WestFAST

Mike Strobel (WestFAST), Director of NRCS’s National Water and Climate Center in Portland, Oregon will be our presented. (Link to webinar presentation)

Briefing on activities of the ACWI Subcommittee on Spatial Water Data (SSWD) and the Drought Use Case Work Group. Al Rea, USGS/SSWD and Angela Adams, Reclamation Lower Colorado, Special Assistant to the Regional Director presented. (Links to SSWD presentation)

Briefing on three water-resource assessment areas on unconventional oil and gas development activities: EPA study of potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources: Jeanne Briskin (briskin.jeanne@epa.gov), Hydraulic Fracturing Research Coordinator, EPA Office of Research and Development (Click to view presentation) Trends in water quality in areas of unconventional oil and gas development – Watershed/surface-water […]

Tony Willardson, Executive Director of the Western States Water Council presented WestFAST member and others with an overview of water allocation approaches and policies in western states. The Webinar was co-sponsored with WestFAST by the Western Regional Partnership’s Natural Resources Committee. The  WRP provides a proactive and collaborative framework for senior-policy level Federal, State and Tribal leadership to […]

Malcolm Wilson, Chief of the Water Resources Group for Reclamation’s Upper Colorado Region will brief WestFAST on operations of the Upper Colorado Basin system and how Reclamation engages with state and local water users and other federal agencies in their water delivery. Malcolm’s Presentation (.pdf) ~2MB

Challenge and prize competitions are one path that federal agencies are taking to drive innovation and solve mission-centric problems. More than 425 challenges have been run in the Federal government since 2010.  The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is participating, in collaboration with other WestFAST agencies, in several water-resource challenge and prize competitions including solutions in […]

Dr. Bradley Doorn and Forrest Melton from the NASA Applied Sciences program provided an overview of NASA satellite and airborne missions relevant to water resources monitoring and management in the western US. They also presented highlights from NASA’s portfolio of applied science activities that are focused on applying NASA’s remote sensing capabilities to support advances […]

WestFAST members and webinar participants reviewed selected USGS Water Resources Programs with focus on the National Water Census .  Pixie Hamiliton, USGS Cooperative Water Program National Coordinator  and Sonja Jones, USGS Water Census Programs, led the discussion which included an overview of the USGS Water Availability and Science Program. Click here to find webinar presentation materials.

Mike Eberle, USDA Forest Service Surface Water Program leader, reviewed priority water resource issues and program in the Forest Service and Daniel Isaak, USFS Research Fish Biologist presented on the activities and products of the USFS NorWest stream-temperature database and modeling program. The NorWest Program provides stream temperature data and geospatial map outputs from a regional temperature model for the Northwest U.S. […]

The interagency National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP) was established in 2013 as part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to help communities better prepare for future droughts and reduce the impact of drought events on livelihoods and the economy. WestFAST was briefed on the progress and products of the NDRP including the activities of the […]