Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation (DIGARCH)
Possible funding source for next year
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04592/nsf04592.htm
Program Solicitation
NSF 04-592
National Science Foundation
Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Division of Information and Intelligent Systems
Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):
September 14, 2004

The text of the California Performance Review has been released.
The website is http://cpr.ca.gov
This section speaks to the consolidation of the RWQCBoard and EPA
http://www.report.cpr.ca.gov/cprrpt/issrec/res/res06.htm

Two links to info of digitized hydro maps:
http://www.ca.nrcs.usda.gov/features/calwater/calnwbd.html
http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/huc.html
http://nationalatlas.gov/hucsm.html

Wetlands Mitigation Banking: Mitigation banking has the potential to play a significant role in the Section 404 regulatory program by reducing uncertainty and delays, as well as improving the success of wetlands mitigation efforts. Land owners needing to "mitigate" or compensate for authorized impacts to wetlands associated with development activities may have the option of purchasing credits from an approved mitigation bank rather than restoring or creating wetlands on or near the development site.

Status
The EPA Administration supports mitigation banking and is currently develop ing interagency guidance for the establishment and use of mitigation banks. Approximately 100 mitigation banks are in operation or are proposed for construction in 34 States across the country, including the first private entrepreneurial banks. See: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/facts/fact16.html

Mitigation banking is defined in the Federal Guidance for the Establishment, Use and Operation of Mitigation Banks Federal Register: November 28, 1995 (Volume 60, Number 228) Pages 58605-58614 as:

• Wetland restoration, creation, enhancement, and in exceptional circumstances, preservation undertaken expressly for the purpose of compensating for unavoidable wetland losses in advance of development actions, when such compensation cannot be achieved at the development site or would not be as environmentally beneficial. It typically involves the consolidation of small, fragmented wetland mitigation projects into one large contiguous site. Units of restored, created, enhanced or preserved wetlands are expressed as "credits" which may subsequently be withdrawn to offset "debits" incurred at a project development site.

For more info about mitigation banking, see:
http://www.mitigationbanking.org/projects.htm
Also check out the Rancho Jamul bank:
http://www.mitigationbanking.org/PDFs/CA-wildlandJAMUL.pdf
This comes up over and over in the mitigation sections of the 401s.-Richard