March 2008

OFWIM news

Inside this issue:

President’s Message 1

First Call for Papers OFWIM 2008

2

Abstract Submission Form

3

Minnesota Tagged Fish Reporter

4

Seabirds as Indicators of Environmental Health

5-6

OFWIM Committee Description and Members

7-8

Plan to Visit Cibola National Forest!

8

Committees in the Spotlight

9

Thank you for the 2007 OFWIM Raffle Donations!

10

2008 Individual Membership Form

11

2008 Organizational Membership Form

12-13

Save the Date for the 2008 OFWIM Conference

14

Renew your membership today!

First Call for Papers!

See page 2

Albuquerque, New Mexico Photo by Shelaine Hetrick

March 2008

USING INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY TO MOVE

FROM PLANNING TO IMPLEMENTATION Possible topics:

Implementing State Wildlife Action Plans • Updates from the states • Opportunities for collaboration and partnerships

New Technology and Applications • Putting technology to new uses for fish and wildlife management • Comparing existing technology on the market • New online multi-user applications

Managing Regional Issues • Renewable energy • Fire • Invasive species • Transportation: new SAFETEA-LU 6002 regulations

Focus on Taxonomic Groups • Innovative technology and collaborations for managing specific taxonomic groups

This call is for papers, panel discussions, and poster presentations related to the conference theme or to fish and wildlife information management in general. Individual papers should be 15 minutes in length to allow time for discussion. Panel Discussions should fit in 1½ hour sessions. A unique feature of the conference is the “Hacker’s Ball,” an OFWIM tradition that combines the poster session with live demonstrations of applications. Deadline for submission of all abstracts (with speaker biography) is Friday July 11, 2008. Please use the form on the following page. Submit session topics and abstracts for papers, panel discussions, symposia, poster presentations and requests for Internet ports at the Hacker’s Ball to:

Robin Carlson Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (415) 242-5784 Rcarlson (at) dfg.ca.gov

Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers

First Call for Papers OFWIM 2008 Conference

October 27-30, 2008 Albuquerque, NM

March 2008

OFWIM 2008 Conference ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM

Deadline for submission of all abstracts is Friday July 11, 2008. Name: Organization: Address: Phone: Email:

I am submitting an abstract for a presentation. I am submitting an abstract for a panel discussion. I am submitting an abstract for a poster at the Hacker’s Ball. For posters only: I will need internet access for my Hacker’s Ball poster/presentation.

Abstract (1500 chars): Biography (750 chars.): Please see OFWIM web site for examples of previous biographies and abstracts. Please note all presentations will be made available on the OFWIM web site (http://www.ofwim.org/). Submit session topics and abstracts for papers, panel discussions, symposia, poster presentations and requests for Internet ports at the Hacker’s Ball to:

Robin Carlson Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (415) 242-5784 Rcarlson (at) dfg.ca.gov

The tagged fish reporting project was my first real foray into website and/or application design, and would not have been possible without much assistance from fellow Fisheries and MIS staff. The project began as a solution to the problem of limited information on the Minnesota DNR's website concerning what to do when you caught a tagged fish. A few of the area offices had posted information on their web pages concerning tagged fish, and each was maintaining their own set of public catch records. When my supervisor originally approached me, the goal was to have built a single site where anglers wanting to report a tagged fish catch could determine which area office and staff person they should contact. It was suggested that we provide a static map of the state with the proper fisheries contact indicated for each area, and a list of the information about the event that should be included with the message. My background is in GIS, and I work with, and had taken a graduate course from Steve Lime, the creator of MapServer. So I began thinking that if we were going to use a map to help anglers report their catch, maybe we could make it interactive, and the portal through which anglers would communicate the locational information we were looking for. I was also fortunate enough to have a supervisor that gave me the leeway to experi-ment, and had trusted that I would get the job done. An interactive map allowed the angler to report to us more accurately where the catch took place, gave the catch infor-mation in a format that is GIS compatible, and let us control the data that could be submitted. The response from both Minnesota's fishing community and DNR staff has been very positive. We were initially con-cerned with how willing the public would be to share so much information. Not only do they provide every bit of data we ask for, it’s often very detailed. Often including the time of day, the appearance of the fish, and what kind of

lure they were using. It has also been used as an avenue for showing support for DNR Fisheries manage-ment practices. Jim from Cedar, MN commented, “I think you folks in Fisheries, and in the DNR in general are doing a great job on Mille Lacs, sometimes in some pretty difficult circumstances with business owners, sport fisherpeople [sic], tribal netting and spearing all with their own opinions and view-points.” DNR staff have recognized many venues where the functionality of this application would be useful for data collection and reporting.

Minnesota Tagged Fish Reporter Winner of the 2007 GIS web-based Technical Application Award

By Clay Cottingim, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

March 2008

“An interactive map allowed the angler to report …”

The Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET), a project of Tufts University’s Center for Conservation Medicine, aims to link marine ecological health and human health by monitoring seabird mortality along the U.S. Atlan-tic Coast.

Numerous threats con-tribute to seabird mortal-ity, including disease, fisheries operations, con-taminants, offshore de-velopment, and oil pollu-tion. These risks also threaten coastal and ma-rine environments used by humans. The goals of the SEANET project are to identify threats to sea-bird populations, pro-mote conservation measures to alleviate those threats, and en-gage the public in ocean research and conservation. SEANET accomplishes these goals by recruiting volunteers to conduct twice-monthly beach surveys and record data on abundance of

live and dead seabirds. Necropsies of freshly beached birds are conducted in order to identify specific causes of mortality. Since SEANET was initiated in 2002, >3,800 beached bird surveys have been completed; surveys are now be-ing conducted from ME south to NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, GA, and FL. Over 3,000 carcasses of 76 different seabird and waterbird species have been encountered so far. Results revealing a number of different causes of death have generated several ongoing research projects and in some cases have contributed to management de-cisions. In 2005, SEANET partnered with the NBII, the NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN), and the NBII Northeast Information Node (NIN) to create a web-based reporting system for seabird strandings, which is housed at <http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov/seanet>.

Seabirds as Indicators of Environmental Health: Citizen Scientists Monitor Seabird Mortality Throughout the Atlantic Coast of the United States

Winner of the 2007 Best Poster Award

SEANET Program Director Julie Ellis

March 2008

A SEANET volunteer scanning his beach for live and dead seabirds.

Example volunteer photo submitted of a Common Eider carcass. Allowing volunteers to upload photos has proven to be a great tool in

verifying the identification of a dead bird. Photo credit: SEANET volunteer Ray Bosse

This figure displays the main system menu available to volunteers in the SEANET web application. Users can enter data, explore the map, browse and

edit old records, and access FAQs and help on working with the system.

The system enables volunteers to enter data directly on the Web, allowing results to be quickly compiled. These data are streamed to an interactive GIS application for the assessment of risk factors and mortality patterns. The dynamically generated GIS application functions as part of the NBII’s Geospatial Information Framework (GIF), allowing users to include additional Web mapping services (using the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Web Map Service standards) and tools like the Gazetteer to zoom to specific locations and investigate beached bird infor-mation. NIN’s lead partner, the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia Univer-sity, is evaluating additional GIS layers to contribute to the mapping application.

As of January 2008, 91 volunteers have been registered to perform online entry, and the list is growing daily. The use of standards in the SEANET system drives its success. Providing easy-to-use Web forms ensures that data are captured efficiently for comparison and storage using the Integrated Taxonomic Information System <http://www.itis.gov/> for species information and existing environmental observation standards. The long-term goal of SEANET is to maintain a consistent effort to record changes in seabird mortality patterns, establishing baseline data with which “unusual” mortality events can be compared. SEANET’s online data-entry system also serves as a model for other wildlife mortality reporting, including a multi-agency reporting system for avian influenza sampling data for the United States. For more information about SEANET, contact SEANET Program Director Julie Ellis at <[email protected]>.

March 2008

The SEANET data on beached birds is fed into an ArcIMS viewer used to explore the carcasses geographically. Numerous background layers are available for overlay/underlay via the OGC WMS capabilities standard. The NBII Geospatial Interoperability Framework has been incorporated into this viewer allowing

full access to the NBII catalog of geospatial information.

March 2008

Communications

Chair: Shelaine Curd Hetrick (e-mail: shelaine (at) iiaweb.com)

Vice-Chair: Lisa Zolly

Data Standards & Technology Trends

Chair: Scott Anderson

(scott.anderson (at) ncwild-life.org)

Vice-Chair: Viv Hutchison

Elections, Nominations & Awards

Chair: Viv Hutchison (e-mail:

vhutchison (at) usgs.gov) Vice-Chair: Sabra Schwartz

Meeting Planning

Chair: Robin Carlson (e-mail: rcarlson (at) dfg.ca.gov)

Vice-Chair: Julie Prior-Magee

Membership & Outreach

Chair: Janet Hess-Herbert (e-mail:

jhessherbert (at) mt.gov) Vice-Chair: Aliya Ercelawn

Training & Education

Chair: Don Schrupp (e-mail: hqwris (at) lamar.colostate.edu)

Vice-Chair: Sabra Schwartz

OFWIM Committees:

OFWIM Committee Descriptions and Members

Communications Committee This committee is responsible for publishing a newsletter (at least 3 times per year), helping organize the annual meeting of the Organization (including public-ity), and maintaining the Web sites and mailing list for the Organization.

Chair: Shelaine Curd Hetrick (e-mail: shelaine (at) iiaweb.com) Vice-Chair: Lisa Zolly Members: Lila Borge-Wills, Jen Pollock

Data Standards and Technology Trends Committee This committee is responsible for developing and maintaining a data standards handbook for fish and wildlife database and information system developers. It will necessarily require close interaction with other groups and agencies to coordi-nate other on-going efforts.

Chair: Scott Anderson (scott.anderson (at) ncwildlife.org) Vice-Chair: Viv Hutchison Members: Lisa Zolly, Megan K. Hines, Kristin Rogers, Michael Barbour, Don Katnik, Andrea Ostroff

Elections, Nominations, and Awards Committee This committee is responsible for developing and implementing the Organiza-tion's various award and recognition programs and for developing a slate of candi-dates for the Organization's annual elections.

Chair: Viv Hutchison (e-mail: vhutchison (at) usgs.gov) Vice-Chair: Sabra Schwartz Members: Beth Stys, Robin Carlson, Becky Gwynn

Meeting Planning Committee This committee is responsible for coordinating the development and implementa-tion of the Organization's annual meeting.

Chair: Robin Carlson (e-mail: rcarlson (at) dfg.ca.gov) Vice-Chair: Julie Prior-Magee Members: Jennifer Pollock, Inigo San-Gil, Keith Wethington, Lila Wills

Membership and Outreach Committee This committee is responsible for maintaining and increasing Organization mem-bership by actively identifying and contacting potential members. The Member-ship Committee will also help to prepare a slate of candidates for the Organiza-tion offices of President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and Member At-Large.

Chair: Janet Hess-Herbert (e-mail: jhessherbert (at) mt.gov) Vice-Chair: Aliya Ercelawn Members: Lila Borge-Wills, Kirk Keller, Jen Pollock

OFWIM Committee Descriptions and Members (continued) Training and Education Committee

This committee is responsible for assessing the continuing educational and infor-mation management and technology training needs of fisheries and wildlife pro-fessionals and works in close coordination with the Executive Committee to de-velop a comprehensive education program.

Chair: Don Schrupp (e-mail: hqwris (at) lamar.colostate.edu) Vice-Chair: Sabra Schwartz Members: Lila Borge-Wills, Don Katnik

March 2008

Contact The

Committee Chair

for more information.

Get involved!

OFWIM 2008 Conference October 27-30, 2008 — Albuquerque, NM

While you are in New Mexico, you may want to plan a visit to the Cibola National Forest. “Just east of Albuquerque are the most visited mountains in New Mexico.”

“Millions of people journey into the Sandia Moun-tains each year. In many ways wildlife, fish and rare plants are the measure of our success as ecosys-tem managers. Species diversity and abundance relate to ecosystem health. The District wildlife program features habitat enhancement projects, inventory and monitoring of emphasis species, and informative and education. The program relies heavily on the support of partnership groups such as the Albuquerque Wildlife Federation, Hawk-watch International, Central New Mexico Audu-bon Society, Sandia Mountain Bearwatch, and the

New Mexico Habitat Stamp program; the wildlife program is integrated into fire/fuels, recreation, and forest health project objectives. There is an unmet opportunity to use funds from the Fee Project to help interpret wildlife and ecosystems on the District; some interpretation featuring wildlife is occurring, but much more could be done. Opportuni-ties for Nature Watch-type activities are outstanding.” (http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/cibola/districts/sandia.shtml.)

To read more about the Sandia Ranger District at Cibola National Forest visit http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/cibola/districts/sandia.shtml.

Plan to Visit Cibola National Forest!

Shelaine Hetrick at the Cibola National Forest Photo provided by Shelaine Hetrick

Elections, Nominations, and Awards Committee

The goal of the Awards and Nominations Committee is to develop and implement OFWIM’s various award and recognition programs and to coordinate the entire election process for the Organization's officer posi-tions. The Committee will accomplish these goals by coordinating nominations, applications, and awards processes for each type of OFWIM recognition; developing a new award category; coordinating the student scholarship activities; and developing a slate of candidates for the annual elections. Members of the Com-mittee include Viv Hutchison (Chair), Sabra Schwartz (Vice-chair), Robin Carlson, Beth Stys, and Becky Gwynn. Committee members will meet regularly throughout the year. The first meeting was held on Febru-ary 22, 2008.

Meeting Planning Committee The Meeting Planning Committee has been busy planning the 2008 OFWIM Annual Meeting, “Using In-novative Technology to Move from Planning to Implementation.” We are developing timely and informa-tive topics for the conference, locating fascinating speakers, and planning exciting field trips. Watch the OFWIM website for more information!

Training and Education Committee The OFWIM Training and Education Committee would like to encourage the OFWIM membership to pro-vide feedback on the types of training needs that the organization could provide for professional fish and wildlife information managers. One area of OFWIM focus on training in the past has been the presentation of workshops at the annual meeting. If you have ideas for the types of workshops that OFWIM could pro-vide at the Annual Meeting, and resources that could be drawn upon for such workshops, please contact one of us, and let us know your suggestions. Additionally, the Training and Education Committee hopes to investigate the capacity for web-based semi-nars to provide for 'Distance Learning' sessions and courses for our OFWIM membership. If an “OFWIM Community Portal” can be established this year, we'd hope to be able to leverage its capabilities to provide additional training opportunities to the membership. If you have thoughts for the types of training sessions that would benefit you professionally, let us know your thoughts in this regard, too. One example that might lend itself to a prototype could be an extension of the “Experiments with Shapefiles and GoogleEarth” work session provided at last years OFWIM Annual Meeting in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. We're sure the membership is full of ideas that might suit this type of forum. A first web-seminar could even be one on the use of the “OFWIM Community Portal”. Assuming the Portal does come on line soon, the Training and Education Committee will try to leverage its capabilities to help increase the training and education benefits to the membership. In the meantime, please feel free to send us emails regarding your wishes for OFWIM's involvement in this arena. A 'DRAFT' of our committee's overall “Goals and Objectives” should be posted to the OFWIM website in the near future. Lastly, if you missed the opportunity to sign up for the Training and Education Committee at the Annual Meeting, but would like to become more involved in our activities, please let us know of your willingness to serve on this Committee.

March 2008

Committees in the Spotlight

Thank you for the 2007 OFWIM Raffle Donations!

March 2008

Interested in

becoming an

Executive

committee

member?

Get

Involved

now!

Join

OFWIM

Arizona Game and Fish Department 3 Sets of Hawaii postcards 1 Set of Hawaii notecards 1 Hawaii magnet 6 Arizona wildlife books 2 Natural wooden pencils Barb White (personal donation) 1 FWS sweatshirt 1 FWS jacket Beth Stys (personal donation) 1 Nat’l Wild Turkey Federation cooler California Department of Fish and Game 3 copies of Atlas of the Biodiversity of California DeLorme 1 XMap 5.2 GIS Florida Chapter of the Wildlife Society 1 T-shirt 1 Coffee mug 1 Pen knife Glenn Gravatt (personal donation) 1 NCTC hat 1 NCTC mug 1 NCTC t-shirt John Stys (personal donation) 1 Handmade wooden cutting board 1 Handmade wooden bread knife 2 Handmade wooden pens

Missouri Department of Conservation 1 Trees of Minnesota Field Guide 1 Show-Me Bugs 1 Tried and True Native Plants for Your Yard 1 Echoes of Outdoor Missouri CD 1 Exploring Outdoor Missouri DVD Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks 3 DVDs The Nature Conservancy 1 Tote bag 1 Hat 2 Fanny packs 2 Luggage tags Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commis-sion 1 Polo shirt 1 Umbrella 1 Fleece vest 1 Duffel bag Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries 2 Fleece blankets 5 T-shirts 2 Calendars 1 Mug 1 Plate 1 Hunting knife with wooden box 1 Hat 1 Neck band for binoculars 1 Set of note cards

Use the form below to join OFWIM as a new member or to renew your membership for 2008. Individual Members are entitled to vote in the annual election and hold office. Current members are notified of new newsletters and have access to special OFWIM web content. Current mem-bers also receive a discount on 2008 conference registration.

If you work for an organization with 4 or more individuals interested in OFWIM membership, you may benefit from obtaining an Organizational Membership. Information about Organizational Membership can be found at: http://www.ofwim.org/org/membership.html

The 2008 OFWIM annual membership period is January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008. To become a new member of OFWIM or renew your current membership, please complete and mail the form below with a check or money order for $25 (in U.S. dollars!) payable to OFWIM, to:

Aliya Ercelawn, OFWIM Treasurer The Nature Conservancy 711 Navarro, Suite 410 San Antonio, TX 78205

(210) 224-8774

aercelawn (at) tnc.org

OFWIM 2008 Membership Form

Name: __________________________________________________

Agency:__________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

City: _______________________________ State: ____Zip:________

Phone:(_____)_________________ Fax:(______)________________

Email:___________________________________________________

Memberships Annual Dues

Individual Member – 2008 $ 25.00 (one voting membership)

Please pay in U.S. dollars! $_________

2008 Individual Membership Form

March 2008

OFWIM 2008 Organizational Membership Form

March 2008

Use the form below to become an Organizational Member or renew your current Organizational Mem-bership. Organizational Members may list up to six (6) individuals who will have full member privileges. These individuals will be entitled to vote in the annual elections and hold office. Current members are notified of new newsletters and have access to special OFWIM web content. Current members also re-ceive a discount on 2008 conference registration. The 2008 OFWIM annual membership period is January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008. To be-come an OFWIM Organization Member, please complete and mail the form below with a check or money order (in U.S. dollars!) payable to OFWIM. Please list the names and contact information for up to six (6) individuals on the form below. An organization may have more than one Organizational Mem-bership. For additional Organizational Memberships, please submit a separate list of individuals for each Membership (up to 6 per Organizational Membership). Send completed form and payment to:

Aliya Ercelawn, OFWIM Treasurer The Nature Conservancy 711 Navarro, Suite 410 San Antonio, TX 78205

(210) 224-8774 aercelawn (at) tnc.org

OFWIM 2008 Organizational Membership Form

Organization Name: ________________________________________

Primary organization contact:

Name: __________________________________________________

Title: ___________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

City: _______________________________ State: ____Zip:________

Phone:(_____)_________________ Fax:(______)________________

Email:___________________________________________________

How did you hear about OFWIM?______________________________

Memberships Annual Dues Organization Membership – 2008 (you must list up to 6 individuals for Individual Memberships)

$ 100

Number of Organizational Memberships X _____

Please pay in U.S. dollars! $_________

OFWIM organizational membership form page 1 of 2

March 2008

Please list up to 5 individuals below plus the Primary Organizational Contact on the previ-ous page (for a total of 6), within your organization for Individual Membership: 1) Name: ________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

City: _______________________________ State: ____Zip:________

Phone:(_____)_________________ Fax:(______)________________

Email:___________________________________________________

2) Name: ________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

City: _______________________________ State: ____Zip:________

Phone:(_____)_________________ Fax:(______)________________

Email:___________________________________________________

3) Name: ________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

City: _______________________________ State: ____Zip:________

Phone:(_____)_________________ Fax:(______)________________

Email:___________________________________________________

4) Name: ________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

City: _______________________________ State: ____Zip:________

Phone:(_____)_________________ Fax:(______)________________

Email:___________________________________________________

5) Name: ________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

City: _______________________________ State: ____Zip:________

Phone:(_____)_________________ Fax:(______)________________

Email:___________________________________________________

OFWIM organizational membership form page 2 of 2

OFWIM 2008 Organizational Membership Form (continued)

Newsletter editor Shelaine Hetrick Information International

Associates / National Biological Information Infrastructure—Southern Appalachian

1055 Commerce Park Dr. Suite 110 Oak Ridge, TN 37830

Phone: 865-298-1242 E-mail: Shelaine (at) iiaweb.com

O R G A N I Z A T I O N O F F I S H A N D W I L D L I F E I N F O R M A T I O N M A N A G E R S

Thank you to all who participated in OFWIM 2007!

Remember to renew your membership!

March 2008

OFWIM 2008 Conference October 27-30, 2008 Albuquerque, NM

2008 Meeting Theme! USING INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY TO MOVE

FROM PLANNING TO IMPLEMENTATION

Please send newsletter comments, suggestions and articles to Shelaine Hetrick

Shelaine (at) iiaweb.com

Article Deadline for Summer Issue: May 15th

March 2008 ORGANIZATION OF FISH AND WILDLIFE …

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