1. Managing GIS in BLM Oregon/Washington Terry Hobbs GIS Coordinator Oregon State Office

2. Orientation History How were organized Service First GIS Converting from contract to government staff GIS Centralization

3. BLM Office

4. History NW Forest Plan, 1993 Joint BLM/FS management plan for western Oregon Large contract staff hired 3 shifts/24 hours Service First GIS, 2006 Conversion from mixed government/contract staff to all government in 2008

5. How were organized In the Branch of IRM Advantage for IT support Disadvantage for budget scrutiny 10 Districts with GIS Coordinators 1,006 users region-wide 206 concurrent users 59 GIS Specialists

7. Service First GIS 2006 joint Director assigned over FS Data Resources Management and BLM GIS/RS Tasked to identify areas where we could better integrate GIS Selected geospatial training, mobile GIS and remote sensing as the first areas to focus on

8. Service First GIS Training Similar training needs in both agencies No dedicated coordinator for training in either agency Big demand

9. Service First GIS Training Established a GIS Training Coordinator position (FS) Big kudos to Chris Strobl for developing program! Incorporated the 2 existing BLM instructors Presented 50 classes in 2008 GPS for Natural Resource Applications Intermediate ArcGIS MS Access Using ArcPad 7 Introduction to ArGIS 9.2 Geodatabase Demo 524 students attended

10. Service First GIS Training Distributed training using LiveMeeting Average cost per student = $159 Organize demo sessions with both live events and recorded sessions Class materials available on-line Formed a S1st Geospatial Training subcommittee Developed a joint website with ArcMap interface http://fsweb-sfpnw.r6.fs.fed.us/gis/

11. Service First Mobile GIS Huge demand in both agencies for resource grade GPS No standardization in either agency No coordinator position in BLM OR/WA FS R6 lost their coordinator

12. Service First Mobile GIS Established 2 positions (BLM) Organized a cadre of users from both agencies Standardized GPS software for both agencies Standardizing GPS hardware Developed integrated installation documentation for: ArcPad license users, Pathfinder Office and GSP Analyst Developed a standard ArcPad toolbar Provide ArcPad training 9 classes offered 65 students attended Develop custom interfaces

13. Service First Remote Sensing Similar needs in each agency Limited but specialized expertise Regional analysis

14. Service First Remote Sensing Project support Data acquisition coordination LiDAR hydro pilot Develop methods for stream channel delineation Swap expertise

15. Service First Remote Sensing Not as formalized as Training and Mobile GIS Much smaller user base Open communication and collaboration Doesnt need to be as formal because is working as it is

16. Service First GIS Challenges Cannot connect networks Data standards are different Staff organization FS all field GIS work for DRM at the Regional Office BLM field GIS work for District Managers On different versions of ArcGIS DOILearn and AgLearn do not interface Transferring funding between agencies

17. BLM Contract Conversion Began contracting GIS/IT support with the NW Forest Plan in 1993 Contract support continued for the next 15 years In 2008 decision was made to eliminate current GIS/IT support contract with Northrup Grumman A new TO was established Actively began the process in March 2008

18. Lessons learned from contract conversion Had 7 months to hire 68 positions (21 GIS) Only 6 mos into it Overall cost savings $2.7 million (incl IT, GIS, Apps dev, Web) Good responsive HR staff essential Used PD amendments extensively Used Selective Factors liberally Take advantage of all hiring authorities Interns, veteran authorities, etc.

19. GIS Centralization Decision made in 2005 to centralize GIS processing and data at the State Office Conducted the Western Oregon Plan Revision on Citrix as a pilot Have implemented certain business processes on Citrix Just beginning to bring entire Districts in

20. GIS Before Centralization House the official copy of corp state-wide data at the State Office in Portland All corp data replicated to District servers Edits performed at field office then uploaded back to corp data in Portland Transactional SDE only on datasets with established standards Transactional SDE performed centrally on Citrix farm in Portland Districts organize local data as they see fit

21. GIS After Centralization All users on Citrix farm in Portland No more replicating corp data to District servers Corp datasets will be transactional, versioned editing will be centralized Districts will still have dedicated space to organize their local data as they see fit

22. Architecture Citrix farm at State Office in Portland 25 servers, 64 bit processors NetApps storage 7.5 Tb of data, Estimate an additional 5Tb at districts Standard plotters at all sites Oracle database Common directory structure designed by field GIS coordinators

23. GIS Centralization Lessons Learned Cultural change Fear of loss of control Perception that it will be slower GIS intertwined in daily business processes Need to centralize applications other than GIS Data organized differently at each office Data cleanup and organization the biggest task How-to documentation very important Network is the weakest link Takes more time than you think

24. GIS Centralization Advantages Common data structure (Oregon Data Framework) Standard data organization Easier to identify redundant data Less time spent on data management More reliability in data currency Common tools that work for every user 64 bit processing Everyone gets software upgrades at the same time Centralized editing Reduced need for IT support at Field Offices Faster/easier data calls

25. Questions?