ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In fiscal year 2003, the Bureau of Land Management’s

(BLM’s) National Science and Technology Center (NSTC)

completed a wide variety of projects for field offices in each of

the Western States, including Alaska, and for the Eastern States

and Headquarters offices as well. We have organized our 

accomplishments according to the four mission areas in the

Department of the Interior’s strategic plan. Some of these

accomplishments overlap into other mission areas, but have been

listed where they are most appropriate. These accomplishments

are not all-inclusive—they are merely highlights of some of the

projects we were involved in during 2003. More detailed

information about our completed projects and services is

available on the NSTC Web page at www.blm.gov/nstc.

Resource Protection

■ Conducted facility condition evaluations and provided

technical architectural and engineering design and

construction assistance for cultural and historic facilities

projects, including the Swansea Townsite in Arizona,

Orson Adams Ranch and Wilcox Ranch in Utah, and

Lowry Ruins in Colorado.

■ Produced large-scale topographic maps and digital

orthophotographs to aid in the characterization and

reclamation of abandoned

uranium mines in the Lasal

Creek watershed for the

Moab field office in Utah.

■ Provided digital mapping support for 24 Land and Water

Conservation Fund (LWCF)

projects to be incorporated

within a BLM Congressional

submission for appropriations funding.

■ Tested new light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology

to produce digital elevation data from an area with extensive mine tailings for the Canon City field office and the

Lake Fork Watershed Partnership in Colorado. With the

LIDAR technology, high-quality data was obtained quickly

and mitigation work was completed well ahead of schedule.

■ Developed and tested a tool for conducting regional analyses

of prairie grasslands to support multispecies conservation,

wildlife program planning, and land use planning. This

tool analyzes changing resource conditions and resource

management situations at multiple spatial scales to provide

information regarding habitat quantity, quality, and location.

■ Created the BLM Areas of Critical Environmental Concern

(ACECs) database to track location, acreage, ecotype, and

other information about ACECs and Research Natural Areas.

■ Compiled an extensive bibliography containing over

300 sources of information

on drought issues for BLM

offices in Utah; assessed

drought management efforts

within BLM, including

cooperative efforts with State

and local governments;

conducted a programmatic 

drought science needs assessment for the Bureau; and developed

a template for a BLM national drought response strategy.

■ Participated in ongoing studies to protect hydrologic

and riparian values associated with the San Pedro River

National Conservation Area for BLM offices in Arizona

and for the Department of Justice.

■ Provided technical reviews of an environmental impact

statement and hydrologic studies pertaining to a proposed

powerplant, which would involve substantial ground

water use from the pumping of several wells in an area of

significant riparian habitat, for the Las Vegas field office.

■ Updated lesson plans and taught the National Training

Center’s “Stream Dynamics and Channel Design” and

“Aquatic Habitat Restoration and Enhancement” courses

held in Idaho.

■ Provided technical assistance on soil and water indicators

of rangeland health and helped produce the “First

Approximation Report on the Criteria and Indicators for

Sustainable Rangelands” on the Web for the Sustainable

Rangelands Roundtable. The Roundtable is a forum for

representatives from industry, academic institutions,

nonprofit organizations, and various levels of government.

■ Assisted with the site characterization, engineering

evaluation/cost analysis, and cleanup at seven abandoned

mine land and hazardous waste sites, including Oregon’s

Poorman/Balm Creek site and Arizona’s Hillside Mine. 

■ Provided technical assistance on cost recovery, including

potentially responsible party searches; enforcement of the

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,

and Liability Act (CERCLA); and settlement agreements

for 15 abandoned mine land and hazardous waste sites,

including the Black Rock Mine in California and Big

Bend, Arizona.

■ Created a poster session on the Manning Canyon tailings and

published Technical Note 409, “Passive Treatment Systems

for Acid Mine Drainage” and Technical Note 410, “Abandoned

Mine Waste Repositories: Site Selection, Design, and Cost.”

■ Assisted with fund acquisition strategies, claim development,

settlement negotiations, and restoration planning and

implementation for eight BLM natural resource damage

assessment and restoration (NRDAR) cases, including the

Yerington Mine site in Nevada.

■ Provided technical assistance with water quality sampling,

analysis, and monitoring and compliance with the Clean

Water Act for four sites, including the Grand StaircaseEscalante National Monument.

■ Directed a grant for phytostabilization of abandoned mine

sites in Montana, California,

and Arizona, working with

university partners from the

Cooperative Ecosystem Studies

Units Network to investigate

using native plants and soil

amendments to reduce health

risks, stabilize mine tailings

sites, and prevent the release of metals to the environment.

■ Prepared soil and water conservation district maps for the

National Association of Conservation Districts Conference.

■ Assisted BLM offices in Alaska with interpreting aerial

photos and integrating data from Ducks Unlimited to

complete the assessment of proper functioning condition

on the George River drainage.

■ Wrote and reviewed portions of Technical Reference 1737-19,

“Riparian-Wetland Soils,” which describes soil components

and how to assess soil productivity in riparian and wetland

areas, and provided editing, design, and layout services to

the National Riparian Service Team for the final publication.

■ Edited, designed, and produced “America's Priceless

Heritage: Cultural and Fossil Resources on Public Lands,”

13 publications that describe, by State, the variety of 

these resources on BLM lands, why they are at risk of

being damaged, and what BLM is doing to preserve them.

Resource Use

■ Completed and published “Assessing the Potential for

Renewable Energy on Public Lands” in cooperation with

the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and

continued ongoing coordination with NREL and Argonne

National Laboratory on renewable energy issues and

contracts.

■ Continued production on an automated 1:100,000-scale

database for mapping and other geographic information

systems (GIS) purposes. Automated data themes now covering 31 percent of the western United States include the

Geographic Coordinate Data Base

(GCDB), ownership, wilderness,

transportation, hydrography,

hypsography, and text labels.

■ Revised and automated 69

1:100,000-scale surface/minerals

management maps in support of

multiple resource programs and

recreational activities in 9 States.

■ Revised and printed a digital version of the 1:500,000-scale

Nevada State map showing complete surface ownership,

the public lands survey system (PLSS), political boundaries,

major transportation routes, hydrography, text labels, and

shaded relief.

■ Developed and tested a strategy to quickly synthesize, 

analyze, and interpret regional information on resource

conditions and trends related to public land management

issues on the Colorado Plateau. A GIS-based platform will

be used to provide fast, easy, and intuitive access to the

data, analyses, and results.

■ Provided guidance to BLM offices in Utah on low-risk

ways to cross stream channels with oil and gas pipelines

and on potential toxic releases from pipeline breaks.

■ Assisted with water and air quality impact analyses for nine

energy development environmental impact statements and

resource management plans, including the “Northern Powder

River Basin Oil and Gas Environmental Impact Statement.”

■ Published Technical Note 412, “Analyses of Natural Gases,”

which reports to members of the helium and petroleum

industries and the general public on the occurrence of

helium in 311 natural gas samples from 13 States.

■ Provided design and training assistance for the National

Training Center’s “Advanced Groundwater Hydrology”

course, which included sessions on numerical groundwater modeling frequently used to assess potential impacts

from proposed mining operations.

■ Conducted well site investigations in Colorado, Arizona,

and Idaho to enable the effective and safe development of

ground water for livestock management.

■ Provided information to all

BLM field offices on soil

moisture data collection and

analysis techniques in support

of livestock grazing evaluation

under drought conditions.

■ Revised, edited, designed,

and produced “Creeks and

Communities: A Continuing Strategy for Accelerating

Cooperative Riparian Restoration and Management,”

which provides specific objectives, strategies, and activities

to improve the effectiveness of riparian area management.

■ Assisted the States with evaluating, selecting, and using

software to record forest and timber inventory data in the

field with hand-held data collection devices.

■ Facilitated the use of GIS to interpret and analyze

hydroelectric dam sites for the withdrawal process.

■ Researched and developed an application for using remotely

sensed data to create a three-dimensional visualization for

predictive soils mapping and collaborated with the Natural

Resources Conservation Service on predictive soils modeling.

■ Acquired new aerial photography to support BLM’s

multiple-use management activities in Arizona, Idaho,

Montana, and Nevada.

■ Assessed timber permitting and proposed a new system to

address timber and other permitting business within the

BLM. The National Information Technology Investment

Board (ITIB) approved further investigation of the proposal.

■ Coordinated the production of digital orthophoto quadrangles (DOQs) through a 5-year interagency agreement

with the U.S. Geological Survey. The DOQs will provide

accurate remote resource and cultural data and enhance

BLM’s analysis and decisionmaking capabilities.

■ Maintained and updated data and completed data migration

and storage for the Bureauwide Satellite Imagery Archive.

■ Provided technical consultations on GIS and remote

sensing issues for the National Training Center’s Lands

and Realty Academy.

■ Reengineered business processes and established business

requirements for the future construction of a new automated wild horse and burro herd management, veterinary

services, and animal adoption processing system.

■ Revised and edited “Adopting a Wild Horse or Burro,” a

brochure for members of the public who are interested in

wild horse and burro adoption.

■ Provided technical assistance for BLM’s national ePlanning

initiative, which focuses on delivering fully integrated

planning information to the public. This assistance

included conducting an ePlanning pilot and testing the

first “time-sensitive plan,” which enabled the public to

submit comments online and have real-time interaction

with BLM during the land-use planning process.

■ Instructed 8 sessions of the National Training Center’s

“Rangeland Administration System” (RAS) course, which

provided training to over 120 RAS

users and managers.

■ Proposed and initiated vegetation

classification prototypes representing both dunal and prairie grassland

ecosystems in support of threatened

species and recreational activities.

■ Created exhibits, poster sessions,

and handouts on soil biological

communities, big game habitat, wild bird habitat, prairie

grassland, riparian restoration and management, water

conservation, grazing management, sustainable minerals

development, and other subjects to help educate special

interest groups and the general public about emerging

technology, new applications, and current projects.

■ Revised and republished Technical Note 397, “Wildlife

Water Catchment Construction in Nevada” and Technical

Reference 1737-16, “Riparian Area Management: A User

Guide to Assessing Proper Functioning Condition and the

Supporting Science for Lentic Areas.”

■ Produced “BLM Library Update,” a monthly listing of

recent books and articles pertaining to natural resources

and circulated over 3,000 titles from these listings.

■ Provided Bureau employees Internet access to over 50

full-text, natural resources journals and 17 databases.

■ Published nine Resource Notes to share new technology,

unusual field applications, specialized resource information,

or significant technical developments in BLM. There are

now 67 Resource Notes available on the NSTC Web page.

■ Located and distributed over 6,500 requested books, articles,

conference proceedings, and other publications pertaining

to natural resources, recreation, and various other topics.

■ Conducted research and produced bibliographies on

numerous subjects, including various plants, off-highway

vehicle (OHV) trail impacts, wildlife inventories, and

the National Historic Trails program.

■ Summarized the Bureau’s wind energy policy for the

proceedings of the American Wind Energy Association

Conference and created a display about the 

implementation of the President’s energy policy.

■ Revised, edited, designed, and laid out “Public Rewards

from Public Lands,” a set of 13 reports that highlight

BLM programs and provide State and national statistical

information on collections, financial transfers, investments, and commercial and recreational use of public

lands and resources. 

Recreation

■ Provided predesign scoping, programming, feasibility, and

concept assistance and developed final designs and contract

documents for 13 recreation sites and 6 visitor facilities.

■ Managed construction activities

for a new administrative complex

in Caliente, Nevada.

■ Managed planning and design

activities for new visitor centers at

Pompeys Pillar in Montana and

California Trail and Red Rock in

Nevada.

■ Completed feasibility level designs for a new environmental education center in southern Nevada.

■ Created large-scale topographic maps for planning interpretive and recreational facilities at archaeological and

historical sites in Monticello, Utah; Buffalo, Wyoming;

and Billings, Montana.

■ Created large-scale topographic base maps to aid engineers

in the development and maintenance of six recreational

facilities in Lake Havasu and Yuma, Arizona.

■ Created route inventories (including OHV trails) for use

in resource management planning in Nevada and Arizona.

■ Coordinated with the U.S. Forest Service’s Technology

and Development Committee on the continued development of recreation-related technology that will serve the

needs of both agencies.

■ Provided technical input that was significant to the completion of the Meadowood proposed planning analysis

and environmental assessment and the progress of the

recreation activity plan. Meadowood is a Special

Recreation Management Area near Washington, DC.

■ Conducted well site investigations in Arizona, Utah, and

Nevada to enable the effective and safe development of

ground water for recreational sites.

■ Provided technical advice to BLM offices in Utah on

potential recreation area and stream rehabilitation issues

pertaining to Range Creek.

■ Developed and consulted on streamflow and geomorphic

analyses related to the Lower Crooked River, a National

Wild and Scenic River in western Oregon.

■ Developed enhanced techniques for using remote sensing

to collect OHV route data and conducted workshops

on using these techniques to create and update route

inventories in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.

■ Coordinated with NASA’s Stennis Space Flight Center

for a large purchase of high-resolution satellite

(Quickbird) data. The Glennallen, Alaska, field office

used the data to make recommendations pertaining to

off-road vehicles for a resource management plan.

■ Helped develop the design and produced the layout for

“Adventures on America’s Public Lands” in partnership

with Smithsonian Books and BLM’s Environmental

Education and Volunteers Staff. This guide highlights

diverse recreational opportunities on 178 BLM-managed

sites in 20 States and features 190 color maps, 231 color

photos, 18 activity

overviews, and complete

visitor information.

Serving

Communities

■ Developed standard designs

for fire facilities, including designs for crew quarters, an

air tanker base operations center, and an engine garage

and operations center.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR • Bureau of Land Management

2003

■ Provided predesign scoping, programming, feasibility,

and concept assistance; final design development; and

contract document services for 25 wildland fire program

construction projects.

■ Provided project management and contracting services for

the planning, design, and construction of administrative

office buildings in Rawlins and Rock Springs, Wyoming,

and Craig, Colorado.

■ Managed construction activities on three new fire 

facilities in southern Nevada.

■ Led or provided support for 11 national engineering

projects for BLM’s Headquarters office, including bridge

and dam seismic safety programs, facility condition

assessments for administrative and recreation sites and

roads, facility energy conservation and management

efforts, and facility asset management system development.

■ Provided architectural and engineering design and

construction assistance and

other technical assistance to

field offices on 35 projects,

including bridge inspections

in 4 States, 2 value engineering studies, and several

facility condition evaluations.

■ Managed 19 projects contracted to architecture and

engineering consulting firms.

■ Led Bureauwide efforts to develop computer aided design

and drafting (CADD) standards, guide specifications,

and design guidelines.

■ Developed a pilot Web site that provides field offices

access to geographic and other archival data from BLM’s

extensive aerial photography archive housed at NSTC.

■ Located, reproduced, and distributed copies of aerial photos

of BLM lands from the aerial photography archive for

BLM offices, other government agencies, and the public.

■ Participated on the National Digital Orthophoto

Program’s technical committee to help evaluate both the

changes in orthophoto technology and the effects the

changes have on the program’s participating agencies.

■ Worked with the National Digital Elevation Program’s

interagency team to write and design guidelines for

acquiring elevation data.

■ Worked with an interagency advisory team to design and

write guidelines for digital orthoimagery, which is one of

the basic geospatial data themes as defined by the

Geospatial One-Stop initiative.

■ Designed and completed a contract to acquire digital

orthoimagery for the Farmington field office.

■ Taught a course in lake, wetland, and terrestrial ecosystem

ecology at Sisseton Wahpeton Community College, a

tribal college in South Dakota.

■ Provided technical assistance and project management,

technical and regulatory compliance, and contracting

support for the evaluation and cleanup of 18 hazardous

waste sites, including the Caselton tailings site in Nevada.

■ Participated in a collaborative effort among BLM and the

National Park Service, Natural Resources Conservation

Service, Forest Service, and Utah State University to

develop a course entitled “Using Advanced Technologies

for Soils Mapping.”

■ Completed work on BLM’s Wildland Fire Geospatial

Strategic Plan.

■ Created GIS products for the Department of the

Interior’s Office of Wildland Fire Coordination to use in

Congressional reports and hearings and provided fire

perimeter data for the “GeoMAC” and “Federal Fire

History” Web sites.

■ Developed the “Library Management for Records Managers”

module for the National

Training Center’s new

records management course.

■ Reproduced microfiche of

cadastral survey notes and

plats for BLM offices and

members of the public.

■ Designed, edited, and produced the annual National Public Lands Day (NPLD)

posters and brochure to encourage Americans to volunteer their time to maintain and improve public lands

and open spaces. NPLD is a cooperative effort involving

more than a dozen governmental and private partners.

■ Edited, designed, and laid out “Balancing Today’s Needs

for Tomorrow’s Public Lands,” the Bureau’s 2002 annual

report, and “Guardians of the Past—Stewards for the

Future,” Eastern States’ 2002 annual report.

Bureau of Land Management

National Science and Technology Center

Denver Federal Center, Building 50

P.O. Box 25047

Denver, CO 80225-0047

303-236-2772 

nstc@blm.gov

www.blm.gov/nstc

I am pleased to share with you

the National Science and

Technology Center’s (NSTC’s)

annual report for fiscal year

2003. It is our philosophy that

science provides the foundation

for informed resource management decisions and technology

provides the tools for obtaining accurate and science-based

information. These two activities together embrace the

essence of the mission of this Center. In its strategic plan,

the Department of the Interior has committed to identifying

current science and conducting relevant scientific investigations

to guide decisionmaking. NSTC plays an important role in

supporting this commitment.

NSTC works hand in hand with other BLM offices to

address resource management challenges. Our specialists help

investigate and test new technologies, compile the most

current scientific information, develop ways to apply current

science and technology in the field, and convey science and

technology information to the field through direct technical

assistance, training, publications, the Web, and other means.

Because NSTC’s role is to provide technical support to offices

requesting our assistance, the work that our professionals do

is not always easy for observers to identify. Our focus is to

ensure that our customers’ projects are successful—not to

attract attention to our contributions. This annual report is

intended to share the successes we have achieved in partnership with our customers, while at the same time highlighting

the types of products and services we offer.

I welcome your feedback to this annual report and any

suggestions you may have regarding how NSTC can better

serve the Bureau to meet our collective goals and objectives.

Lee Barkow

Director

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

FISCAL YEAR

BLM/ST/GI-04/001+1213 November 2003

Providing a FOUNDATION for

INFORMED RESOURCE

Management Decisions

Annual REPORT

U.S. Department of the Interior

Bureau of Land Management

National Science and Technology Center

Denver Federal Center, Building 50

Denver, CO 80225-0047

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

Penalty for private use $300

FIRST–CLASS MAIL

Postage & Fees Paid

Bureau of Land Management

Permit No. G-76