The Department of the Interior has begun the process of forming a new agency, the National Biological Survey (NBS). As described by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt:
The National Biological Survey will produce the map we need to avoid the economic and environmental "train wrecks" we see scattered across the country. NBS will provide the scientific knowledge America needs to balance the compatible goals of ecosystem protection and economic progress. Just as the U.S. Geological Survey gave us an understanding of America's geography in 1879, the National Biological Survey will unlock information about how we protect ecosystems and plan for the future.
An important distinction exists between the ordinary use of the word survey and its use in National Biological Survey. Confusion about the meaning of the word sometimes arises in discussions about the NBS, and it is worthwhile to clarify the difference between the two at the outset. The NBS will be a new administrative entity in the Department of the Interior (DOI). Formed from a reorganization of programs in DOI, it will have responsibilities for inventorying, mapping, and monitoring biotic resources; performing basic and applied research on species, groups of species, populations, and ecosystems; and providing the scientific support and technical assistance needed for management and policy decisions in DOI. Thus, it includes far more than the inventorying and mapping functions that the use of the word survey might imply.
The idea of a national biological survey has a long history in the United States, beginning with the formation of the Division of Biological Survey in the Department of Agriculture at the end of the last century. After that division was transferred to DOI in 1939 and made part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the survey component gradually declined. But with concerns over loss of habitats and species and calls for more effective regional land management, professional organizations, nongovernment organizations, individual scientists, and members of Congress have increasingly called for a new biological survey.
In February 1993, the Secretary of the Interior requested advice from the National Research Council on the formation of the NBS. The National Research Council thereupon assembled a committee that included both scientists and persons with experience in government, industry, and public-interest organizations. The Committee on the Formation of the National Biological Survey conducted its study under the auspices of an ad hoc oversight body, the Commission on the Formation of the National Biological Survey, drawn from the membership of the Commission on Life Sciences and the Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources.
The committee worked from March to September 1993. Its timetable was designed to accommodate the schedule that DOI set for administratively establishing the NBS. The committee was charged with addressing issues related to the scope and direction of the NBS embodied in the following questions:
During its inquiries and deliberations, the committee discovered a wide range of national needs, a broad distribution of relevant efforts and resources already occurring in federal and nonfederal organizations in a relatively uncoordinated fashion, and a wide range of management needs within the Department of the Interior. These findings, combined with the short time available to examine these programs and needs in preparation for this report, led the committee to conclude that it would be more effective in fulfilling Secretary Babbitt's wish that its work help provide a vision for the National Biological Survey if it approached the first two questions above in the context of the broader needs, opportunities, and activities as they related to the stated goals of the NBS rather than concentrating on the details of its proposed structure or specific research agenda, except to the extent that such an examination seemed essential to deal with the broader issues.
This report proposes a research agenda for the National Biological Survey that is far broader than the existing research effort in the Department of the Interior but that is also focused and has priorities according to likely immediate and long-term user needs. A National Biotic Resources Information System is envisioned to make reliable biological information more accessible to diverse users. The report also describes how the many public and private entities involved in current research on biological resources can work together in a new entity, which the committee has called the National Partnership for Biological Survey, to provide comprehensive information that will be useful for decision-makers at all levels of government and outside government. The recommendations of this committee, if followed, should provide the United States with a framework for making decisions about the management, use, and protection of its biological resources.
Peter Raven
Chairman
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