About PNWRC

About PNWRC ...

















	(for PNWRC Partners)

PNWRC Concept

Regional Partners

Funding

Concept

The Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. is a mosaic of federal, state, tribal, private, and non-governmental landowners who have various responsibilities for environmental, land and water resource management. Assessing current conditions and the implications of natural resource management options in this region presents numerous challenges: The region is ecologically diverse; it includes harsh environments associated with temperature extremes and rugged topography; and knowledge about how its ecosystems collectively operate is limited. Often, resource management issues in these areas must address concerns that span different ecological areas, ranging from high alpine meadows to forests to arid lands to coastlines. Although data are available from various sources, a significant limitation is the lack of comprehensive regional datasets that can help managers understand and evaluate management options and impact on adjacent resources.

To help address some of these, six regional institutions have formed the Pacific Northwest Regional Collaboratory (PNWRC).

The PNWRC is a partnership of scientists and engineers collaborating to bring information — derived from data from satellites and other sources — to the people who manage our region’s streams, forests, farmland, and urban areas. Remote sensing data can provide accurate and timely information on resource conditions and trends. However, these data and images are currently not accessible to many resource managers because of the cost, time, and training required for data acquisition and processing. The primary objective of the PNWRC is to support critical Northwest resource decisions with information and tools derived from remote sensing and other geospatial technologies. It also serves as a mechanism to promote information exchange and learning among the partners, end users, and the broader public. Ultimately, the PNWRC aims to help people in the region to deal more effectively with their serious water management, land management, and sustainable development needs.

Regional Partners

Two national laboratories and four regional universities currently comprise the PNWRC. The original partners include the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, the Idaho State University, the University of Idaho, the Oregon State University, and the University of Washington. The strength of the PNWRC lies in the collective capabilities and resources of these PNWRC partners, including:

Extensive research and technical experience with a diverse set of ecosystems;

access to a wide range of facilities, equipment and geospatial data sets;

teaching and training expertise in multiple geospatial and natural resource disciplines; and

partnerships with a broad set of end users of geospatial data working in federal, state, local, tribal, and commercial organizations.

Management representatives of the current partner institutions are identified below. It is expected that the partner base will be expanded in future years to include additional partners in the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, as well as institutions in adjoining states and provinces.

For more information on the PNWRC, please contact Jerry Tagestad, PNWRC Program Manager. For information specific to each of the partners, please contact:

Partner	Contact
Idaho National Laboratory (INL):	James D. Herzog Business Development Coordinator
Idaho State University:	Lawrence Ford Interim Chief Research Officer
Oregon State University:	Gail Achterman Director, Institute for Natural Resources
University of Idaho:	Gene Merrill Assistant Vice President for Research and Chief Technology Transfer Officer
University of Washington:	Dr. David Martin Applied Physics Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL):	Steve Gajewski Manager, Global Security Technology & Planning

Funding

The PNWRC is an "InfoMart" funded through the EOSDIS Synergy Program. The purpose of the Synergy Program is to demonstrate the applicability of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) data to the non-research community. Battelle is the prime contractor to NASA responsible for administering the Synergy Program.