National Biological Service
The National Biological Service (NBS) was established in 1993 under President Bill Clinton with the mission to inventory and monitor the nation's biological resources. The agency aimed to assess the impact of human activities on these resources and provide essential information for their protection and use. Vice President Al Gore played a key role in its inception, which emphasized collaboration with various federal and state agencies, private organizations, and volunteers in gathering data.
Adopting a holistic approach, NBS researchers focused on entire ecosystems rather than individual species, analyzing the health of interconnected plants, animals, and their environments. This multidisciplinary strategy was aimed at preserving biodiversity, although it faced criticism from some Congressional opponents who questioned the agency's methods and reliance on external organizations for data collection.
In 1996, the NBS was folded into the United States Geological Survey and rebranded as the Biological Resources Division, following budget cuts aimed at balancing the federal budget. Despite its relatively short existence, the NBS produced significant publications, including "Our Living Resources," which provided in-depth assessments of U.S. biological health, and developed technological systems for sharing vital ecological data.
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National Biological Service
- DATE: Established 1993; abolished 1996
The National Biological Service, though short-lived, was an important clearinghouse to make available information on the state and trends of flora, fauna, bird and mammal species, and the condition of selected ecosystems and ecoregions.
Background
The National Biological Service (NBS) was established by President Bill Clinton in 1993. The agency’s mission was to inventory and monitor various biological resources in an effort to understand, or at least record the impact of human activities upon, various biological resources. The agency also was to provide information sufficient to construct options for uses and protection of biological resources.
Vice President Al Gore was instrumental in establishing the NBS. The agency collected information from its own research projects, other federal and state agencies, private organizations, and volunteers, and it worked to develop standardized methods for recording and disseminating this information to other government agencies, policymakers, and members of the public. The NBS was also directed to make available as much information as possible on the country’s biological resources to government officials, to other organizations engaged in similar studies of biological resources, and to concerned citizens.
Impact on Resource Use
Scientists with the NBS took “big picture” views. Rather than study an individual species, NBS researchers studied the current state and possible futures of entire ecosystems. This holistic approach allowed researchers to analyze the health of groups of plants and animals, as well as the condition of air, soil, and water resources in ecosystems upon which these plants and animals depended. Only an agency with access to the resources and expertise of the federal government could attempt to study the conditions of entire ecoregions, each composed of several types of ecosystems with common topographic, climatic, and biotic characteristics. The overall goal of the NBS’s multidisciplinary projects was the protection and of the current state of biodiversity.
NBS publications stated that the agency’s researchers took no advocacy positions that would compromise the credibility of the agency’s research findings. Opponents in Congress, however, disagreed. These opponents argued that the use of other organizations—such as the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy—in data collection amounted to advocacy positions that could not but compromise research results. Congressional opponents also pointed out that the terms “ecosystem” and “ecoregion” lacked agreed-upon, official definitions. Thus, NBS projects were not specific enough to be useful to federal policymakers. Even if “ecosystem” and “ecoregion” could be suitably defined, opponents wanted guarantees that the rights of private landowners in these locations would be respected. Government researchers were forbidden to trespass on privately owned land without prior permission from the landowner. Researchers argued that surveying animals or waterfowl, monitoring pollution spills, and documenting the numbers and state of habitats of endangered species would be impossible without access to information located on private property. Congressional opponents also argued that the activities of the NBS were already largely performed by other federal and state agencies. In an effort to balance the federal budget by fiscal year 2000, Congress slashed the agency’s budget in fiscal year 1995. In October 1996, the entire NBS was folded into the United States Geological Survey and renamed the Biological Resources Division.
While it existed as an independent agency, the NBS published a number of important documents. Foremost among them was Our Living Resources (1995), a collection of more than two hundred articles on the state of health of U.S. plants, animals, and ecosystems. These articles were written by field experts and offered in-depth information to state, regional, and federal policymakers regarding how best to protect and utilize the country’s biological resources. One of the ecosystems studied by NBS scientists was Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska. Combining information from thirty-five other government agencies, the NBS produced a compact disc explaining the geographical features and human activities throughout the area, as well as information necessary to construct plans to restore the sound.
Researchers at the NBS developed computer programs to allow information in biological-resources electronic databases to be accessible to researchers worldwide through the use of standardized taxonomic (scientific) names and information. NBS researchers began to use this standardized format for all North American plants and animals. NBS researchers also constructed a network to link all state Natural Heritage Programs to a centralized Internet portal. All state-collected research information would be available to anyone with access to the portal.
NBS researchers made a concerted effort to produce up-to-date findings in the most usable format possible for other researchers. For example, the agency developed a system to track the distribution of zebra mussels in order to map the rapid spread of this invasive species throughout the Mississippi River drainage system. The NBS collaborated with the National Park Service to monitor natural resources in and around national parks and developed a pollution-monitoring system for use in national wildlife refuges. The agency also developed cooperative agreements with fifteen state natural resources departments to provide financial resources and expertise in the study of twelve different ecosystems throughout the United States.
Bibliography
LaRoe, Edward, ed. Our Living Resources: A Report to the Nation on the Distribution, Abundance, and Health of US Plants, Animals and Ecosystems. Washington, D.C.: US Department of the Interior, National Biological Service, 1995.
"National Biological Service." Federal Register, US Government, www.federalregister.gov/agencies/national-biological-service. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.