General Statement

General Statement

Science for a Changing World...embodies the character and role of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as the provider of natural science for the Nation and the world. The USGS is the Nation's largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency, working in cooperation with more than 2,000 organizations across the country and numerous international communities to provide reliable, impartial scientific information to resource managers, planners, and other customers.

This information, gathered in every State, is relevant to the Nation's well being and future ability to minimize the loss of life and property from natural disasters including volcanoes, earthquakes, geomagnetic storms, floods, hurricanes, landslides, wildfires and wildlife disease. USGS science programs help to avert the human and economic costs of natural disasters that kill hundreds of people and cost over $50 billion annually in the United States.

USGS biological, geological, hydrological, and mapping programs are essential to the effective stewardship of the Nation's cultural and natural resources, including the Department's management of about 450 million acres of Federal lands (about one-fifth of the total U.S. landmass) contained in national parks and preserves, national wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, and range lands, and about three billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf.

Data collection and analytic capabilities of the USGS directly contribute to the conservation as well as economic and physical development of the Nation's natural resources. Other Federal agencies and State and local governments use USGS water, biological, energy and mineral resources information and capabilities to guide planning, management and regulatory programs.

The Strategic Plan...of the USGS has been refocused to be customer driven. Our commitment follows through in our budget and accompanying annual plan with increased emphasis on providing natural science data and research that meet the highest priority needs of our customers in fulfilling their missions. This focus strengthens our contribution to the resolution of complex issues and our tie to the outcomes achieved by our customers through science-based decisionmaking.

The USGS mission goals are directly linked to the Department of the Interior's (DOI) goal of "Providing science for a changing world," while also contributing to all of the other Departmental goals. The USGS mission is now clearly communicated through two bureau goals:

Environment and Natural Resources... Provide science for a changing world in response to present and anticipated needs to expand our understanding of environmental and natural resource issues on regional, national, and global scales and enhance predictive/forecast modeling capabilities.

Hazards...Provide science for a changing world in response to present and anticipated needs, focusing efforts to predict and monitor hazardous events in near real time and real time and to conduct risk assessments to mitigate loss.

General Statement

The contributions of each programmatic budget activity to achieving these mission goals are identified in each Activity Summary and discussed further in the FY 2000 Annual Plan.

and the economy, the challenges we face today cause us to propose that the scientific and engineering enterprise ought to move towards center stage in a fourth role: that of helping society make good decisions. We believe this role for science will take on increasing importance, particularly as we face difficult decisions related to the environment. Accomplishing this goal will require, among other things, the development of research agendas aimed at analyzing and resolving contentious issues, and will demand closer coordination among scientists, engineers, and policymakers."

Similarly, House Report language accompanying the FY 1999 Appropriations states

The Committee supports the team approach that integrates all of the Survey's programs into one interdisciplinary science program designed to address major societal problems."

As the science bureau for DOI, and the only integrated natural resources research bureau in the Federal Government, the USGS has the capability to work hand-in-hand with land managers at the local, State and national level. The USGS staff of biologists, geographers, geologists, hydrologists, and other professionals bring multidisciplinary expertise to bear on solving today's problems and provide the knowledge to land managers to ensure that decisions that are made today will not have unintended consequences tomorrow.

The USGS has engaged the public, private, and academic sectors in dialogue to guide our efforts at integrating science and to develop our research agenda. In November 1998, the USGS, Ecological Society of America (ESA), and Geological Society of America (GSA) held a workshop on enhancing integrated science. The participants discussed the social, scientific, and administrative environments that lead to successful collaboration and integration, produced an initial set of principles for integrating scientific efforts, and made recommendations for both the USGS and the larger scientific community to facilitate interdisciplinary work. Two previous workshops held by USGS, ESA, GSA, and the Keystone Center (a non-profit science and public policy and educational organization), identified new interdisciplinary research opportunities relevant to USGS mission.

General Statement

The USGS is proposing an “Integrated Science" budget activity that will result in more efficient planning and operations for projects that benefit from the multidisciplinary science talents of the bureau. This new budget activity has two program components. “DOI Science Priorities" will focus on the high priority science needs of the Department's land management bureaus. "Place-based Studies" will focus on improving scientific understanding of complex, longstanding problems and providing scientific information in new, more comprehensive ways. This new budget activity will both facilitate the integration of activities, and provide the flexibility to shift emphasis and geographic location as customers' needs change.

DOI Science Priorities (+$15.0 million) — House Report language on the FY 1999
Appropriations states that

"The Committee recognizes the growing need for high priority on-the-ground
research for the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of
Land Management. The Committee has provided additional resources to meet
the growing demand for sound science on which to base resource management
decisions. The Committee is concerned that the Bureaus in the Department have
not been working with the Biological Resources Division to address their
scientific needs. The Committee strongly encourages all of the bureaus to use
the Biological Resources Division in carrying out the scientific responsibilities
within their jurisdiction."

In providing science for a changing world, the Department has a planned outcome that resource managers will make decisions based on accurate, reliable, and impartial scientific information. One of the strategies to achieve this outcome is to ensure that the scientific research program focuses on understanding, assessing, and monitoring ecosystems to provide scientific understanding and technologies needed to support sound land and resource management.

In FY 2000, a DOI-wide process is being piloted with NPS, FWS, and BLM to assess the status of current science support, identify gaps and cross-bureau applications, formulate priorities for USGS research in support of land management needs and obtain land management bureau input for defining GPRA metrics and science outcomes. Current cooperative activities with DOI provide a $15 million base program ($9.5 million from Biological Research, $3.5 million from Water Resources Investigations, and $2.0 million from Geologic Hazards, Resources, and Processes) for which an augmentation of $15 million is being requested in the FY 2000 budget to fund the science needs that the land management bureaus prioritize through this process.

The request provides the first step in establishing a broad partnership with these Federal managers to enhance scientifically sound management of the lands and resources under their stewardship. The Directors of NPS, FWS, and BLM have identified their highest priority needs for the integrated scientific capabilities of the USGS including: (1) formulation of strategies for ecosystem restoration; (2) establishment of ecosystem monitoring protocols; (3) assessment of rangeland and riparian health; (4) investigation and restoration of declining species and species at risk; (5) prediction and effects of invasive alien species; 1 (6) Natural Resources Preservation Program tactical studies; and (7) assistance for making scientific data understandable to the public.

General Statement

Place-Based Studies (+$2.4 million) — A General Accounting Office report released in January 1999, GAO/OCG-99-1 Major Management Challenges and Program Risks — A Governmentwide Perspective, cites the need for improved coordination in managing Federal lands. GAO states that the key challenge is reconciling administrative boundaries with natural system boundaries in planning how best to manage land use and assessing the cumulative impact of Federal and non-Federal activities on the environment. The report cites as an example

"a widely recognized boundary of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem encompasses all or part of seven national forests, two national parks, and three national wildlife refuges—most of which are covered by different plans."

This is precisely the type of challenge that USGS' integrated place-based science is poised to address, fostering collaborative decisionmaking among land management agencies. For the needs of Greater Yellowstone area, for example, USGS is conducting a pilot study to bring information into a common spatial framework (geographic information systems). By developing and sharing data resources with Federal and State agencies, information will be consistent and useful across ownership and management unit boundaries, and in a form that can be applied to management decisions concerning wildlife and its habitat, local zoning, geothermal and mineral resources, and natural hazards. Current integrated placebased studies in South Florida, San Francisco Bay, Chesapeake Bay, Greater Yellowstone, California Desert/Mojave, Platte River, Salton Sea provide a $15.3 million base for this program ($3.8 million from Biological Research, $5.6 million from Water Resources Investigations, and $3.2 million from Geologic Hazards, Resources, and Processes and $2.7 million from the National Mapping Program) for which an augmentation of $2.4 million is being requested in the FY 2000 budget. Scientific information provided by place-based studies can be used to guide land acquisition proposed in these areas under the Administration's Land Legacy initiative.

Of the $2.4 million increase requested, $1.3 million will augment current efforts in Yellowstone ($400,000), California Desert/Mojave ($500,000), and Platte River ($400,000). The remaining $1.1 million will support initiation of integrated place-based studies for the Great Lakes Region which includes nearly one-third of the Nation's population, about 50 percent of the Nation's heavy industry, and the bulk of one of the Nation's most important agricultural resource areas the corn belt. Economically, the region accounts for about 56 percent, $180-200 billion, in trade between the United States and Canada. The Great Lakes Basin supplies the drinking water of 37 million people, and is responsible for a significant portion of $70 billion recreation and tourism industry of the Great Lakes States.

The EPA, FWS, NPS, the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Protection Fund, and Great Lake States have identified the need for integrated surficial geologic maps, ground water source and availability data, and terrestrial and aquatic resource information to provide decision tools to resource managers. These tools are necessary to help managers determine water supply availability, protect groundwater resources, and restore coastal habitats in this highly populated and increasingly developed region. Partnerships with stakeholders, such as our geologic mapping partnerships with State Geologic Surveys, are central to the success of this integrated science program.