In 1979, Besadny summarized states' efforts to develop fish and wildlife data 

 bases. '* He concluded that: ( 1 ) efforts were not coordinated among federal and state 

 natural resource agencies, and (2) there were no regional or national standards for the 

 collection, storage or retrieval offish and wildlife inventories. Besadny recommended 

 a standardized inventory/ assessment procedure and a computerized data storage 

 bank, developed cooperatively by state, federal, and private organizations. To date, 

 Besadny's recommendations have not been followed, that is, coordination offish and 

 wildlife species data base activities has been very limited.^- ''' However, some progress 

 has been made. For example, five federal agencies (BLM, SCS, FS, FWS, and the 

 U.S. Geological Survey) have signed an interagency agreement related to classi- 

 fications and inventories of natural resources. '* This group, in cooperation with the 

 International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Association of State 

 Governments, established a state federal cooperative group to increase emphasis on 

 fish and wildlife classifications and inventories. This 5-Way Group also appointed a 

 work group to develop a national standard list of fish and wildlife species names. 



The Next Decade 



New opportunities in natural resource management, planning, and research 

 opportunities lay ahead in the 1980s because of the progress made during the 1970s in 

 developing and implementing computerized fish and wildlife species data bases 

 (Figures 3 and 4). Natural resource managers will be able to examine an entire array 

 of fish and wildlife species at different life stages in different habitats using 

 computerized fish and wildlife data bases. Also, they will be able quickly to examine 



Figure 3. A Wildlife biologist prepares a species description. The volumes of informa- 

 tion on species life histories are coded for computer by various categories, 

 such as distribution, habitat associations, food habits, life environmental 

 requirements, management practices, and other useful background infor- 

 mation. 



43 



