Fiscal year 2001 annual progress report for StreamNet the Northwest Aquatic Information Network.; ANNUAL

This report presents accomplishments of the StreamNet project for Fiscal Year 2001 (FY-01). The report is organized by Task, rather than by participating agency, to clearly link accomplishments by all project participants to the individual Tasks and responsibilities detailed in the FY-01 Statement of Work. The StreamNet Project was somewhat hampered in FY-01 by a delay in final approval of the project budget. The effective project budget has been eroded by cost of living adjustments not keeping up with the actual inflationary cost increases. For example, the project was recently impacted by an unanticipated increase in the federal pay scales for computer technology personnel. This is significant because the project budget is primarily composed of personnel costs (84%). Resultant reductions in workforce have led to a consistent decrease in the ability of the project to conduct its work. The budget request for FY-01 was initially proposed to make up for past differences, but the size of the requested increase caused additional review, and the final budget was not approved until approximately half way through the fiscal year. The increased request was not granted and only a 5% cost of living increase was approved. This resulted in some work beginning late and some work not being done. Several staff members at the Regional level could be funded for only 9 months, forcing those positions to do other work on other contracts for part of the year. A contract to develop data compilations for subbasin summaries through NWPPC helped bridged that gap this year. The ODFW StreamNet Project had significant job vacancies in FY-01, so they took the largest proportion of the budget shortfall of the project cooperators for this year. This allowed the other cooperators to function more at a normal level, but resulted in Oregon not being able to update as many data sets as planned. Oregon was able to fill its vacant database manager position later in the year, and this person has developed procedures and routines that will improve efficiency next year