Hello OSG Community,<\/p>\n
This is Ben Reder, one of the Natural Resource Policy Fellows, reporting to you from Newport, Oregon.\u00a0 To give you a refresher – I am working with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife\u2019s (ODFW) Marine Resources Program (MRP).\u00a0 As a fellow, I am assisting with the current Territorial Sea Plan (TSP) amendment process (aka Oregon\u2019s marine spatial planning effort).\u00a0 This process will eventually lead to the identification of potential areas for renewable energy development within state waters.<\/p>\n
When I joined MRP this past October, the data collection effort for the spatial planning process was well underway.\u00a0 What has now been coined the \u201cNearshore Ecological Data Atlas\u201d (NEDA), is the product of that effort.\u00a0 NEDA consists of data layers that depict oceanographic conditions, important ecological habitats, and information about fish, seabird, and marine mammal distribution.\u00a0 NEDA is now available for public viewing on Oregon MarineMap<\/a>.\u00a0 As for my fellowship duties, I\u2019ve been assisting in the coordination and review process of metadata for the NEDA geospatial layers.\u00a0 The descriptive information from the metadata was used as abstract information on Oregon MarineMap (OMM).\u00a0 Essentially, users can now click on any given data layer in OMM and access information about when the data was collected, who collected it, and how the data was collected.<\/p>\n MRP is responsible for identifying ecologically significant areas within the territorial sea.\u00a0 DLCD has been responsible for mapping existing human uses, and Ecotrust developed the fishing grounds maps.\u00a0 MRP utilized a software program, Marxan, to help identify the ecological hotspots.\u00a0 Marxan was used to summarize the vast amount of ecological spatial information.\u00a0 For MRP, Marxan provided decision support by identifying areas where many species occur in relatively high abundance.<\/p>\n MRP has wrapped up the effort to produce the \u201cecological hotspots\u201d map, and DLCD and Ecotrust have also completed their spatial analyses.\u00a0 We now have a series of maps that delineate hotspots for each of the three main Goal 19 resources.\u00a0 This information is now being reviewed by the Territorial Sea Plan Working Group (TSPWG), a sub-group of the Ocean Policy Advisory Council.\u00a0 In addition, the methodology used to identify the ecological significant areas is being reviewed by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC).\u00a0 The TSPWG has begun a series of public meetings to touch base with interested citizens regarding the current status of the TSP amendment process, present resource maps and planning options, and receive feedback on how best to proceed with this planning exercise.\u00a0 These public meetings will occur in various locations along the Oregon coast through March 6, 2012.\u00a0 Visit the Oregon Ocean Info<\/a> website to see the schedule.<\/p>\n That is what I\u2019ve been up to.\u00a0 I will definitely keep you posted on exciting highlights and events related to marine spatial planning in Oregon. Till next time\u2026<\/p>\n Cheers to all,<\/p>\n Ben<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello OSG Community, This is Ben Reder, one of the Natural Resource Policy Fellows, reporting to you from Newport, Oregon.\u00a0 To give you a refresher – I am working with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife\u2019s (ODFW) Marine Resources Program … Continue reading