Council Agencies Seek to Coordinate on Avian Data and Tools

Council Staff have begun to garner support within their agencies in an effort to make the idea of federally-supported national node within the Avian Knowledge Network (AKN) a reality. The AKN is already a rapidly growing powerhouse for delivery of avian data across the nation. The national node would be designed to enable access to the wealth of data already in AKN through a single national node. This would allow for data aggregations and analysis at any scale.

The development of a national AKN node would also achieve a number of data management and delivery objectives for federal agencies including: (1) identifying and integrating datasets not already in AKN that agencies need; (2) rolling up existing data from individual regional nodes and delivering them in a seamless and user-friendly way through a national node; (3) targeting individual agency needs for data use; (4) developing agency-specific decision-support tools to meet those needs, including data summary and analysis tools; and (5) developing data entry and display interfaces for bird monitoring and survey data. A proposal for national node development has been crafted in coordination with AKN development team, and is currently being vetted and refined by Council agency Staff.

Part of the proposal will include integration with the USFWS Information for Planning and Conservation (IPaC) system, which is designed to help users with project planning by identifying species that may occur within a project area. IPaC also provides information and resources about statutory responsibilities for species protection, as well as measures that can be taken to assist with that protection.

To learn more about the AKN and its existing nodes and tools, visit the AKN Home Page and AKN Featured Tools webpage.